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.
As much as I love being out on game drives while on safari, I also look forward to the downtime when I’m free to walk around camp searching for birds and other creatures that happen to be passing through. This bronzy sunbird was outside our room on Lake Mutanda in Uganda. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm lens, ISO 10,000, f/5.6 at 1/500th of a second.
We saw these two lions stalking a group of giraffes (or as a group of giraffes is commonly called, a tower of giraffes). And where there are stalking lions, there are opportunistic carnivores hoping to get in on the action. You can see a black-backed jackal in-between the lions and the giraffes, anticipating the hunt. Nothing came of the encounter and the lions never made a charge, perhaps fearing the lethal hooves of the multiple healthy-looking giraffes. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 450, f/5.6 at 1/1250th of a second.
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.