Harbor seals can be very curious creatures. I was kayaking late one afternoon in Elkhorn Slough — about a fifteen minute drive north of Monterey — and it seemed that every time I turned around, I’d catch a harbor seal following closely behind. Sometimes the seals would act as if caught and quickly dive under, while other times they would just sit there staring back at me while I aimed the camera and clicked the shutter.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/6.3 at 1/640th of a second

This fine looking duck is an American wigeon. The males, or drakes, have a large green patch on the side of the face. The females, or hens, are much less conspicuous and more uniformly brown in color. These guys are also sometimes called baldpates because of the whitish strip across the top of the head. This photo was taken on my recent owl outing at Reifel Bird Sanctuary in British Columbia, Canada.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/1000th of a second

Devil’s Tower was declared the first national monument in the United States by president Teddy Roosevelt back in 1906. It is comprised of igneous rock in an area which is otherwise sedimentary rock. There are several theories as to how the tower was formed, many believing that it is all that remains of an ancient volcano. You might remember it for its role in the 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I’ve been to the monument several times — this photo being taken on my most recent visit, late in the day, as the last rays of the sun illuminated the western face of the rock.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 200, f/18 at several shutter speeds (HDR image)

I was at Boundary Bay in search of snowy owls for three days. All three of those days started out in heavy overcast, misty/foggy conditions. Mist can be death to photographs when trying to use a long lens for frame filling images. So I tried to work with the mist by lining up elements to create depth in the scene. In this shot, I was able to line the foreground owl up with the one in the background on the log and then further back the water. All in all, a more moody composition than if the sun was in the clear and on the horizon.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 360mm) ISO 1600, f/11 at 1/80th of a second

Here’s another photo of a bobcat that I’ve posted a few shots of in the past. It was a couple of years ago and I was on my way back to the airport after a business trip in LA. I had heard reports of a bobcat sighting at the San Joaquin Nature Preserve in Irvine. I had about forty minutes to spare before I needed to be at the airport, so I decided to stop by the preserve. It turned out to be a good decision. I was able to get a nice series of ground level images as the bobcat cautiously passed in front of me on its way to hunt ducks in a nearby swamp. I liked the lick smack on this particular frame.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 290mm) ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/1000th of a second

I was recently going through my California landscapes folder and I came across all these images from Death Valley. The six photos show the geologic variety of Death Valley’s floor. A couple of them I have posted before but I wanted to show them together with the new shots. From the top, it’s the mud-caked ground of Mesquite Flats. Next is the lowest point in North America, Badwater Basin. The third image shows the sand dunes at Mesquite Flats. The fourth is appropriately called Devil’s Golf Course. The Fifth is called The Racetrack and is home to the mysterious moving boulders. And finally, the sixth is another type of dried mud near Stovepipe Wells.
Nikon D700 with a Nikkor 17-35mm, Gitzo tripod, ISO 200

I’m a big fan of jackrabbits. Of the three species — the black tailed, the white tailed and the antelope jackrabbit — the black tailed is the most commonly seen. This one was photographed in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in southern California. Although they are called jackrabbits, they are actually hares. The difference between a rabbit and a hare you ask? Other than a list of physical characteristics such as size and strength, the main difference is that rabbits are born blind and hairless while hares are born with fur and sight. As for those awesomely long ears on the jackrabbit — they play a role in regulating body temperature.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/640th of a second

I had been photographing the owls at Boundary Bay in Canada for three overcast days before realizing that this majestic mountain was in the background across the bay in the United States. When the fog finally lifted and a bit of sunlight came through, it was quite a scene to see Mount Baker — located in Bellingham, Washington — slowly emerge in the distance. I was hoping for a flight shot with the mountain in the background, but had to settle for this snowy perched on a fallen tree.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/640th of a second (-0.67 ev)

I took this one a few year back in Colorado. Mount Evans is just about an hour from Denver and is accessed by the highest paved road in North America. More often than not when I go to this location, I see mountain goats. This mother, or nanny, seemed to be calling to her kid, letting the young one know that it was time to stop playing and time to go home before the rain.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 340mm) ISO 200, f/6.3 at 1/800th of a second

Another bat stars and seagrass photo. This one is from Pacific Grove, just south of Monterey, California. As you can see, they come in many different colors, including green, purple, red, orange, yellow and brown, and can be either mottled or solid.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 800, f/11 at several different shutter speeds (pseudo HDR image)