I saw a few of these black scorpions while on night walks in the Peruvian Amazon. My guide didn’t seem too concerned around them, however, Wikipedia describes them as being “significantly venomous.” In this image you can see the little red barb at the end of the tail that does all the damage. They are ambush hunters — blending in with the tree bark, they sit and wait for meals to walk by. Their diet consists of everything from crickets and spiders to lizards and mice. Nikon D850 with Nikkor 105mm macro lens, ISO 250, f/18 at 1/160th of a second, Godox V860iii flash with Westcott soft box.

I’m a bit confused as to which species this plant is. I see similar photos called Helosis guyannensis, but then others called Helosis ceyennesis. Either way, it looks like a mushroom, but apparently it’s not. It also looks like raspberries on a stem. Not that either. Found on the rainforest floor in the northern Amazon of Peru. Nikon D850 with Laowa 15mm wide angle macro lens, ISO 1600, f/32, Godox V860iii flash with Westcott softbox.

Here’s another of the pygmy marmosets that I photographed in Peru, the world’s smallest monkeys. As mentioned a few weeks ago, they’re only about 5 inches tall (not including the tail). This guy was after a favorite meal — sap from holes in the trunk of that tree. but stopped for a moment to pose for a picture. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/200th of a second, Godox V860iii fill flash.

I know tarantulas aren’t for everyone, but this isn’t just any old tarantula. It’s the adorably named pink-toed tarantula. A couple quick facts (other than the pink toes): They eat primarily insects but won’t shy away from a small frog or lizard. They live mainly in trees. And perhaps most peculiar, as a defense mechanism they can throw feces at a would-be assailant. Photographed last month in the northern Amazon basin of Peru. Nikon D850 with Nikkor 105mm macro lens, ISO 250, f/9 at 1/160th of a second, Godox v860iii flash with Westcott soft box.

You don’t really get to see the cobalt wings of the cobalt-winged parakeet if not in flight (the cobalt is on the underside of the wings) but I liked this shot of three of them settling in at the end of the day in a dead palm tree along a tributary of the Amazon River in northern Peru. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 1600, f/5.6 at 1/250th of a second, Godox v860iii fill flash.

The coppery titi monkey was another new species for me. I saw these small monkeys a few times, this being the best look. They spend 100% of their time in trees, and live in the Amazon basin of both Peru and Brazil, usually around water. They play an important role in the biodiversity of the forests in which they live, by scattering the seeds of the fruits they eat and promoting growth. They also have very long tails and this guy was gracious enough to put it on display for the two seconds it spent on that branch before leaping deep into the forest. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 800, f/6.3 at 1/80th of a second, Godox V860iii fill flash.

I’m looking for any help identifying these bats. They were in their daytime resting spot — a hole in what appeared to be a termite mound on a tree. I was shooting directly up at them while hiking in the rainforest of Loreto, Peru. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 98mm) ISO 250, f/5.6 at 1/125th of a second, Godox V860iii flash with Westcott soft box.

I had a lot of fun shooting with my new Laowa 15mm lens, the only lens of its kind for 1:1 wide-angle macro shots. The lens is 100% manual — not just focus but also aperture. Although it’s a Nikon mount, my camera wasn’t able to record aperture or other EXIF data. And if I was to stop down to the smallest aperture setting, it was too dark to even see what I was doing. That said, this flat-headed bromeliad treefrog was shot wide open, thus the very narrow depth of field. The frog was about an inch from the front of the lens and I used an off-camera flash with soft box for the lighting. I wish I had seen more frogs on this trip, but the ones I did see were quite accommodating to the wide-angle macro look I was after. Nikon D850 with Laowa 15mm wide-angle macro lens, ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/160th of a second, Godox V860iii flash with Westcott soft box.

When my guide stopped the boat because he saw a rat, I wasn’t exactly enthusiastic. Then I saw this guy staring back at me and I had one of my favorite sightings from my week in the Peruvian Amazon. Not just any ordinary rat, but the yellow-crowned brush-tailed rat. So cool it gets two hyphens in its name. These guys tend to live in tree cavities, usually palms along the banks of rivers. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/125th of a second, Godox V860iii flash with Better Beamer extender.

You never know what you’re going to see on a night hike in the Amazon. And that goes for this yellow-throated woodpecker too who woke up to find a few humans standing outside his tree-cavity bedroom. Photographed in Loreto, Peru. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 500, f/8 at 1/200th of a second, Godox V860iii flash with Westcott soft box.