This is a climber on a ”Via Ferrata” on the side of Ajax Mountain high above the town of Telluride, Colorado. That’s the famous Bridal Veil falls in the background.

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Tube anemone.

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This is one of our friendly neighborhood leopard sharks, cruising the shallows under our pier. They are in particular abundance in our bay right now, with as many as 100 cruising the shallows at any given time. These sharks are extremely docile, and typically very skittish around divers, but they took quite an interest when I brought some fish into the water with me. You can see that video here: Leopard Sharks in Toyon Bay. Make sure to up the quality!

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…and giant he was. This fish was about 5 feet long, weighing in around 200 pounds at least, and quite possibly more than that. Pretty impressive growth, eh?

I love the thumbnail of this photo because it’s so sharp and beautiful - because of the murkiness of the water, the sharpness is lost at full size. Too bad.

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This charismatic fish is making a comeback in the waters around Catalina after being driven almost to extinction by fishing pressure. It is now protected, and we’ve seen a few juveniles in the last few years, and many adults. I finally got a good picture this week of an adult, which I will post tomorrow, and that photo will show you how impressively large this little guy will grow. For scale, this little fella was about three inches long. Note the awesomely large black pelvic fins under him…

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An African elephant below the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater.

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This is a pretty standard scene in the Serengeti, as these Thomson’s gazelles are everywhere. Really, everywhere. Cute as buttons, too, those little guys.

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We saw a crocodile in this pool the day before I took this picture, and I was hoping to get a shot of a zebra getting taken down. However, pretty much immediately after I snapped this photo from the roof of our safari vehicle, I was ”arrested” by a park ranger for ”exposing myself”. A 50,000 shilling fine later ($40 USD), I was free to go, but I’ll never know if the croc got himself a snack or not. Such is life. And, incidentally, don’t climb on the roof of your car, because it’s illegal in Tanzanian national parks.

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If I have one photographic complaint about visiting the National Parks in Tanzania, it’s that you’re not allowed out of your car. This, naturally, means that you can’t hike (frustrating), but more importantly it minimizes the number of angles available for composing images. As a result, I was very excited whenever I could use my wide angle lens for a different type of photograph. This is one of those few situations where a wide angle shot really worked. These two hyenas stopped by for a drink and a swim in a beautiful landscape - perfect for wide angle.

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Vervet monkey, Lake Manyara, Tanzania.

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Back to Africa… the crowned cranes… in color.

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I thought it was time for a break from Africa…

This is a Hermissenda crassicornis nudibranch at my summer front porch dive site, Long Point. This was taken at about 65 feet.

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Wildebeest are the second fastest animals on the planet, next to cheetahs. Newborns can walk, and within a week, can run as fast as an adult - a very useful adaptation in a world full of lions, leopards, crocodiles, and hyenas…

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This is a Crowned Crane preening itself in the Serengeti. Their colors are outstanding, but I loved this one in black and white, because it takes a minute to figure out what is going on, and it allows for a deeper appreciation of the intricate feather patterns.

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I really hoped I would get a chance to see a cheetah, and while the lighting wasn’t perfect, I’m not complaining. This gal had caught a Thomson’s gazelle (we missed the capture, but you can see the red meat in the left side of the frame), and had almost finished eating by the time we got there. She gnawed on it for a little bit, and then abandoned the carcass. Evidently, cheetahs will eat secretly and as fast as possible to avoid competition with hyenas, lions, and even birds. If any of those animals show up, they’ll leave immediately. This one, however, ate pretty much every bit, ignoring us, and taking off on her own terms.

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This is a spotted hyena having a drink in a pool in the eastern Serengeti. It was one of the only two hyenas we saw the whole trip, with the second being one that came to join this one a few minutes later.

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My friend Kaela pointed out that this photo is very similar in composition to another photo of mine, first posted here. While that is true, I did really like that photo, so at least it’s a successful format, if unoriginal.

This was taken in Lake Manyara National Park.

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The warthogs were one of my favorite animals to observe. Their movements were so spastic and yet somehow, despite the fact that they are outrageously ugly, they somehow manage to be beautiful.

In this scene, I was hoping to capture a different feeling with the partially obscured subject, but I was surprised to see how much it looked like a painting due to the brush strokes of grass. Not a classic African photograph, but maybe that’s why I like it so much.

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A mother and baby keeping a sharp lookout in the Serengeti.

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Aside from wildebeest and gazelle, we may have seen more zebras than anything else. However, that didn’t stop us from taking pictures pretty much every time we saw one.

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These were the first animals we saw inside the south entrance of Serengeti National Park. These are all the bachelorettes hanging out together - males are black, females are gray. I’d never seen an ostrich before, and they are one bizarre-looking bird.

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I hate to start with the best and work my way down, but I just couldn’t come to grips with doing it any other way…

I just got back from Tanzania, and I snapped this shot when viewing a pride of lions from just 15 feet away or so in the eastern Serengeti. These were all youngsters, napping on each other and taking turns observing the savannah for food or danger. They really seemed oblivious to us, except for maybe the one in the middle. I’m not a huge cat person, but even I said ”awww…” when they took this pose.

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This Mola mola, or ocean sunfish, really liked the company of the half moons that were living under the kelp raft where I found them. It was pretty entertaining how the mola would stay in the middle of the school of half moons, as though he were well-disguised or somehow otherwise safer as a result.

I like this photo because of the back story and inherent oddness of the mola, but I wish I had a wider angle lens and could have kept all of the half moons crisp as well.

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This is a California two-spot octopus jumping up off the ocean floor to get into swimming position to jet away from me. This is my favorite animal to find in the waters around Catalina - they are so awesomely bizarre and always entertaining. Smart, too.

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