As a lot of other people in our area have noticed, this was a very slow year for chipmunks. On the other hand it was a big year for hawks. The presence of, and constant sound of hawks screeching, is no doubt the culprit for the drop in numbers of chipmunks, squirrels and rabbits. I took this shot a few summers ago when the chipmunks were plentiful and the hawks were not. Such is the nature of nature. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 800, f/9 at 1/250th of a second.
Time to start mixing the rest of the world back in among all the Africa photos. I photographed this sloth earlier in the year down in Peru. She had just finished eating fruits of the cecropia tree (their favorite) and was looking mighty satisfied. It’s a tight composition, but you can see that her head is almost completely turned around as she took a not-so-quick look at the camera before turning her attention back to the business at hand. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 1600, f/5.6 at 1/200th of a second.
Always fun to play with light and shadow when you can get the light to fall on the animal’s face and then expose for those highlights. This dwarf mongoose was running around in the bushes at our camp in the Masai Mara of Kenya, giving me plenty of time to find the best spot to take the shot. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 220, f/5.6 at 1/200th of a second.
This was the first lion we spotted on our recent Kenya trip. And she was barely visible, hiding in an area of tall grass in Nairobi National Park. Because I have my auto focus set to a button other than my shutter release (aka back-button focus) I was able to quickly manual focus using my lens focusing ring and work around all the grass that was in front of her face. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 500, f/5.6 at 1/640th of a second.
Most safari goers catch a glimpse of a lilac-breasted roller or two while out driving around. They’re hard to miss with their spectacular plumage, especially in flight. This one was perched on a boulder as we slowly drove past. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 360, f/5.6 at 1/1250th of a second.
Yesterday I posted the largest animal on the savanna. Here’s one of the smallest (at least one of the smallest I photographed) — the unstriped ground squirrel. As you might have guessed, what sets these guys apart from other African ground squirrels is the lack of a white stripe on their sides. They can be spotted pretty much anywhere in Samburu National Park but this was the only time I saw one making its home inside a termite mound. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 360, f/5.6 at 1/1000th of a second.
Here’s another one where I put the camera on a tripod and held it, inverted, over the side of the safari vehicle while using a remote trigger to get a ground-level perspective. Also nice to capture a rising sun on one side of the elephant and her calf on the other. This was in Samburu, where the elephants are plentiful and always have a bit of a reddish tint to their skin due to the red clay dirt of the area. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/2.8 lens (at 59mm) ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/640th of a second.
Seems I keep just missing this bobcat. The top photo — with vole — was taken last week on September 12th, while the bottom one was taken on July 27th. Both shots were at ISO 500, f/14 at 1/200th of a second, Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 19mm) Cognisys camera box, trail monitor and remote flash units. I’ve adjusted my trigger hoping that the next time the bobcat takes this same path, I can get him walking into frame rather than out of frame.
Here’s another shot from our first night in Kenya in Nairobi National Park. We had one of those classic African skies — stormy but with moments of sun breaking through the clouds. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/2.8 (at 41mm) ISO 360, f/5.6 at 1/640th of a second.
We didn’t have to go far to see vervet monkeys while in Samburu National Park in Kenya. In fact, the front porch of our tents usually did the trick. The camp had to get rid of the traditional zippers on the tents because the monkeys figured out how to open them, enter the tents, and help themselves to whatever they could find inside. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 7200, f/5.6 at 1/1000th of a second.