People seem to be of mixed minds about the honey badger. I for one, think they are pretty cool animals — true scrappers able to defend themselves against much larger beasts. This guy didn’t quite know what to think about me when he saw me crouched down in the grass just outside of my tent in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/500th of a second

It was past sunset and actually much darker than it appears when I took this photo of two giraffes in Botswana. I upped the ISO to 3200 and opened up the aperture to its widest setting in order to avoid any motion blur on the slowly moving giraffes — while still adding quite a bit of light to the scene.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 75mm) ISO 3200, f/2.8 at 1/250th of a second

It was twilight, and this leopard was just waking up from a nap. We watched her for quite some time as she climbed down the tree, stalked through the grass, and jumped up on a termite mound to get a better view of any unsuspecting prey. By then it was quite dark so we left her to her hunt and headed back to camp.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/200th of a second

Here’s another look at a genet. They are commonly called genet cats, but aren’t really cats at all and are more closely related to mongooses. This one came creeping around our camp one night in Botswana. We were actually at dinner and luckily, I brought my camera along in case of just such a thing.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 640, f/4 at 1/60th of a second, two SB-900 flash units on off camera bracket

It’s been a while since I posted a meerkat. Here’s one that was running straight toward my camera. As usual when I get the chance, I was face down on the ground. It was a challenge capturing focus on these little guys — they’re pretty quick — but I was able to get quite a few shots like this during my three day stay at Makgadikgadi Pan in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 400, f/8 at 1/1000th of a second

A springbok stops to pose for the camera in front of the rising sun in the Kalahari Desert.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 160mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/1600th of a second

Here’s another one of spotted hyenas playing keep away with a pair of impala horns. This was taken first thing in the morning in a swampy area of northern Botswana. The light was very low, as was my shutter speed, so I was hoping for the hyenas to run parallel to me so that I could pan with their movement to capture some relatively sharp, motion-blurred action shots.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm), f/4 at 1/80th of a second

The oryx is a mysterious creature, some believing that it is the antelope on which the unicorn is based. The oryx, of course, has two straight horns, rather than just one, but I can see where the comparison makes sense.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/13th of a second

This was the last morning of our trip to Botswana. Much like the first five mornings, a big orange sun rose at six a.m. into a cloudless sky. The sun was still low enough for some decent shots when we came across a solitary giraffe. I was hoping the big guy would entertain us with a drink at the water hole, but he seemed a bit timid, perhaps because he was on his own in an open area and sensed danger. Giraffes put themselves in a vulnerable position when they splay their legs and take the considerable effort to quench their thirst. Instead, I took a few portraits and we moved on.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 130mm) ISO 560, f/22 at 1/20th of a second

We ran into this leopard several times during our six days in Botswana. On this encounter, she was sitting in a sausage tree waiting for impala to walk beneath to eat the flowers that had fallen on the ground. From the reports we heard back at the camp, we just missed the action. She sat patiently for hours until a small herd, noses to the ground, came foraging for the flowers. Then she dropped from the tree and killed one of the unsuspecting impala. We would later catch up with her again with the fresh kill.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 300mm) ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/500th of a second