When it comes to kicking back and taking it easy, southern elephant seals are skilled practitioners of the art. Their big, blubberous bodies were lazily strewn across the beach and bay of Sea Lion Island in the Falklands. Early one morning, I caught these two juvenile seals doing their best to do nothing in a shallow inlet.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/6.3 at 1/250th of a second

This southern sea lion wasn’t quite buying what I was selling. Still, he posed for a few quick shots before taking his business elsewhere. I was hiking along a remote coastline on Carcass Island in the Falklands where these sea lions are usually pretty timid. I had to be very still while photographing this large male. The males, as I mentioned in a previous post, really live up to their name with that mane of thick lion-like hair.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) f/6.3 at 1/800th of a second

Just now, as I was sitting at my desk trying to decide whether to post a pelican or a snow monkey, I received an email from NANPA, the North American Nature Photographer’s Association. The results (at least the initial results) of their yearly photo contest are in and this year six of my images were winners, so I figured I’d post those instead. I don’t know yet where they all placed, but the first three (a black tailed jackrabbit, a spider monkey, and two giraffes necking) are somewhere in the top 120. The bottom three images (a bighorn in the Badlands, a bighorn in Yellowstone, and giant tortoises in the Galapagos) are in the top 250. All but the necking giraffes have been posted to the blog before, so I’ll just give camera info for that shot.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 280mm) ISO 400, f/5 at 1/400th of a second