Twilight had just about ended and it was very dark when this leopard jumped up onto a termite mound and posed for a few portraits. Even at 3200 ISO, the files looked great coming out of my camera — showing very little noise, even at 100% crop.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 86mm) ISO 3200, f/2.8 at 1/25th of a second
Sportive lemurs are a nocturnal species in Madagascar. This guy, however, must have been a light sleeper, and bit curious as I hiked past his daytime resting place in the hollow of a tree. He posed for several shots before disappearing back into the tree.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 200, f/5.6 at 1/4th of a second, Gitzo 1325 tripod
I really felt bad for this poor old boy. He was without a pride and trapped between the territories of two other prides. Apparently, he gets beat up a lot when he wanders too far north or south and into those other territories. Luckily, he did have a wildebeest kill when we came across him and he spent a couple of days near our camp feeding upon it. In this photo, he was letting out a big yawn before heading back to the kill. He was the only lion that we saw on the short Botswana trip.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 3200, f/2.8 at 1/100th of a second
I’ll always remember my first trip to Africa back in 1999. I was amazed at how zebras didn’t get any respect. The guides thought that all tourists wanted to see were lions, leopards and elephants. Zebras were far too common to be of much interest. But I’ve always loved zebras — from that first trip in Tanzania to my last trip in Botswana. This one was part of a dazzle (yes, a group of zebras is, in fact, called a dazzle) crossing a river early in the afternoon.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/8 at 1/1250th of a second
The southern white faced owl is one of the three species of owl that we saw in our week in Botswana. This is a nocturnal owl, and it was asleep in a cavity of a dead tree when we came across it one afternoon. Some of you might know this guy from this very entertaining video that went viral a few years back and shows the owl’s amazing transformative abilities — Click Here.
This one goes out to young Sophie Muller who requested some underwater action. We swam with these playful sea lions off the coast of Rabida Island in the Galapagos Islands. The underwater world in this location was much different than the other spots that we snorkeled. Absent was all the coral and the sea grass covered rocks. Instead, it was all turquoise water and red sand.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 800, f/9 at 1/400th of a second, Ikelite Housing and 8 inch dome port
Here’s another look at Oia, Santorini where we spent the first week of our honeymoon. Bell towers like this one are a very common site on churches throughout the island. In fact, there are more than 250 churches, mostly Greek Orthodox, on Santorini. This bell tower is one of the most commonly photographed. I took shots of it at various times of the day, but liked this one best when the sun was still high enough to provide a bit of side lighting.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 200, f/20 at 1/80th, 1/320th, 1/160th, 1/40th, and 1/20th of a second
A break in all the Botswana action for something a little closer to home. These four black bear cubs of varying ages were all playing together one afternoon on my trip to northern Minnesota back in June.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 220mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/400th of a second
An elephant’s eyelashes can be quite long. They protect the eye from dust and also the sun. This guy was grazing very close to our vehicle allowing me to really zoom in on isolated areas of the face.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/1250th of a second
We saw three different species of mongoose on our Botswana trip. This is the smallest — aptly named the dwarf mongoose. In fact, the dwarf mongoose is the smallest carnivore in Africa. It preys on everything from insects, to scorpions, lizards, frogs, birds and rodents.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/6.3 at 1/500th of a second