Essays and Inspiration Category Archive

Photographing the Muskox in a Winter Wonderland

The muskox (Ovibos Moschatus) is a massive arctic animal. It weighs up to 400 kg (880 pounds) and measures up to 2.5 meters long (over 8 feet). Although it lived across Europe during the last ice age, it went extinct on the Eurasian continent around the same time that the...

Photographing Critically-Endangered Fijian Iguanas: A Trip Report

Thousands of miles from their nearest iguanid relatives, and across the Pacific Ocean, live the marvelous, critically-endangered Fijian iguanas. I was fortunate to find and photograph two of these species during my time in Fiji. With their extreme rarity and remote populations, almost no high-quality photographs of wild specimens are published.

Photographing the Ring-Billed Gull: A Rarity No More

In North America, the most commonly-known birds are probably the Rock Dove, Mallard, and Ring-billed Gull. The Ring-billed Gull is also one of the most photographed birds in the world, being #21 in eBird’s library with over 120,000 photos! But did you know that the Ring-billed Gull was once fairly rare?

Ice Crystal Photography Documenting an Ephemeral World

Winter is often regarded as the doldrums for nature and wildlife photographers here in Michigan. Despite the unusually warm weather this year, opportunities for outdoor photography have been quite limited, often resulting in gloomy two-hour long outings in the wild yielding little more than a few images of withered brown...

Exploring Brazil’s Remnant Atlantic Forest

Somewhere near the meeting of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Gerais lie the partial remnants of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. I recently had the opportunity to explore this fragile region with my wife and see some of the less common species of flora and fauna in South America....

Photographing the 2023 Solar Eclipse from Arizona

I just got back from a trip to the American Southwest where I photographed landscapes, the Milky Way, and a rare annular ("ring of fire") solar eclipse. My bag was filled with lenses that I'll be reviewing imminently - some from Nikon, of course, along with a few Canons and...