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Sunset Seascape
Photographer: Jonas Janss Haugli
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On a late summer evening on Norway’s southwest coast, I was hiking back from a lighthouse when the last light began to fade. The sky had been overcast all evening, but I kept hoping the sun would break through at the very end. And, just as I was about to give up, it did.
Warm light spilled across the clouds, contrasting with the blue mountains in shadow. Now I needed a motive; The seagulls were there, but never where I wanted them to be. So I turned to ICM. First capturing a gull flying behind me zoomed in, then the mountains and glowing clouds in front of me, zoomed out whilst moving the camera to create a soft and painterly image capturing the contrasting colours of this sunset seascape.
1.3 seconds • f/13 • ISO 200 • Nikon Z6III • 105mm (varying through the exposure) • Nikon Z 28-400mm
Water on a Ducks Back
Photographer: Simon Runting
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I love photographing these small diving ducks in the rain. The New Zealand scaup seems to attract rain drops like a magnet and they cling to their feathers like beads. The only downside is I'm constantly getting soaked.
1/1000 • f/5.6 • ISO 1000 • Sony A1ii • 840mm • Sony 600mm f4 with 1.4xTC
Great Salt Bunting
Lazuli Buntings are fairly abundant, but they can be surprisingly challenging to photograph as they’re usually singing high up in the treetops. For years, I’ve hoped to capture the vibrant blue and orange plumage of this beautiful bird. Finally, that day came and of all the images I captured, my favorite turned out to be a silhouette framed against the incredible colors of a Great Salt Lake sunset. This is a great reminder that when that dream bird finally appears, it’s worth experimenting with as many different techniques as possible. You never know which image will end up being your favorite.
1/3200 • f/6.3 • ISO 1250 • Canon R1 • 600mm • Canon RF 600mm f4
Flamingo Surprise
Photographer: Matt Bruce
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My wife and I visited Everglades National Park in October of last year and were treated to an incredible surprise while kayaking in a remote section of the park: a flock of 49 American Flamingos! These birds used to be seen in South Florida by the thousands prior to about the year 1900, but the plume trade and habitat degradation led to the eradication of the species in Florida, save for a spattering of transient records here and there. However, in August of 2023 hurricane Idalia passed between Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula where migrating American Flamingos got swept up in the storm. Idalia continued northeast to make landfall in Florida. Then continued across the Southeast before moving out to sea near the southern border of North Carolina. As the storm moved it deposited flamingos. In the days and weeks following the storm, these displaced birds were spotted in 18 states throughout the East and the Midwest! As time went on most of these birds made their way south but a few nomadic flocks remain along the Gulf Coast. In fact, a survey conducted in February of last year counted 101 flamingos in Florida. It’s wild to think we stumbled across almost half the state’s population.
1/500 • f/7.1 • ISO 1000 • Canon R6 Mark II • 223mm • Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1
Whiteclaw
Photographer: Maxime Legare-Vezina
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An intimate look at a beautiful brown bear resting in shallow water, with a striking little detail, some rare white claws.
1/640 • f/4.5 • ISO 800 • Canon R5II • 400mm • Canon RF400mm 2.8
Great Horned Owl, Hanna, Alberta
Photographer: Rain Saulnier
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A Great Horned Owl posing on a fence post with one of the main electrical transmission lines for the province of Alberta running north-south in the distance.
1/500 • f/8 • ISO 1000 • Canon R10 • 371mm • Canon 200-800 f6.3-9
Northern Gannet Streaks
Photographer: Ray Hennessy
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This was my first time ever really pushing into longer exposure ICM bird in flight shots of a Northern Gannet. I took this one at 1/2 second exposure and right after I pressed the shutter button I panned the camera to the right in front of the bird so the streaks would trail behind it. This is definitely a technique I want to try more of in the future and I was glad to get a bunch of clients trying it as well during the workshop.
.4 seconds • f/40 • ISO 32 • Nikon Z9 • 320mm • Nikon Z 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6
Parallel
Red Knots are notorious for moving in groups, so getting just two in a clean composition meant a lot of patient waiting. When it finally happened, the image was good, but the crop is what gave it the drama. Pulling in tight on that band of blue and letting the negative space breathe below them is what turned a nice shot into the one I wanted.
1/1000 • f/6.3 • ISO 2000 • Canon R5MII • 600mm • Canon EF USM III 600 f/4
City Lights
Photographer: Heiko Herrmann
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When fall arrives, you can photograph spiders in the city centers here in the Ruhr region in Germany—especially in places where there are lots of lights and, consequently, lots of insects. The distinctive body shape of cross spiders lends itself perfectly to creative shots, and I particularly enjoy using the city lights as a backdrop, positioning the spider in front of one of the blurred lights in the frame, and focusing on the atmosphere and the vibrant colors of the city.
1/150 • f/1.4 • ISO 800 • -3.3EV • Fujifilm X-H2S • 33mm • Fujinon XF 33mm f/1.4
On the Fence
Photographer: Ed Dailey
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I saw this Burrowing Owl on a fence post before sunrise and was able to line up the foreground posts to obscure most of the post detail in the owl's focal plane.
1/100 • f/4 • ISO 2500 • Sony A1ii • 600mm • Sony 600mm F4
Striped Stalker
Photographer: James Ferrara
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A striped marlin rushes in to feed on a sardine bait ball. The speed and precision of these predators is amazing to witness.
1/800 • f/5.6 • ISO 1250 • Sony A7rV • 36mm • Sony 28-70mm F3.5-5.0
Kids Being Kids
Photographer: Jacob Begis
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Mountain goat kids are born with an innate ability to climb. It was a lot of fun to watch this pair confidently scramble around the rocks, without straying too far from their mother
1/1000 • f/2.8 • ISO 800 • Sony A1 • 200mm • Sony 70-200mm F/2.8
The Next Stage
Photographer: Matt Poole
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One of the many benefits of working with wildlife is witnessing major events in an individual's life. While monitoring 17 Great Gray Owl nests this year, I witnessed nest failure, death of adults and young, nests fledging three young, and nests fledging only one.
For this particular baby, she was the second of two nestlings to jump the nest and enter the next stage in her young life. Unable to fly for the next few weeks, she'll use her innate skills to survive. This period is called the Branching Stage. Young owls will often find themselves on the forest floor after leaving the nest. From there, the only place to go is up. For the first day, they might find themselves climbing tree stumps and fallen trees. They will quickly learn to use their sharp talons and beak to climb even the most vertical of trees into the safety of elevation.
Having jumped the nest only hours earlier, this young owl found herself halfway up the remnants of an old-growth coniferous tree - the rotting root system rising from the ground. Later on, she'll flap and hop through the vegetation on the floor to find a suitable tree to climb and ascend into the canopy.
1/160 • f/3.2 • ISO 1000 • Nikon Z9 • 24mm • Nikon Z 24-70mm f/2.8
Prothonotary Swamp
Photographer: Joe Fasig
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This spring, I set a goal to create a series of photographs that showcased the Prothonotary Warbler and its habitat. One image I had envisioned was a panorama with the warbler perched at its nesting cavity in the middle of a swamp.
Getting that shot took multiple trips to a patch of ideal Prothonotary habitat about an hour and a half from home. The first couple of visits were spent learning their territory. Once I had a good sense of where the pair's boundaries were, I started searching for nest cavities and patiently waiting to see if they were actually being used. Eventually, I got lucky and found one.
On my next trip, I set up a remote trigger on my camera and settled in to wait, enduring tons of mosquito bites. Eventually, everything came together, and I captured the warbler at the cavity. As soon as it flew off, I photographed a series of images for the panorama.
The fieldwork was only half the challenge. Stitching the images together turned out to be much harder than I expected, even with Lightroom and Photoshop's automatic panorama tools. It ultimately took a combination of Lightroom's auto stitch and a lot of manual work in Photoshop to get the final image.
I originally hoped to show even more of the surrounding swamp, but the distortion from rotating the camera made the panorama difficult to stitch cleanly. When I included too much of the scene, the warbler became lost in the composition. In the end, I settled on an image that probably could have been achieved simply by backing the camera up a little. Even so, I'm really happy with both the final result and everything that went into creating it.
1/250 • f/4 • ISO 3200 • Canon R5 • 63mm • EF 24-70 f/2.8L II
Golden Reverie
Photographer: Ganapathi Ram R S
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Abstract image of a Barasingha (Swamp Deer), captured with a donut bokeh reflex lens using a defocus technique.
1/200 • f/5.6 • ISO 50 • EV -.3 • Sony A7iv • 250mm • TTArtisan 250mm f/5.6 Reflex
Common Yellowthroat on a Mossy Snag
This mossy snag is on the edge of a seasonal wetland which supports many species in the winter, spring and early summer. While Yellowthroats are quite common here, this was the first time I observed this species on a clean perch.
1/800 • f/2.8 • ISO 800 • Sony A1 • 200mm • Sony 70-200mm F/2.8
Emperor Pair
Photographer: Matthew Sullivan
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A pair of emperor shrimp hitch a ride on the flank of a sea cucumber. The shrimps will live their entire lives going wherever the sea cucumber decides.
1/200 • f/10 • ISO 100 • Nikon Z9 • 60mm • Nikon 60mm Macro
Sunset Glider
This year was my fifth time in Newfoundland and spending time at this incredible Northern Gannet colony! Each year I try to capture something a little different and usually have a differnt lens to play with. This year it was the 14-30mm lens. Last year I had fun playing with the ultra-wide 10mm lens but so often it was just too wide and the subject far too small. It doesn't sound much different to shoot at 14mm but at those focal ranges it is quite a difference. So here I am sharing my first Northern Gannet gliding through a foggy sky at sunset with some white flowers in the foreground shot at 14mm. To clarify this bird was flying about 5-7 ft. overhead, they still have to get really close to show up any decent size!
1/1250 • f/5.6 • ISO 140 • Nikon Z9 • 14mm • Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4
The Power of Light
Photographer: Rick Hesterberg
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Backlighting of the Bison and the many layers of mountains and sky represents the essence of Alaska's golden hour(s).Photo taken at 2-am.
1/250 • f/4.5 • ISO 125 • Nikon Z8 • 165mm • Nikon Z 70-200/2.8S
Common Loon
Photographer: Brad James
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Being able to lay along the edge of this pond as mist rises from the water and the sounds of a pair of loons fills the air is simply magical. Here a framed up one of the loons and placing it higher in the frame allowed me to show off the painterly reflections of the spruce trees above.
1/200 • f/5 • ISO 1000 • Nikon Z9 • 210mm • Nikon Z 100-400mm F4.5-5.6
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