James River, Virginia (3/13)

Spent yesterday afternoon with some of the members of my photo club.  We had a great time.  We went out on a pontoon boat had some special opportunities with both the Bald Eagles and Ospreys.  Blue Skies.

Kenya (3/13)

Lead a group of photographers to Kenya this month.  I could not have traveled with a better group of people.  Our photo opportunities were special.  As you can see with the above and below images, the lion circumstances were amazing. 

Great surprise when I was photographing this Cape Buffalo and a group of Red-billed Oxpeckers arrived and began to quarrel on the guys' head.  

When photographing this pair of Zebras, like the Oxpeckers, they also had a confrontation.  Lucky to capture the instant when one jumped in the air to bite at the other. 

Sometimes the first morning light in the Mara, during the dry season with the dust, can create some unique images shooting into the light.  In this photo you see a running Wildebeest calf. 

Some of the best Elephant photo situations we had were in Amboseli National Park.  Below are two sunset images.  The light rays provided a nice look to the photos.  In the second one, it appears as if the Elephant is bowing down to pay homage to Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background.

Two of my favorite bird images from the trip.  What you see are an African Fish Eagle and a Grey-headed Kingfisher.

Funny expression from this baby Vervet Monkey.

On our last night of the tour, we saw this storm headed in our direction.  The locals refer to it as "black rain".  

Lots more images over on the web site if you are interested.  Blue Skies.

Florida (1/13)

I spent some time with family and friends in Florida in January.  Went to one of my favorite locations, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, for a few days with my buds to photograph.  In the past, I have seen glimpses or the rear end of a Bobcat running away.  This trip things were different.  We were on the tour road at sunrise one morning and stopped to chat with some new friends.  They mentioned that they had just seen a Bobcat cross onto an island.  As a group we waited, in hopes that the Bobcat would exit the island and provide a photo opportunity.  Well, lo and behold, after about two hours, he decided to walk off the island into the water and cross the tour road.  The eye contact and reflection in the soft light was special.  Good times! 

New Mexico (12/12)

I had hoped to post trip photos before now, my apologies. Made my winter annual trek to New Mexico, to the Bosque Del Apache NWR, with friends. It is as much a social thing as a photo trip. The photo opportunities were great this year from both a lighting and opportunity aspect. On the above image, the sunset light on the reeds as snow geese were coming in was perfect. No juicing the yellows here, this is just the way it looked. The below sandhill and geese photos are typical of what you can photograph at the crane pools and observation deck lake this year.

I was certainly pleased with these flight shots of the pintails at one of the pools along the refuge loop.

The waterfowl opportunities in town were the best yet. Knowing where to go and spending the time, resulted in some special wood duck images. How about the second photo of the hen grooming the male and his "Ah shucks" look.

Here are some other favorites from the trip (American Widgeon-1&2, Ringed-neck-3 & Hooded Merganser-4)

Blue skies and great histograms.

The Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia (10/12)

Visiting the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia, Canada was on my list of places to see and photograph in my lifetime. We were able to have several special bear photo opportunities.The above and below Grizzly Bear sow and cub were some of my favorites. In the below image, the sow and cub were in the alert status due to an approaching male.

We had several Black Bear opportunities as well. This bear jumped in and grabbed the spawned chum salmon seen pictured.

Most of the bears were not shy. This Grizzly feasted on a spawned salmon as we drifted by in our zodiac.

One of the main photo goals was to see and hopefully photograph a Spirit or Kermode Bear. The Spirit Bears only reside on an island off the coast of British Columbia. As you can see from the below images, they are cream color. They are a subspecies of the American Black Bear, not an albino, but a color morph, due to recessive gene. We were a tad apprehensive since we did not see this guy, until the last day and the last two hours of the trip. Although not a killer shot, just seeing one of these rare bears is special and now removed from my bucket list. He was browsing on a mountain side when and feeding on mussels when these photos was captured.

In addition to the bears we also had some great humpback whale opportunities. In the top below image you can see some bubble feeding. Humpbacks use their baleen (like a strainer in their mouths, rather than teeth) to capture krill or small fish. In the middle whale of the image, the baleen can be seen (beige/brown stringy looking stuff) to the right and left of the pink roof of mouth. What happened here, just before humpbacks emerging up out of the water, were herding whales under the school of fish, releasing bubbles to confuse and bunch the fish together. The whales next surge up with their mouths open. The lower jaw actually distends and the mouth collects a huge mouthful of water, then spits it out, straining the krill/fish through its baleen to remain and be eaten. If you look closely at this image, you can see some fish just to the right of the lower jaw jumping up above the water. The water gushing out of the blowhole in the second image came out nicely with a clean background.

Lots more images over on the web site. Blue Skies.

Southwest Florida (9/12)

Made a quick trip down to visit family in the Naples area of Florida a couple of weeks ago. I was able to sneak out for two mornings and evenings to photograph. On one evening, I was very fortunate to meet up with fellow blogger and avian photographer extraordinaire, Bob Pelkey. Bob was kind, teaching me all about one of his favorite locations, Bunche Beach Preserve. We enjoyed walking out into the water, shooting back towards the shoreline, a comfortable distance from the birds. Locating and being able to photograph the above Reddish Egret was special. What was even more special was finding the Reddish Egret morph, in the flying image below.

In addition to the Reddish Egrets, being able to photograph the Roseate Spoonbills at close proximity and in good light was a bonus as well. If you look closely at the second image below, you can see a shrimp in between the bill.

Not one of my favorite species to photograph is the White Ibis. They are a common species in Florida. Posted these because I liked the unique flying positions.

Black Skimmers are always fun and challenging to photograph. As you can see, in the top image below, I was able to get very close as he came in skimming for a meal.

The below Blue Heron flew really close while I down low photographing a Godwit.

The family went over and had dinner on Sanibel Island one evening. We stopped at a few beach locations. I was able to capture these birds (Reddish & Snowy Egret) feeding on bait fish.

Two evening sunset silhouettes to finish off the post. The top is a of a Blue Heron with the Sanibel Bridge in the background and the second, a White Ibis.

More trip images, if interested, over on my web site. Blue Skies.