When I visited Toronto back in May, it was mating season for the American toads. I positioned my camera and long lens down on the edge of a pond in Tommy Thompson Park for this shot. The female, as you can see, is quite a bit larger than the male.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/2500th of a second
It appears as if this mantled howler monkey wasn’t exactly pleased with me taking his photo. In reality, he was just having a good late afternoon yawn. I was hiking along a trail not too far from Panama City when I spotted this troop high in the tree tops. Strong backlight meant that I had to really open up the exposure by adding a few stops of light. This allowed me to record the dark fur of the monkeys — and in the process, blow out the leafy background.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/80th of a second
Here’s another fine looking bird from South America. This time, the cloud forest of Ecuador. Just one of many beautiful tanagers from that part of the world.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 250mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/320th of a second
Just a simple prairie dog doing his prairie dog thing in the Badlands of South Dakota. These guys always look like they’re about to start dancing.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 360mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/1600 of a second
Here’s another lemur — the Verreaux’s sifaka. They kind of look like battery powered stuffed animals up in the trees. I photographed this one in the extreme south of Madagascar at Berenty Reserve.
Nikon D40x with Nikkor 15-55mm lens (at 38mm) ISO 100, f/5 at 1/200th of a second
This is one of the giant owl butterflies in the genus Caligo — perhaps the Caligo illioneus or the Calico eurilochus. They get their name from the big owl eye-like markings on the underside of the their wings. When motionless on a branch, would-be predators think twice when they see the giant eye staring back at them. I photographed this one in the cloud forest of Ecuador and was lucky to get the wings slightly open to reveal the blue on the top side of the wings.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 105 macro lens, ISO 800, f/8 at 1/125th of a second
It was very early morning in Botswana, pre-sunrise, when we came upon a small pack, or as they are more commonly called, clan of spotted hyenas. They seemed more playful than usual and were chasing each other around playing keep away with what was left of an impala.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 1600, f/2.8 at 1/200th of a second
Used to be that seeing a coyote was at least somewhat of a rare sighting, but these days they seem to be everywhere. There was even one spotted on the roof of a bar here in Queens last year. I photographed this wily beast while hiking up Box Springs Mountain Park near Moreno Valley, California. The setting seemed a tad more coyote-like than the rooftop of a New York bar.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 340mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/5000th of a second
This is a white whiskered puffbird. Puffbirds are little guys with rather large heads that can be found in the tropics from Mexico to Brazil. I came across this one in Panama. As the name suggests they are often seen “puffing” out all their feathers as they perch motionless. They are silent assassins, sitting quietly without moving before attacking their prey — which includes insects, spiders, frogs and lizards.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/80th of a second
I met this spotted quoll just outside of Cradle Mountain National Park at a captive breeding center for the critically endangered Tasmanian devil. There are two species of quoll in Tasmania, the eastern and the spotted. Like devils, quolls are also carnivorous marsupials. It was getting very dark when I took the photo so I had to crank the ISO up to 6400.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 160mm) ISO 6400, f/2.8 at 1/500th of a second