Day #2 of Seven Marty Essen Books in Seven Days, featured in order of publication. We continue with the four-time award-winning Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico. “Join photographer extraordinaire Marty Essen and his intrepid wife Deb on their adventures through four Endangered Edens. You’ll be […]
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Tag: Exploring
The untouched first book cover photo
Marty’s photo of the day #4620: For my final picture of the year, I’m posting the untouched photo for the cover of the First Edition of my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents. That’s a tailless whip scorpion on my face, and my wife, Deb, shot the photo in the Amazon […]
The brown blunt-headed vine snake
Marty’s photo of the day #4439: The following short excerpt takes place in Costa Rica and is from my second book, Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico: With flashlights in hand and rubber boots on our feet (to protect against snakebites), we started down a trail […]
Amazon outtake
Marty’s photo of the day #4202: This is an outtake from the photoshoot for the cover of my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents. Yes, that is a real tailless whip scorpion on my forehead. They are mostly harmless, but having them crawl all over my face for the photoshoot tickled. […]
Just how big is a hippo’s mouth?
Marty’s photo of the day #4068: Can an entire canoe fit sideways into a hippo’s mouth? I took this photo in Zimbabwe shortly after my wife, Deb, and I proved—yes, it most definitely can! For those who don’t already know the story, here’s an excerpt from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the […]
Whip-scorpion photo shoot
Marty’s photo of the day #3978: For the cover of the first edition of my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, my wife, Deb, took over two hundred photos of me with tailless whip-scorpions crawling up my face. Even though we switched covers after the first edition sold out, traveling back […]
The Red Ape Trail begins here
Marty’s photo of the day #3940: This is the waterfall Deb and I had to climb up alongside to begin our epic backpacking trip with the Iban tribe in Borneo. The two of us were only the third outsiders to ever hike the Red Ape Trail (an old Iban hunting trail). Our adventure included losing […]
Villefranche de Conflent
Marty’s photo of the day #3710: Let’s take a peek through the wall of an ancient walled city in France. The following excerpt from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, further explains what you are seeing: We retrieved our car, drove back into France, and spent the rest of Sunday […]
Zebra longwing butterfly
Marty’s photo of the day #3217: I photographed this zebra longwing butterfly in the Everglades. A slightly different version of this photo appears in my second book, Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico.
Lost in Spain
Marty’s photo of the day #3030: This is one of the many mountain villages Deb and I drove past while exploring northern Spain for the Europe chapter of Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents. If I remember correctly, we were lost when I took this photo. Then again, we just needed to make […]
Athabasca River Elk
Marty’s photo of the day #3011: I’m so glad I no longer use film cameras! I used film cameras for about half of my travels for my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, before forever switching to digital. The bitch about film is that if something went wrong, I wouldn’t know […]
Did I cut the wrong one?
Marty’s photo of the day #2967: As I was finishing up the Costa Rica chapter in my second book, Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico, I had to pick one of two Hecale longwing butterfly photos. This is the shot that got cut. Thinking about it […]
Zebra longwing butterfly
Marty’s photo of the day #2879: I originally featured this picture in my second book, “Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico.” It’s a zebra longwing butterfly, photographed the Everglades.
The feet tell the story
Marty’s photo of the day #2846: Why am I posting a photo of Deb’s and my feet? If you’ve read my first book, “Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents,” you know. We were only the third outsiders to ever hike deep into a section of Borneo’s rainforest. We lost our guide halfway through […]
Gold for Catholic priests in Madrid
Marty’s photos of the day #2756: This week I’m featuring Catholic-related photos I shot in Italy and Spain. While visiting both countries, I thoroughly enjoyed all the opulent Catholic sights. That being said, how can a religion based on a book whose main character railed against the rich, turn around and waste so much money […]
Terns, terns, terns
Marty’s photo of the day #2726: Here’s a photo from my second book, Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico: Terns in the Sea of Cortez (Mexico).
Which is better: nonfiction or fiction?
Most book authors either write nonfiction or fiction. I started out with nonfiction, publishing Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents in 2006 and following up with Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico in 2016. After that I switched to fiction, publishing Time Is Irreverent in 2018 […]
The world’s most beautiful brown bird
Marty’s photo of the day #2712: Of all the totally brown birds in the world, squirrel cuckoos get my vote for the most beautiful. I took this photo in Costa Rica. This image can also be found in my second book, “Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto […]
Oh, you’re venomous. Don’t bite!
Marty’s photo of the day #2691: In this photo from Costa Rica, I’m holding a brown blunt-headed vine snake. The snake is rear-fanged-venomous, but not deadly. Besides, why would such a cute little thing want to bite me? Actually, just like the venomous cute little banded coral snake from Borneo that actually did bite me, […]
Long-billed hermit
Marty’s photo of the day #2531: I photographed this long-billed hermit in Costa Rica. This photo also appears in my book, “Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico.”