Just a simple portrait of a red-capped cardinal for today. These guys are fairly common in the Pantanal of Brazil where I took this shot. Apologies to the non-bird fans. Back tomorrow with fur.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 310mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/640th of a second
Male Bornean orangutans have faces that are more dish-shaped than the females. They also have huge cheek flaps that extend from the face, almost like horse blinders. This guy was the alpha male at Tanjung Puting when I visited there a few years back. He was the only orangutan that even the guides would steer well clear of. Lucky for me, I had the equivalent of 600mm of optics between myself and those lovely cheek flaps.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/200th of a second
This nine-banded armadillo on Merritt Island in Florida was searching everywhere. For what, I don’t know, but it must have been important because he was quite frantic about his search. He even looked inside this moss-covered log for that thing he wanted so much. I didn’t stick around long enough to see if he ever did find what he was looking for.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 19mm) ISO 800, f/3.2 at 1/640th of a second
It’s tough to impress a snow monkey, and this guy was having none of it. Instead he was enjoying a soothing dip in the hot waters of Jigokudani near Nagano in the mountains of Japan.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 200, f/5.6 at 1/160th of a second
A few years back, I was down on the Delaware Bay photographing the curious, yet not entirely surprising mating ritual of the least tern. Male least terns catch a fish and then use that fish as payment for services rendered by the female. I watched while lying face down on the sand and took many low perspective photos of this pair as he returned from the sea and showed her the fish. Satisfied with what she saw, she allowed him to mount her and do his thing — about a 3 minute performance. The whole time, he kept the fish in his mouth, shaking his head back and forth until finished. Then she turned around and he dropped the fish, not in her mouth, but rather unchivalrously to the side, as if not completely satisfied. Both, however, seemed to get what they wanted and flew off in opposite directions. I had been watching several other terns doing the same thing and noticed that sometimes the female was not satisfied with the fish and refused the male, while other times the male checked out the female, fish in his mouth, and decided that she wasn’t worthy and flew off in search of another female. These two were the only ones that allowed me a close enough approach to capture the action.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 200, f/6.3 at 1/1600th of a second
This bear was pretty fun to watch as it stood up on that fallen trunk and surveyed its territory. It was as if the bear was playing a game of king of the hill, several times warding off other bears.
Top photo — Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 116mm) ISO 1600, f/2.8 at 1/500th of a second
Bottom photo — Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 110mm) ISO 800, f/2.8 at 1/200th of a second
This guy is a black and white ruffed lemur photographed near Andasibe-Mantadia National Park in Madagascar. Of the fifty plus species of lemur, the black and white ruffed lemurs are among the most playful. This one was putting on a show, jumping from one branch to the next. It was getting pretty dark at the time, so I used flash to freeze the action.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 80mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/60th of a second, Nikon SB-800 flash
Not sure exactly what this female bengal tiger had her eye on when she was licking her chops. Probably just swatting a fly from her nose. Whatever it was, it was nice of her to sit still for a few portrait shots. Bandhavgarh National Park in Central India.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/200th of a second
These two grey squirrels were jockeying for position inside the hollow of a tree in the front yard of my old house in Michigan.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 600mm f/5.6 manual focus lens, ISO 200, f/5.6 at 1/125th of a second
As soon as the sun starts to rise on the Makgadikgadi Pan in Botswana, meerkats start to come out of their burrows. They spend quite a bit of time just hanging around, warming up, and play fighting. Eventually they head out for the day to forage for scorpions and other small prey. I caught these two in that mid morning routine of play fighting.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 400, f/8 at 1/1000th of a second