Puffin

Ron Niebrugge Alaska, Lake Clark, Photos, Travel Leave a Comment

Horned puffin, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

We had great puffin on both my Bear and Puffin photo tours. Not too many years ago, a photo like this would be very challenging. That is sure changed with modern focus tracking on today’s mirror-less cameras. Horned puffin, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

2023 Costa Rica Photo Tour

Ron Niebrugge Costa Rica, Photos, Travel Leave a Comment

Red eyed tree frog, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica.

We have a little bit of space left on our Costa Rica – Osa Peninsula photo tours this November / December, 2023. It is all inclusive, including lodging, meals and in country airfare. See monkeys, sloths, reptiles and amazing birds and scenery! Let me know if you have any questions. Here are the details: Costa Rica Photo Tour

Nursing Brown Bears

Ron Niebrugge Alaska, Lake Clark, Photos, Travel 1 Comment

A Brown or Grizzly Bear, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

I’m home from my two annual back to back Alaska Bear and Puffin photo tours! The weather at times was challenging, but the photo opportunities were awesome! So much variety. We had two sows, each with a set of spring cubs. I think we saw 5 nursing sessions the first week, and 6 the second! This was from day one of week one. For those who have traveled with me before, this is Crimp.

Gambel’s Quail Family

Ron Niebrugge Arizona, Photos, Travel, Tucson Leave a Comment

Gambel’s quail, Tortolita Mountains, Marana, near Tucson, Arizona.

This gambel’s quail family with at least 12 brand new little babies just showed up to the water drip at the Desert Photo Retreat! Granted, it is mid day light, and photographed through the dirty, tinted window of our RV. But, too cute not to share!

Kingwood Photo Club Presentation

Ron Niebrugge Alaska, Photos, Travel Leave a Comment

Bull moose, Denali National Park, Aaska.

A couple of bull moose in front of Denali, Denali National Park, Alaska.

On Tuesday I’m doing a Zoom presentation of Animalscapes; combining landscape and wildlife subjects for the Kingwood Photo Club just outside of Houston, Texas. The cool thing; they are letting anyone watch the zoom presentation for free. You just need to register in advance here: Kingwood Photo Club.

Camera Trapping Gray Fox

Ron Niebrugge Arizona, Photos, Travel, Tucson 1 Comment

Gray Fox, Tortolita Mountains, Marana, near Tucson, Arizona.

I had a trail camera set up in this little wash the last couple of weeks and noticed that the animals would sometimes use it to access our water hole. So last night I grabbed a bunch of flashes and set up knowing this would be the last night of this moon cycle to still capture stars in the sky. Got lucky and captured most of the fox! Normally if there is any abient light such as the moon in this case, the subject will be ghosted. Here the fox must have been holding perfectly still since it is sharp, maybe it sees a mouse.

Techs for the curious: Olympus OM-1, silent shutter, f/4, ISO 4,000 20 seconds. Usually I would go with a larger f-stop and shorter shutter speed, but the exact location of the subject wasn’t obvious, so I wanted a tad more depth of field. Two Godox flashes up close camera left and right at 128 power, another one on a stand camera right at 1/32 power which must not have fired since the right hand saguaros are dark, and a Nikon flash off in the distance camera left a 1/32 power. Camtraption triggers and sensors.

Striped Skunk

Ron Niebrugge Arizona, Photos, Travel, Tucson 2 Comments

Striped skunk, Tortolita Mountains, Marana, near Tucson, Arizona.

From last night. One of the advantages of a moonless night is the ability to capture the animal with stars. This is funny, I was working on the settings on the back of my camera when a striped skunk suddenly appeared on the LCD screen on the back of my camera. I thought, how could that be, it would have to be a couple of feet away…wait. Sure enough, I peaked over the top of the camera and watched a skunk walk right past me, past the water hole and off into the desert. It was like I didn’t exist which was pretty cool.