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Marty’s photo of the day #5220: Twenty-two years ago, when Deb and I backpacked across Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe, we witnessed a lot of copulation—from elephants to baboons to tsetse flies. There were also a few babies, such as this baby chacma baboon in his mother’s arms, while his dad—reminiscent of a certain […]
Marty’s photo of the day #5219: I was photographing orca whales off the coast of Vancouver Island when I saw this boat, so low in the water that it barely looked seaworthy. I snapped this picture and then returned my attention to the whales. Later, when I viewed it on my computer, I laughed because […]
Marty’s photo of the day #5214: Deb and I will be returning to Costa Rica this coming spring. We’ll be staying at the same place we stayed at when I wrote my second book, Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico. This morning, as I was deciding […]
“The Tormentor of Nellie.” When Deb and I traveled to Vancouver Island in early September, we did so with a bit of trepidation. When we planned the trip months earlier, we thought our dog, Nellie, would be fully recovered from the TPLO surgery to give her a second bionic leg. Unfortunately, the X-ray showed that […]
Three years ago, Nellie got a bionic left-rear leg (TPLO surgery to replace the CCL ligament in her knee with a metal plate and six screws). Then, earlier this year, she blew out the CCL in her right-rear leg. That meant surgery to give her a second bionic leg. Her first surgery healed in about […]
How much photo editing is too much for a nature shot? Ansel Adams heavily altered and improved his photos in the darkroom, famously viewing the photographic negative as a musical score and the final darkroom print as the performance. As for me, I have traditionally come down on the side of getting my images 90 […]
I’m seldom shy about speaking out, but I’ve held back on commenting about what has happened in Gaza. My reasoning is simple. I have numerous Jewish friends that I don’t want to lose. In high school, many of the friends I hung out with were Jewish; when I worked in radio several of my favorite […]
When I was six years old and shot my first roll of film, I photographed a bunch of feet. When my dad saw the photos, he threatened to take my camera away. He just didn’t understand what it meant to be creative. Now, as a wildlife photographer, I still love creating uncommon shots—sometimes even feet. […]
Yesterday, I wrote about Deb’s and my adventure of having to share one of our two favorite Vancouver Island campsites with a Canadian man and his stepson who blasted music and video games at 107 decibels in their tent until well after midnight. This post is about our other favorite campsite, right on the Johnstone […]
Marty’s photo of the day #5170: I watched this great blue heron for parts of three days. She was the only great blue heron hanging out on the gravel beach in front of Deb’s and my Johnstone Strait campsite. The heron was particularly interesting to watch when the tide came in. She ruled a spit […]
When Deb and I explored Vancouver Island three years ago, we found two incredible campsites to pitch our tent at: one on the Johnstone Strait, and one on the Tsitika River. When we returned to Vancouver Island earlier this month, we hoped to return to both of those remote campsites as well as explore new […]
Marty’s photo of the day #5168: Of all the many highlights of Deb’s and my Vancouver Island visit, the moments around the time I shot this photo were my favorite. We had pitched our tent at a remote campsite on the Johnstone Strait, and, like the two previous mornings, I got up before sunrise hoping […]
Marty’s photo of the day #5167: The salmon were running in a river near one of Deb’s and my campsites on Vancouver Island. Most of the time I carried two cameras: my Canon R7 with a telephoto lens for distant shots, and my all-in-one Olympus Tough TG-7 for wide-angle and macro shots. I hadn’t planned […]
Marty’s photo of the day #5166: Deb and I have traveled all seven continents looking for rare and interesting wildlife and have seen creatures that look like they should be from another planet. These pelagic gooseneck barnacles, which Deb found as we were walking a beach on Vancouver Island, are the strangest creatures we’ve ever […]
Marty’s photo of the day #5165: Deb, Nellie, and I just completed three nights at what may be the most awesome campsite in North America. We found a private, one-tent-campsite right on the Johnstone Strait in the northern region of Vancouver Island. From our private beach, we watched numerous bird species, a sea lion, a […]
Marty’s photo of the day #5161: The last time Deb, Nellie, and I visited Port Hardy on the northern tip of Vancouver Island, the many raptors cruising the tidal plain were the highlight of our stay. This time they are even better. Yesterday, I photographed a pair of adult bald eagles and this immature bald […]
Nellie is chilling after a hard day. She got attacked by a swarm of yellowjackets, twice! Today Deb, Nellie, and I scouted the gravel roads at the top of Vancouver Island, looking for possible tent camping sites. The gravel roads there become intimidating quickly, as they pass through dense temperate rainforest, branch off here and […]
I had high hopes that Nellie’s second bionic leg would be ready to engage at warp 9 as of this week. She had TPLO surgery on her right-rear leg eight weeks ago (to remove a ligament, refit the knee bone, and install a metal plate with six screws). Since this is Nellie’s second bionic leg, […]
Marty’s photo of the day #5132: In nine days, Nellie gets the final X-ray on her second bionic leg (she had TPLO surgery seven weeks ago) and, if all goes well, she will once again be off-leash and free to race through the forest at warp-nine. For now, she covers every inch of the Essen […]
I took Nellie out for a walk this afternoon and routed us past where I had seen a nighthawk multiple times. All of a sudden mother nighthawk blasted out from under a pine tree and did her wounded bird act. At the same time, her chick flew off in the opposite direction. I moved away, […]
