The sun was setting on a scorcher of a day on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. This young eastern grey kangaroo had wandered off from his mom and was intrigued by the clicking of my camera. Hopefully this post makes it through. I was hacked and have been having issues with my email settings, etc. (note I’m going back to my old email address of sean@seancrane.com). Nikon D200 with Nikkor 600mm manual focus lens, ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/8th of a second.
This is a male Australian king parrot. Individuals can vary in color, but they’re all pretty brilliant with the bright red feathers on the breast and head, and the green and blue on the wings. Photographed at Lamington National Park in Queensland, Australia. Nikon D200 with Nikkor 600mm manual focus lens, ISO 100, f/5.6 at 1/80th of a second.
There are four species of echidna. This is the short-beaked, which can be found throughout Australia and portions of New Guinea. It’s the most widespread native mammal in Australia. Unlike many other Australian mammals which are marsupials, the short-beaked echidna is a monotreme. Monotremes are one of the three main groups of mammals on earth, along with placentals and marsupials. But there are only five living species of monotreme — the four echidnas and the platypus. Their distinguishing characteristic is that they lay eggs. I photographed this echidna somewhere in central Tasmania. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/160th of a second.
I first posted this photo about 10 years ago. That original image was a bit too soft in the eyes. But with the advent of a software plugin called Topaz Sharpen AI, I was able to correct for the blur when re-processing. Topaz AI works like magic on certain photos to bring back very natural sharpness, while on others it’s more hit and miss. There needs to be a reasonable amount of sharpness in the first place. As for the koala, it was photographed at Hansen Bay on Kangaroo Island. In Australia, of course. Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 200, f/2.8 at 1/125th of a second.
Eastern grey kangaroos are known locally as foresters in Tasmania. These two were getting into a bit of a scuffle late in the afternoon. As soon as they started, it seemed they were back to grazing side by side again. Photographed in Narawntapu National Park. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 350mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/320th of a second.
I took this photo fifteen years ago when I was just starting out in wildlife photography. I regret that I didn’t take more than just one shot and that I didn’t get down on the level with this mudskipper to isolate the subject and blur out the background. I haven’t seen another one since. I consider this more of a document-of-seeing-the-animal type of shot than anything else. Mudskippers are interesting little creatures. They’re fish, in fact. But they are amphibious and live inside and outside of the water. As the name would suggest, they spend most of their time skipping around in mud flats. This one was in Daintree National Park in the northeast corner of Australia. But there are 32 different species of mudskipper and they range throughout the Indo-Pacific, from Africa, through Polynesia and into Australia. I figured after fifteen years, it was worth a post for the interest of the animal itself if not the skill of the photographer.Nikon D200 with Nikkor 600mm f/5.6 lens, ISO 200, f/5.6 at 1/13th of a second.
I used just a touch of off camera flash to illuminate this Tasmania pademelon coming out of the darkness on a pre-dawn morning on Maria Island, which is just off the east coast of Tasmania. Pademelons are very small macropods (the family that kangaroos and wallabies belong to). Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 260mm) ISO 800, f/8 at 1/160th of a second.
It’s a little messy down there in the undergrowth, but that’s the way echidnas like it. These Australia natives seem to always have that snout in the ground routing around for ants. Echidnas are monotremes, one of the three groups of living mammals — the other two being marsupials and placentals. Platypus are also monotremes and like the echidna they do something that no other mammal does — they lay eggs. I photographed this one in northern Tasmania while on a hike. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/200th of a second.
These guys are big, robust lizards with short limbs. And they have a pretty cool tongue. Actually a really cool tongue. You can kind of see it in this picture taken at the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary in Tasmania. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 105mm macro lens, ISO 800, f/4.5 at 1/250th of a second.
Always a bonus to capture wild mothers with their babies. Here are a few from around the globe:
Lion mothers with their cubs, Botswana (Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens at 240mm, ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/400th of a second).
Coastal brown bear and cubs, Alaska (Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens at 400mm, ISO 800, f/4 at 1/2000th of a second).
Hanuman langur mother with baby, India (Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens at 350mm, ISO 800, f/4 at 1/400th of a second).
And Bennett’s wallaby mom with her joey, Tasmania (Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens at 340mm, ISO 1600, f/4.5 at 1/1000th of a second).