This one goes out to my frog-loving sister Mo on her birthday today. An American bullfrog photographed years ago in Baxter State Park in Maine. Nikon D200 with Nikkor 600mm f/5.6 manual focus lens, ISO 200, f/5.6 at 1/640th of a second.

Here’s another one from my favorite elephant seal spot on the central California coast. This is a young one — too old to be with his mother but too young to be out mixing it up with the big bulls. At this age, they tend to hang back in the dunes away from the action. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 24mm) ISO 1600, f/2.8 at 1/320th of a second.

Here’s one for any entomologists out there. An ebony jewelwing damselfly (also known as the black-winged damselfly). I photographed this guy quite some time ago in Baxter State Park up in Maine. Back in those days, I was using extension tubes with my old 600mm lens to approximate a macro lens. Nikon D200 with Nikkor 600mm manual focus f/5.6 lens, Kenko extension tubes, ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/13th of a second.

Black-capped night heron’s often allow a close approach. This one was focused on staring at the water, waiting for just the right moment to strike. I was able to get several nice portraits from ground level, before backing off and allowing the staring contest to continue. Photographed at the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island in Florida. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 240mm) ISO 400, f/5 at 1/500th of a second.

I’ve posted a few images from this series in the past. Here’s another of a lone bighorn atop the eroded buttes of Badlands National Park in South Dakota. The bighorn being on the ridgeline allowed me to shoot with a wider telephoto, making the subject smaller in the overall composition and really communicating all that glorious environment. I was also able to use a graduated neutral density filter to hold the detail in the sky while preventing a full silhouette of the landscape. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 150mm) ISO 400, f/8 at 1/800th of a second, split graduated neutral density filter.

Usually, photographing an animal with its back to camera is the last thing I want. But occasionally, it works. This angle emphasizes those enormous ears, while also highlighting the namesake black tail. Photographed in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in southern California a few years back. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/1250th of a second.

A bit late on post today as my Internet has been down at home. Here’s another from the Venice Rookery in Florida where it is almost too easy to capture shorebirds in flight, usually with something dangling from the front of their beaks. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/8 at 1/4000th of a second.

A Barrow’s goldeneye flies past the blurred peaks of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/2500th of a second.

Looking at those skinny legs, it’s hard to believe that the pronghorn is the second fastest land mammal on earth (only slightly slower than the cheetah — although it can maintain speed over a greater distance than the cheetah). In fact, the pronghorn can easily outpace any predator on the North American continent, leading experts to believe that it developed its great speed due to a now extinct predator — perhaps the American cheetah, of which exist skeletal records. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 380mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/800th of a second.