Animal Portraits

 

Unlike fur seals that want to murder you, southern elephant seals exhibit zero aggression to people. This one was just curious and friendly about this stranger on its beach.

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. I think that's true for wildlife photography as well. 

Please enjoy some of my favorite animal portraits.

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A baby leopard rests along a riverbank while hunting with its sibling and mom. I got to spend an hour following these three leopards along the Shingwedzi River one morning on my first trip to Kruger National Park. It was the highlight of my visit.

A silverback gorilla nibbles termites from a log in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Its almond eyes were deeply shaded by its dark fur, but I could see him watching me as intently as I was watching him.

A Cape buffalo doesn't look — it glares. Quick to anger and built to win an argument, buffalo are among the most dangerous animals in Africa. His menace unmistakable.

A lesser violetear was a fantastic photo subject in Costa Rica's cloud forests. This one defended a bird feeder at the visitor center, giving me great looks all day.

A zebra's facial stripes are askew from scars that healed. No doubt, the zebra had a close encounter with the raking claws of a lion and lived to tell the tale. Today it is the band stallion for its herd.

A hippo is 8,000 pounds of aggression on Uganda's Nile River. 

I never get tired of seeing the little bandit faces of raccoons.

Kruger is home to 165,000 impala. They are so common that it's easy to overlook them. But this regal impala buck shows why that would be a mistake.

Adorable hyena? This hyena pup popped her head out of her den one morning while waiting for breakfast. She wouldn't have to wait long. Her dad brought back a francolin hen.

A big male fur seal bellows on the beach at South Georgia. The breeding season means the males are constantly fighting each other. Look at those teeth!

The golden eyes of a lioness peer back from under a bush on the Maasai Mara. Beautiful!

I never saw so many bald eagles as I found in Homer, Alaska. I watched the sunrise with this one from my campsite on the beach.

A cormorant has eyes like emeralds.

A rotund black bear stares back from a creek in North Carolina. She spent all morning devouring corn on the cob until the hot sun forced her to seek shade. The Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge has the world's largest black bears. This one easily clocked more than 300 pounds.

A white rhino is backlighted in the morning sun in Kruger. During my visits, I saw lots of white rhinos. But sadly poaching has decimated the population here. Now most visitors never see one. The park even took the extreme step of relocating some of them to safer parks.

A pretty coyote hunts the scrub at Point Reyes National Seashore. My friend called her the Mona Lisa of coyotes. That seems right.

A shy black bear peeks out of the undergrowth at the Alligator River. The little bear made sure the coast was clear to venture out for a night of feeding on soybeans and corn.

A bull bison has a pine garland in its fur in Yellowstone National Park. The bison was resting atop a mountain road.

A painted dog makes eye contact while its pack naps away the afternoon in Kruger. I found the pack in the same patch of forest on three consecutive days. 

A coatimundi peers back from its rainforest ledge near Arenal Volcano.

A nomadic lion stares back after spending an hour eating its fill of a zebra it killed in the night. The old lion is in the twilight of its life.

An elephant bull dozes under a tree. I was able to get this unusual high perspective from a bridge. 

A northern elephant seal bull bellows on a California beach. I spent several days with these amazing animals, hoping to capture the epic battles between the males. But most of the time, they just make a lot of noise.

A little fawn hides in the tall grass at Fernald. I love those spotty deer!

A lioness is backlighted in the setting sun in Samburu, Kenya. These were the biggest lions I have ever seen.

A baby fur seal cries for its mom in the tussock grass on South Georgia. The adult seals follow the sounds to reunite with their babies after their fishing trips.

A juvenile mountain gorilla makes eye contact in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

Warthogs are part of Kruger's Ugly Five, which includes the wildebeest, marabou stork, hyena and vulture. But who doesn't love the plucky warthog?

A grizzly digs up roots in a snowstorm in Denali National Park. They get their name from their wet fur.