BEASTS
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Spider Monkey.
Location: Tikal, Guatemala
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
A spider on a pulsatilla seed head takes a defensive posture.
Location: Buttercup, Mt. Hood Meadows ski area, Oregon
Lens used: Canon 100mm f2.8 IS Macro
A hermit crab coming out of the protection of its shell.
This is my first ever attempt at a triptych. Though I didn't have such a thing in mind while I knelt in the sand and salt water waiting for the little guy to be comfortable enough to come out of hiding, I think it came together okay.
Location: Berbera, Somalia (Somaliland)
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Hermit crab, from down at its level.
Location: Berbera, Somalia (Somaliland)
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
If there is one wildlife experience in the world that I'd have to recommend to other, similarly-minded individuals, it would be to go see the very highly-endangered Mountain Gorillas in East Africa. There are groups in each of Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC that can be visited. Doing so isn't a cheap excursion (in addition to the expense of just getting to East Africa) and, as the number of visitors to the gorillas is heavily regulated plus how the gorillas make their home in a politically iffy part of the world, it takes some advance planning to do. But when you finally do come upon the gorillas in the bamboo forest, surrounded by adults and youngsters doing their thing sometimes only mere feet from you, it's magic unlike anything else.
There is but one dominate male in each group, the Silverback. This shot is of our group's Silverback (we visited 'Group 13').
Location: Parc National des Volcans (Volcano National Park), Rwanda
Lens used: n/a (Canon S1 IS point-and-shoot)
I got tired of the beach one day, so decided to hike inland and check out the flora. I come upon this guy while walking through the hip-tall grass.
Location: Grande Riviere, Trinidad
Lens used: Canon 60mm f2.8 Macro
Though still incredibly endangered, the african Mountain Gorillas have much more in the way of advocacy than most species teetering on the brink. The money they bring in to the government's coffers, for example tends to keep them in the spotlight, somewhat.
Not all such endangered species are so lucky - most vanish away without anyone even knowing.
Humans are pretty much always to blame for such extinctions.
Please try to be a good human - at least acknowledge that we share this planet with other beings and creatures that deserve to live just as much as we do.
Location: Parc National des Volcans (Volcano National Park), Rwanda
Lens used: n/a (Canon S1 IS point-and-shoot)
Nearly all of the iguanas I've seen on my travels have been tree dwellers - are they all like that? - usually in swamps, where there is water below. This makes for a pretty easy escape path in case of danger - just drop out of the tree and into the water. That is what we had this day when we took a small boat out into the swamp and water channels. We heard the loud splashes of beasts ditching all around us.
After a few hours of hearing splashes, I was about to resign myself to not getting a single iguana photo when we came upon this guy. Unlike his iguana friends, he seemed okay with us maneuvering our little boat nearly under him, where I got my shot.
They're quite colorful, in a subdued sort of way.
Location: Los Llanos, Venezuela
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
The young kids at where we were staying were always keen to let us know if it was wise or not to touch any of the often amazing-looking caterpillars that we came across. Most were fine to do so.
This one, found crawling across our picnic table one afternoon, got a chorus of head shakes from the kids. We kept our hands to ourselves.
Location: Los Llanos, Venezuela
Lens used: Canon 60mm f2.8 Macro
A wild chimpanzee momma and baby watch me watch them.
Location: Budongo Forest Reserve, Uganda
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
No, I didn't mess up the photo's aspect ratio - Jackson's Hartebeest really do have such elongated heads and faces.
Location: Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Shaken, not stirred - an abstract look at a Warthog.
Save for the normal post-processing which all my photos receive, the effect on this image photo this isn't the result of any Photoshop trickery. It's actually from me trying to snap a photo from a moving safari jeep. Ordinarily a shot this blurred and distorted would have gotten deleted immediately, but the uniform shake on this one was enough to have caught my eye out in the field and I chose to save it. I'm glad I did for although its not a great wildlife shot, I've come to find it interesting and artistic all the same.
Location: Amboseli National Park, Kenya
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Though they don't look like any of the images of 'dung beetles' that I found on the web, they sure looked like 'em there on the ground rolling along a ball of dung. One beetle was crawling forward to roll the ball underneath itself and the other was crawling backward to propel the ball away from itself.
It was one of the more unusual examples of evolution I'd seen. Very cool.
Location: Hampi, India
Lens used: Canon 28-135mm f3.5-5.6 IS
There was a whole troop of monkeys climbing around this particular road-side rest stop surviving on the refuse that all the bus passengers and drivers, in typical Indian style, just threw out. The whole scene was pretty gross, actually.
My shot of this young monkey misses all that, though. You can imagine that it's an idyllic wilderness scene instead.
Location: Kodaikanal, India
Lens used: Canon 28-135mm f3.5-5.6 IS
Capybaras are the largest rodents in the world. Yes, rodents. Think cute guinea pig, rather than sewer rat or house mouse. I recall having a guinea pig when I was quite young, named "Ralph". He wasn't very cuddly. Kinda like a wild capybara, I suppose...though I've read that it isn't unheard of for capybara to be domesticated and made into pets. Now THAT could be interesting!
I don't know if this photo is of a male and female or simply of two same-gendered capybara of differing size.
I know I'm a little front-focused in this shot. I'm hoping it doesn't distract too much.
Location: Los Llanos, Venezuela
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Water Buffalo are extremely common all across southern Asia. Though primarily beasts of burden, they are also commodities - a sign of wealth, a secure investment, part of a wedding dowry.
Photographically, they're very similar to cows - pretty boring. But for some reason, I really like the look this one's giving me.
Location: Ba Bể National Park, Vietnam
Lens used: Canon 24-105mm f4.0 IS
A freshly-emerged baby leatherback turtle squirms in my pudgy fingers. The little guys' flippers were remarkably strong.
He and his clutch-mates were taken to the local turtle center where they'd be safe until they could be released into the sea.
Location: Grande Riviere, Trinidad
Lens used: Canon 28-135mm f3.5-5.6 IS
