The common wombat also goes by coarse-haired wombat and bare-nosed wombat. But whatever you call them, they are grass-eating machines. If there’s a large population in an area, it can look like a well-groomed golf course. I photographed this one on Maria Island, off the coast of Tasmania, Australia. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/2500th of a second.
This is an old one from back in 2008. I was driving down the California coast from San Francisco to Los Angles and stopped off at Año Nuevo State Park to see what I could find. It was first thing in the morning and this elephant seal had the beach to himself, waiting for females to arrive for the yearly mating and birthing season which takes place from December through March. Since then I have spent many hours photographing both northern elephant seals in California, as well as their larger cousins, the southern elephant seals down in the Falkland Islands. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 35mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/250th of a second.
When you get a dramatic sky in Kenya, it doesn’t take long to find a zebra to walk under it. Nikon D850 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 800, f/2.8 at 1/640th of a second.
Sharp-nosed toads are tiny little amphibians. They live in the leaf litter scattered across the Amazon. I tried to get down into their world for this environmental portrait. Photographed last year in the northern Amazon basin of Peru. Nikon D850 with Laowa Venus 15mm wide-angle macro lens, ISO 800, f/4 at 1/125th of a second, Godox V860iii flash with Westcott soft box.
A Masai giraffe rises above the tree line while life is in full swing in the Masai village in the background. Nikon D850 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/640th of a second.
A few interesting facts about the eye of the ostrich: their eyes are bigger than their brains, their eyes are the largest of any land animal, their eyes are on the sides of the heads, they have great vision despite the fact their eyes can’t move around in their eye sockets. And as this photo illustrates, their eyes are visible even if they are looking in the complete opposite direction. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 140, f/5.6 at 1/640th of a second.
Saw these two ladies strolling along the side of the road recently. Seemed an appropriate post for today (well, technically tomorrow). Have a great holiday everyone and see you back here next week. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 6400, f/5.6 at 1/500th of a second.
I photographed this garter snake in my backyard a few summers ago. The snake had just swallowed a toad and was moving very slowly, allowing me a close approach with my macro lens. Snakes use their forked tongues to collect chemical information from two different locations at once. This helps with navigation — in sort of a 3D kind of way — when looking for food, a mate and whatever else snakes are into these days. Nikon D850 with Nikkor 105mm macro lens, ISO 800, f/7.1 at 1/640th of a second.
This was our first lion encounter in the Masai Mara on our recent trip. We got close up and I took many frame-filling photos, but I liked this approach shot where I was able to use the environment to frame the lion as he sat atop a small hill. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm lens, ISO 5600, f/5.6 at 1/500th of a second.
It’s that time of year again when great grey owls start getting active in northern Minnesota. I’ve visited the last few years and am thinking about another trip out soon. This was taken in December of 2021 after the tamarack trees had turned a bright orange. Great greys become most active at dawn and dusk, hunting in clearings in the northern forests. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/1600 of a second.