This little lion cub was taking a bit of a rest upon the safe confines of Dad’s well-fed torso. This was from my visit to the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. I didn’t expect to see as many lions as I did in the Kalahari, but got lucky with a pride that had just finished devouring an oryx kill and then proceeded to make their way over to a water hole where they all had an after dinner drink.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 380mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/250th of a second

Sometimes you can get close. This was a one-year old leopard we observed stalking a pangolin for about three hours. I previously posted about the encounter at this link. We were obviously able to get very close, and I used my long lens (and a generous crop) to zoom in on the leopard’s eyes for this tight portrait.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/5 at 1/160th of a second

The elephant on the left was very small. It was calling to what was probably a sibling or cousin. I say that because although it may look like the mother, it was actually a young, rather small elephant in its own right. The baby had lost the tip of its trunk, most likely the victim of a predator, but perhaps it was a birth defect. Either way, the little guy seemed to have no problem getting along. We watched as it drank from a water hole and ate grass alongside the much larger members of the herd.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 280mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/2000th of a second

If you look closely, you can see a leopard resting in that fallen tree — the sun just about to set directly below her. As soon as the sun did set, she set off on a night of hunting. We saw her and her grown cub a few more times over the next few days and I was able to photograph both of them in a number of settings.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 102mm) ISO 400, f/2.8 at 1/400th of a second

As the sun starts to rise on the Makgadikgadi Pan in Botswana, the meerkats start to wake up and begin playing just outside their burrows. Soon thereafter, they head out into the desert for a day of foraging for insects. This little guy was taking a quick break to check out his reflection in my wide angle zoom lens.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 22mm) ISO 400, f/8 at 1/640th of a second

On the final morning of my second trip to Botswana, I met this solo giraffe surveying the landscape as the sun was quickly rising in the background.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 130mm) ISO 560, f/18 at 1/60th of a second

The late day sun can be huge as it sets in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana. Add to that the compression effect of using a long focal length lens and this is what you get. Each afternoon in the Kalahari, I was scrambling around in search of an animal or two to position in front of the sun and the pastel colors that it created. In this case, an oryx appeared to heading home after a long day of grazing.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/160th of a second

Here’s another one from Botswana. This time a leopard, just hanging out watching the sun go down over the Linyanti plains along the northern border with Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Shortly after I took this shot and the sun set, the leopard climbed down from the tree and headed out on a hunt.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 280mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/1250th of a second

This mischievous looking little guy is a slender mongoose, photographed in Botswana. They are described as opportunistic carnivores. Meaning, they’ll take what they can get. Most of their diet is made up of insects, but they’ll also eat lizards, rodents, snakes, birds, amphibians, and fruit when available. They have a well earned reputation for taking down venomous snakes, although, this doesn’t account for a significant portion of their diet.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/1250th of a second

I’ve mentioned before that the oryx is believed to be the antelope that the unicorn is based on. The unicorn creator apparently thought that one horn would be cooler than two. There are four different species of oryx, all large antelopes that range throughout dryer parts of Africa. This one, the gemsbok, was photographed in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve of Botswana.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 330mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/1600th of a second