It’s rare that I post a shot where you can’t see the animal’s face. In this instance, however, I think it works. A mother bear and her cub loading up on veggies, getting ready for the coming hibernation. I like that the cub looks like a round ball of fur with those two little ears protruding from the top. This is another one from my trip a year ago to Lake Clark National Park in Alaska. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 105mm) ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/1600th of a second.
I met my first white squirrel a few winters back in Olney, Illinois. I actually met quite a few white squirrels that day, all living near the town center. Olney is one of several towns in the US and Canada claiming to be the “Home of the White Squirrel.” They are actually just a color morph of the common Eastern gray squirrel. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/125th of a second.
Two coastal brown bears just taking it easy on a sandbar near Silver Salmon Creek in Lake Clark National Park, Alaska. I suppose I looked somewhat similar about twenty yards away face down on the ground with my camera.
Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 290mm) ISO 640, f/4 at 1/1250th of a second
2018 saw a lot of everyday life circumstances getting in the way of my photography. Hopefully things will get back on track in 2019 and I can return to where I enjoy being most — in the wild. That said, the year did start strong. Karen and I took a “non-wildlife” trip to Belize, which ended up yielding a surprising amount of incidental wildlife, especially of the under water variety. Shortly after that, I travelled to the southern tip of South America for a week of puma tracking. Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile clearly ranks toward the top of the most spectacular wild places that I have ever visited. Unfortunately, the remainder of the year consisted of the birds in my backyard and a single trip with my father to view seals off the coast of Cape Cod. I was busy with photos from other locations around the world, however, as I had quite a backlog of processing to do on all the images I’ve captured over the past 15 years. Lots of home time enabled me to tackle this ongoing challenge. That said, the following ten photos are the highlights captured this year.
Thought this one would be appropriate for the last post before the holiday — a sea otter floating in front of the reflection of a Christmas tree. Photographed in Moss Landing on the central California coast. Happy Holidays everyone.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 1600, f/3.5 at 1/30th of a second
Something a bit different today — a macro shot of a flower. Actually many flowers. The yellow spike in the middle of a calla lily is called the spadix. It’s made up of many male and female flowers. The male flowers reside on the tip of the spadix and will eventually produce pollen, whereas the female flowers are at the base. I used a very narrow depth of field to bring focus just to the uppermost male flowers. The white area surrounding the spadix is called the spathe. This is the leafy, trumpet-shaped part of the calla lily that we generally consider the flower. I’ve posted a few landscape shots of this very picturesque location before. It’s in Garrapata State Park in California — where a little spring leads down to the ocean. On each side of the spring, the calla lilies grow from the swampy ground.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 105mm macro lens, ISO 400, f/4 at 1/800th of a second
A bison calf leads the herd over a hill on a frosty morning in Yellowstone National Park.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 70mm) ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/400th of a second
No matter how many red fox I come across in my travels, I always get excited when I see one. Such elegant creatures. This one was spotted at Silver Salmon Creek in Lake Clark National Park in Alaska.
Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 330mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/1000th of a second
This was one of the four bull moose that I saw vying for a single female last fall in Alaska during the yearly rut. Chugach State Park, just outside of Anchorage.
Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 290mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/400th of a second
Marmots can often be spotted at high altitude chowing down alpine wildflowers. This species is the hoary marmot, photographed at Mount Rainer National Park amidst the wild blue lupine.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 200, f/5.6 at 1/1250th of a second