Grey-headed kingfishers are widely disturbed in and around the African continent. This one was spotted on one of our game drives in Kenya, perched amidst the thorns of an acacia tree. We also had a few hanging around our tent in Samburu National Reserve. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 2800, f/5.6 at 1/1000th of a second.
I got a few shots of this lion licking his paw, but liked this one best where you can really see the size of that thing with some visual reference (keeping in mind that male lions have enormous heads). Photographed on the Masai Mara of Kenya. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 1600, f/5.6 at 1/125th of a second.
This little guy had something on his mind. At just two years old, like his human cousins, he is still a toddler. We had a great time watching him roll around in the grass and crawl over his older siblings and the adults in the family of ten mountain gorillas. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 140mm) ISO 3200, f/2.8 at 1/250th of a second.
Yellow-necked spurfowl can be a relatively common sight while on a Kenyan safari. This one was putting on quite a performance atop a small bush in Samburu National Reserve. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 1000, f/5.6 at 1/160th of a second.
A lioness takes a late-day snooze, but keeps her eye on any interesting developments out on the savanna. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 500, f/5.6 at 1/800th of a second.
These two guanacos (relatives of the llama) were resting on the ground as a light but steady rain fell on the Patagonian landscape. I got as low as I could to capture just their heads popping up over a small hill. Amazing to me how much the one on the right looks like a kangaroo. They are actually in the camel family, and well… they look like camels too. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/640th of a second.
A little burrowing owl was having a nice stretch with that right leg. These diurnal owls that live in the ground are fairly widespread throughout the Americas. An especially large population of them live in Cape Coral, Florida in and amongst all the suburban population. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 280mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/160th of a second.
We saw two different species of dik dik while recently in Kenya. The Gunther’s dik dik and the Kirk’s. This is the latter. At least I think it is. They are very similar looking and can be hard to distinguish. Either way, I always love a setting where I can essentially blur everything out except for the subject. In this case, our low angle took care of the foreground, while the background distance and a relatively large aperture took care of the rest. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 280, f/5.6 at 1/1000th of a second.
The sun was slowly setting when I came across this troop of kangaroos (also known as a mob or a court) in northern Tasmania. I liked in this shot that I was able to capture the main room in profile, two looking forward, one hopping and even a joey in a pouch — a lot to take in without any detail in any of the faces. These are eastern grey kangaroos, known locally as foresters. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 330mm) ISO 400, f/16 at 1/2000th of a second.
While on safari, a lot is made of the traditional Big Five (lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo). There’s also the Little Five (lion ant, leopard tortoise, rhinoceros beetle, elephant shrew and buffalo weaver). And then there’s the “Ugly Five.” Rounding out a list that includes the warthog, vulture, wildebeest and hyena is this handsome guy, the marabou stork. I suppose it doesn’t help that marabou storks are patient scavengers and often seen hanging around garbage dumps. They are very large birds — among the largest in the world with a wingspan of 11 feet — and are nicknamed the Undertaker due to their resemblance to an old slumped figure wearing a cloak. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm FP lens, ISO 450, f/5.6 at 1/640th of a second.