My absolute favorite wildlife encounter in the Pantanal was with a central South American endemic Crab-Eating Fox (Cerdocyon thous). I had left the group behind in the safari vehicle on the road to try and close in on some jabiru in the marsh on foot. I was creeping about, camera + lens in hand, when suddenly, I saw her staring at me through the marsh vegetation. I froze. After a few moments, I realized that it seemed that while she sensed something, she could not actually see me: she kept sniffing Read more [...]

A jacare (Caiman yacare) in the placid backwater of quiet creek in the Southern Pantanals, Brazil.

Love these birds! More Sandhill Cranes from the kayak. This time I deliberately avoiding going too close to where I last saw the nesting pair, and instead hit a different area of the marsh. Here I stumbled upon a colony of 8-10 individuals. (The one on the right seems to be complaining about its day to the others, who are all dutifully listening, The middle one has completely zoned out, though, and is daydreaming about cornfields while waiting for the rant to end.) Read more [...]

AMAZING experience! So, I was using my kayak to stalk a Great Blue Heron in the marshes at the other end of the lake behind our house and the guy kept drifting deeper and deeper into the marsh, till I could not follow any more (less than a 10th of an inch water, and chock full of vegetation; next time, I am getting a push pole!). So I turn around to head back, when I see these guys almost right next to me! A pair of Sandhill Cranes. AWESOME!!! I spent a while photographing them, watching them alternative Read more [...]

Probably one of the first things that you will learn with photography is that, contrary to popular belief, the “camera” does not “see” (or, rather, perceive) in the same way that you do. Your neuro-optical system represents an extremely sophisticated image acquisition and processing system that filters, modulates, integrates and synthesizes a broad complex of environmental information. It processes not only light input through your visual system, but other inputs through your other sensors, such Read more […]