I captured this image of an eastern striped skunk with a three-flash camera trap setup. The main flash is on the ground behind the log providing the strong backlighting of the whiskers. There’s actually a smaller log behind the visible log, which the skunks, raccoons and opossums occasionally use to get from one side of our back yard to another. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 20mm) ISO 500, f/11 at 20 seconds, Cognisys camera box, trail monitor and remote flash units.
For animals that everyone seems to want to eat, capybaras can appear rather relaxed at times. These guys are the main food source for apex predators like jaguars and caiman in Brazil’s Pantanal region. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 550mm with 1.4 TC attached) ISO 800, f/8 at 1/200th of a second.
This southern tamandua was getting a good scratch in with the back leg, while continuing to lap up termites and ants. Photographed earlier this year in the northern Amazon basin of Peru. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 800, f/7.1 at 1/320th of a second, Godox 860iii fill flash.
Silverback mountain gorillas weigh in excess of 400 pounds. They eat about forty pounds of leaves, stems, shoots and fruits a day. This silverback was taking a break from all that eating and just hanging back, relaxing, and watching the rest of the family go about their business. He is one of three silverbacks in a family of ten that roam the base of Gahinga Volcano in the southwestern corner of Uganda. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 150mm) ISO 3600, f/2.8 at 1/640th of a second.
It’s always fun to photograph mountain goats because they conveniently prefer to hang out in spectacular alpine settings. I met this young goat a few years back not too far from Denver in Colorado. We were both up above the clouds as the day came to a close. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 35mm) ISO 800, f/10 at 1/800th of a second.
I took this one on a trip to Yellowstone a few years back. It was late September and the rising sun added some interesting flare to the backlit mountain bluebird. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/3200th of a second.
The monk saki is definitely one of the more unusual looking primates I’ve had the privilege of photographing. They’re actually relatively small to medium sized monkeys but all that hair makes them seem much larger. This guy was moving through the flooded Amazon of Peru in the high-water season while we quietly floated below in a canoe. But even when there is land to walk on, these monkeys spend all their time in trees, never descending to the ground. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 1600, f/5.6 at 1/1250th of a second.
A little something different today. Not only because it lacks wildlife, but also because I took it with my iPhone. This was the last day of our trip to Kenya and Uganda. We were leaving our lodge at Lake Mutanda and heading back to Rwanda and onward to Nairobi and then New York. I had packed my cameras away, but pulled the iPhone out now and again to grab shots from the open window as we drove. This is one of those shots, a bit more mid-day than I like for what is essentially a landscape, but I thought it caught the essence and grandeur of Lake Mutanda and its setting in the volcanic Virunga Mountains of Uganda. iPhone, ISO 32, f/1.6 at 1/2300th of a second.
A young elephant seal relaxes on a bed of lichen-covered rocks on Carcass Island in the Falklands. These guys are a separate, but very similar species to the northern elephant seals we get along the west coast of the United States. This is a juvenile — but will eventually grow to as much as 20 feet long and weigh in excess of 8,800 pounds — making them the largest seals in the world. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 400, f/6.3 at 1/1600th of a second.
I mentioned in a previous post that we had great luck with aardwolves on our trip to Kenya this past summer. Going through my files again, I came across this image I liked of one running across the savanna in Samburu National Reserve. They are nocturnal, but we kept seeing them first thing in the morning, likely just before heading back to their burrows to rest for the remainder of the day. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 640, f/5.6 at 1/800th of a second.