Sometimes, it’s nice to put the big lens down and go a bit wider to include the environment. In this case, the first rays of the Botswana sun were illuminating this tree and the three impala that were grazing beneath it, turning them all a deep red.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 70mm) ISO 800, f/2.8 at 1/4000th of a second
Grazing zebras are a common sight on the savanna. This small herd was enjoying a late breakfast when we came upon them backlit by the rising sun.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 95mm) ISO 400, f/22 at 1/60th of a second
I recently posted a photo of the dwarf mongoose. This guy is a different species, called the slender mongoose. He/she was also photographed on our recent trip to Botswana.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/1250th of a second
It was late in the day when I captured this photo of a giraffe running across the savanna in Botswana. Panning my camera with the giraffe while using a slower shutter speed created the nice motion blurred effect of the landscape. Seeing giraffes run is always one of my favorite things to watch while on safari — both awkward and graceful at the same time. It almost appears as if they are running in slow motion.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/30th of a second
I’ve posted quite a few photos of black-backed jackals in the past but never a side-striped jackal. These guys tend to be larger and more nocturnal than their black-backed cousins. They are also far less carnivorous, with a large portion of their diet coming from invertebrates and fruit. This guy was out foraging early one morning in Botswana.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/800th of a second
These guys are called little bee eaters. They are fairly common throughout sub Sahara Africa. As the name would suggest, they eat bees, and these two were doing just that as they darted through the air.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/1600th of a second
Twilight had just about ended and it was very dark when this leopard jumped up onto a termite mound and posed for a few portraits. Even at 3200 ISO, the files looked great coming out of my camera — showing very little noise, even at 100% crop.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 86mm) ISO 3200, f/2.8 at 1/25th of a second
I really felt bad for this poor old boy. He was without a pride and trapped between the territories of two other prides. Apparently, he gets beat up a lot when he wanders too far north or south and into those other territories. Luckily, he did have a wildebeest kill when we came across him and he spent a couple of days near our camp feeding upon it. In this photo, he was letting out a big yawn before heading back to the kill. He was the only lion that we saw on the short Botswana trip.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 3200, f/2.8 at 1/100th of a second
I’ll always remember my first trip to Africa back in 1999. I was amazed at how zebras didn’t get any respect. The guides thought that all tourists wanted to see were lions, leopards and elephants. Zebras were far too common to be of much interest. But I’ve always loved zebras — from that first trip in Tanzania to my last trip in Botswana. This one was part of a dazzle (yes, a group of zebras is, in fact, called a dazzle) crossing a river early in the afternoon.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/8 at 1/1250th of a second
The southern white faced owl is one of the three species of owl that we saw in our week in Botswana. This is a nocturnal owl, and it was asleep in a cavity of a dead tree when we came across it one afternoon. Some of you might know this guy from this very entertaining video that went viral a few years back and shows the owl’s amazing transformative abilities — Click Here.