It was past sunset and actually much darker than it appears when I took this photo of two giraffes in Botswana. I upped the ISO to 3200 and opened up the aperture to its widest setting in order to avoid any motion blur on the slowly moving giraffes — while still adding quite a bit of light to the scene.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 75mm) ISO 3200, f/2.8 at 1/250th of a second
Not just an emu, but an emu with a kangaroo running around in the background. Just part of the landscape in Flinders Ranges National Park in South Australia.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 600mm manual focus lens, ISO 200, f/8 at 1/250th of a second
I once saw a show on Discover, or one of those networks, and they were counting down the most stealth animals on the planet. Coming in at number one was the chameleon. They have it all — eyes that have a 360 degree field of vision and can look in two directions at once, a tongue that can lash out at record speed and distance, colors that can change to camouflage or attract, and tong-like feet that are specialized for gripping just about any kind of branch. Half of all the world’s chameleons live in Madagascar, where I photographed this guy late one afternoon while traveling upriver in a small boat.
Nikon D40X with Nikkor 18-55mm lens (at 19mm), ISO 200, f/4.5 at 1/160th of a second
Locals in Costa Rica refer to the great curassow as the jungle turkey (at least that’s what my guide kept calling them). They are very large birds that forage on the ground. Like many birds, they are monogamous, and are usually encountered in pairs. The male and female are quite different looking. This one is a male. The females have distinct ornamentation on their heads and are reddish brown of body.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 3200, f/4 at 1/25th of a second
This baby mountain gorilla was photographed in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in southern Uganda. Mountain gorillas are a critically endangered species and are barely hanging on in the wild. At the time of my visit in 2009, there were only an estimated 700 left throughout their range in Uganda, the Congo and Rwanda, but the most recent data from 2012 shows a slightly more optimistic figure of 950. Perhaps conservation efforts are starting to pay off and the numbers are on the rise. I certainly hope so as I would love to go back to this place some day.
Nikon D300 with a Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/50th of a second
This burrowing owl was displaying the ability to turn its head 180 degrees, keeping an eye on a possible predator flying above (probably an eagle or a hawk). I took this one down in Cape Coral, Florida — one of the best places in the country to see burrowing owls.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 350mm) ISO 800, f/4.5 at 1/200th of a second
You might remember a couple of weeks ago when I posted a moose and his rather impressive dewlap. That dewlap looked like an extended goatee. Here’s what one looks like on an anole lizard. This is a male and he is displaying for any possible mates. If a female living in the area finds his colorfully extended throat sexy enough she just might stop by for a date. While displaying, the male also bobs up and down doing a sort of dance. Ironically, or perhaps not, he will do the same thing to ward off males who might want to challenge for territory. The territory in question for this guy was in Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 240mm) ISO 3200, f/4 at 1/20th of a second
Meals don’t come easy for bighorn rams in the wintertime. I photographed this guy a few months back in Yellowstone. There was a small bachelor herd of rams on a steep mountainside, all digging through the snow in search of any edible grass.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 310mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/2000th of a second
Grey crowned cranes are fairly widespread throughout Africa but still a prized sighting. I saw these two while driving through the local villages and farmlands of southern Uganda. The crowned crane, locally called the crested crane, is the national bird of Uganda and appears on the flag.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/6.3 at 1/200th of a second
Just back from a long weekend in Tulum, Mexico. This was a relax-on-the-beach trip so not much photography, but I did get away one afternoon to search for spider monkeys in a nearby reserve called Punta Laguna. I saw quite a few of the spider monkeys, and also a pair of howler monkeys in just a few hours in the reserve. They can be difficult to photograph but I was able to get a few decent shots in the clear, including this young monkey swinging from tree to tree.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 260mm) ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/400th of a second