I saw a couple of these tiny toads (about half an inch in length). They live in the leaf litter on the ground in the Amazon rainforest. For this image, the toad is almost right up against the front element of my wide-angle macro lens. That shelf behind the toad is a tree root. Nikon D850 with Laowa 15mm lens, ISO 1600, unrecorded f/stop at 1/125th of a second, Godox V860iii flash with Westcott soft box.
In early December, the tamarack trees in northern Minnesota have turned a dull orange. This creates quite a backdrop when the late day sun adds a short-lived splash of saturation. And it’s even better when great grey owls hunt in the foreground. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/2500th of a second.
As mentioned in previous posts, the Baird’s tapir is the largest land mammal in Central and South America. For this series of wide-angle images, I sat quietly on the ground for about an hour while the tapir slowly came closer and closer, foraging in the leaf litter. I kept going wider and wider with my lensing, and eventually he was right in front of me, so I reached for my 17-35mm. A few sniffs later he turned around and continued on in the opposite direction. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 20mm) ISO 3200, f/2.8 at 1/200th of a second.
This little guy is called the collared puffbird and was photographed on my recent trip to the northern Amazon basin of Peru. Not too much to say other than they prey upon frogs, lizards, snakes and larger insects — your usual Amazonian cuisine. That, and they have quite a large head in relation to body size. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 1600, f/5.6 at 1/200th of a second, Godox V860iii fill flash.
Here’s another of the bobcat images that my camera trap captured back in September. My surveillance cams have seen them a few times since then, but the cats have successfully avoided any more self-portraits. Here’s hoping the winter brings another image or two. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 20mm lens, ISO 500, f/14 at 1/200th of a second, Cognisys camera box, trail monitors and three remote flash units.
I had mentioned in a previous post that pygmy marmosets are only five inches in length, not including the tail. Here you can see the additional eight inches of tail. This guy was out doing what they do — gnawing holes in trees to eat the resultant tree gum. They also eat nectar and fruit, and insects that are attracted to the sap holes they produce. Photographed in the northern Amazon basin of Peru. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/125th of a second, Godox V860iii fill flash.
Here’s another mushroom landscape from the Peruvian Amazon using my wide-angle macro lens. I couldn’t identify the exact species of fungi, but to me they kind of looked like potato chips. Nikon D850 with Laowa 15mm wide-angle macro lens, ISO 500, f/22 at 1/5th of a second, Godox V860iii flash with Westcott soft box.
A baby Gursky’s spectral tarsier clings to its mother as she heads out for a night of hunting grasshoppers and other Indonesian delicacies. When I captured this image back in 2009, the Gursky’s version of the spectral tarsier wasn’t yet identified as a separate species. That happened in 2017 when Dr. Sharon Gursky’s studies determined that differences in genetics, vocalizations, and fur color warranted the split. Tarsiers are small, nocturnal primates that live in Southeast Asia. The Gursky’s lives only on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 260mm) ISO 200, f/8 at 1/60th of a second, with two Nikon SB-800 flash units.
It was a windy day in the Falkland Islands and this king penguin was coping with all the blowing sand. Needless to say, I was thirty feet away in about the same position as the penguin, dealing with the same wind and sand. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/7.1 at 1/200th of a second.
If there’s one thing meerkats are great at, it’s surveillance. There’s always a group on guard, taking their turn to safeguard the mob (that’s what a group of meerkats is officially called). Usually they’re a bit closer together, but they must have felt a need to spread out to get a better look at any would-be predators. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 110mm) ISO 400, f/22 at 1/160th of a second.