Can never have too many dancing bear posts. This time polar bears wasting time while they wait for the Hudson Bay to freeze over so they can go hunt seals. Photographed at Seal River in Manitoba, Canada. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 330mm) ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/640th of a second.
Far from ideal lighting conditions on this one, but it’s a jaguar and I’ll take what I can get. I photographed this in the Pantanal of Brazil eleven years ago from the safety of a boat. I only saw three or four jaguars on that week-long visit. I’ve heard from others that things have changed drastically due to an explosion of tourism in the area and sightings are a lot more common these days. The theory being that the jags have become habituated to all the activity, which is always a double-edged sward. That said, I’d love to make my way back at some point and try again. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (with 1.4 teleconverter for 550mm) ISO 800, f/7.1 at 1/1600th of a second.
The brown mouse lemur is one of the smallest primates in the world, although it isn’t the smallest lemur. That honor goes to the pygmy mouse lemur. But this guy is pretty small, as you can see from the piece of fruit there that was about the size of a lemon. I have no idea what that fruit is, but the lemur sure seemed to know what it was all about. Photographed on the island of Nosy Mangabe, which is off the east cast of the island nation of Madagascar. Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/60th of a second, two Nikon SB-600 flash units.
Several years back on Merritt Island in Florida, I met a few armadillos. This guy had no problem with my close approach and kept on doing his thing while I snapped away with my wide angle lens. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 22mm) ISO 800, f/3.2 at 1/320th of a second.
The Indian jackal is a subspecies of the golden jackal. They can have a lot of neck — as is evidenced by this simple portrait. Golden jackals resemble, but are not closely related to the black-backed or side-striped jackals that can be found in Africa. This one was photographed in Bandhavgarh National Park in Central India. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/400th of a second.
Last week the swallowtails were on duty pollinating the flowers in our gardens. This week it’s the monarchs. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/500th of a second.
Rockhopper penguins can be quite boisterous as a group. This individual, however, was taking it to another level. Photographed on Saunders Island in the Falkland Islands. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 200, f/4 at 1/1600th of a second.
A bee appears to be waiting patiently while an eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly fills up on nectar from the bee balm flowers in our front yard. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 500, f/5.6 at 1/640th of a second.
I had been photographing snowy owls for a few days at Boundary Bay in British Columbia and wasn’t having much luck with flight shots. The owls wouldn’t fly often, but when they did they would take off in the opposite direction from where I was situated. Finally, at the very end of day two, one flew directly over my head. It got so close that I couldn’t keep it all in frame. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 330mm) ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/400th of a second.
This black-crested macaque (also known as the Celebes crested macaque) seemed to be telling me what she thought of me taking her picture. Actually, these monkeys were one of my favorite primate encounters in the wild and they were quite accepting of my presence. Photographed in Tangkoko National Park in Sulawesi, Indonesia, where one of the only populations still remains. They are considered critically endangered and without drastic measures their future is very uncertain. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 135mm) ISO 800, f/2.8 at 1/160th of a second.