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Here’s the Story of Buddy, as told in my 6th book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer: Four years after that, Lucy was still going strong, albeit with the help of a daily pain pill and glucosamine tablet. That’s when a third dog, Buddy, adopted us. I had known Buddy […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4551: I photographed these baby orangutans while hiking alone at night on the island of Borneo. They’d been rescued from some shitty thing humans did and then escaped the good humans who would eventually release them into the wild. I made sure they reached safety.
Marty’s photo of the day #4549: In my book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer, I write about a hippo biting through Deb’s and my canoe, throwing us onshore, and us laughing about it afterward. For the critic who doubted we actually laughed—here’s proof.
Marty’s photo of the day #4548: In my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, I wrote about Antarctica, and the strict rules we had about not approaching any animal closer than 15 feet. The animals, however, could approach as close as they wanted to.
Marty’s photo of the day #4515: Anyone who has read my first book, published in 2007, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, knows that I didn’t get along well with water. That changed in 2016, when Deb and I snorkeled with sea lions and octopuses in the Sea of Cortez. Better equipment combined […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4498: As far as I know, my father was devoid of creativity. When I was six years old, I got a Diana camera and promptly filled the first roll of film with nothing but photos of feet. My father scolded me and threatened to take the camera away. Perhaps that’s […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4496: When Deb and I visited the island of Bonaire earlier this month, we enjoyed 26 hour-long snorkels. I fell in love with above-water wildlife photography many years ago, but all those snorkels made me passionate about underwater wildlife photography, too. It’s incredibly challenging, as underwater creatures never stop moving. […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4493: Deb and I have returned from 13 wonderful days on the island of Bonaire, surrounded by 2 travel days getting there and 2 travel days getting home. All of them bookended by a hurricane hitting Texas, just a day after we had a connecting flight in Dallas, and a […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4488: If I could figure out a way to bring this mother and her foal back to Montana with me, I would! Humans brought donkeys to Bonaire in the 1600s to perform manual labor. Later, machines replaced the donkeys, and they were abandoned to roam the island. Wild donkeys have […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4487: Yesterday, Deb and I drove to the northern end of Bonaire for a second visit of Washington-Slagbaai National Park. At midday, we found an out-of-the-way picnic table and enjoyed a delightful lunch, accompanied by thirty or so blauw-blauw (six-inch-long whiptail lizards with bright blue tails). The blauw-blauw obviously knew […]
Deb and I had another outstanding day on the island of Bonaire. First, we went to Washington-Slagbaai National Park on the north end of the island. We had intended to visit the two springs in the park that attract birds, but we didn’t have the luck we had the last time we were there. Today, […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4458: So, I must admit that I was torn last night. Many months ago, I bought tickets for Deb (wife), Sean (son), and me to attend the Pearl Jam concert in Missoula. But last night also turned out to be Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech, which I really wanted to see. […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4452: My wife, Deb Essen, is one of America’s premier master weavers, and she has a three-book deal with Schiffer Publishing. My first two books, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents” and “Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico, feature […]
Marty’s photos of the day #4827-4831: On this date, four years ago, Deb and I adopted Nellie from the Bitter Root Humane Association. She was a stray, approximately 10 months old, weighing just 42 pounds. She now weighs 63 pounds, which is down from a peak of 70 pounds, after three months of inactivity due […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4808: Deb and I are back from spending four nights in a yurt on the American Prairie. Formerly called the American Prairie Reserve, it currently contains 475,000 acres of pristine prairie in central Montana, and the nonprofit organization that controls it has a goal of eventually acquiring enough land to […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4783: Here’s a “making of” photo, showing what Deb Essen and I were doing earlier this week. One of the cool ideas Deb came up with for her weaving instruction books is to photograph her completed projects “in the wilds of Montana.” And as her photographer-husband, I get to shoot […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4781: The short story of Deb and me moving to Montana is that we had rented a cabin from a friend-of-a-friend on the East Fork of the Bitterroot River at the far southern end of the Bitterroot Valley. It was 1992, and we were driving home to Minneapolis after renting […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4779: At the Essen Wildlife Refuge (i.e. the 25 protected-for-wildlife acres where my wife and I live) we have an upper and lower level. The lower level is lush forest with a seasonal pond. Since we moved to Montana, in 1996, that pond has filled itself every spring and emptied […]
During my April college speaking tour, I read “The Art of Racing in the Rain” by Garth Stein. It’s a novel about a golden retriever, Enzo, and his race-car-driving human. Enzo reminded me of Max, a golden retriever Deb and I had as our first dog after we got married. Yes, all dog books and […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4735: This photo shows Nellie keeping me company last fall on Vancouver Island. When Nellie joined our family, she was a skinny rescue dog, weighing just 42 pounds. She also had what appeared to be a burn on one of her legs. Yesterday, I wrote about Annie, a rescue dog, […]
