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Ray Hennessy Ray Hennessy

After The Storm On The Prairie

 

Photographer: Steve Perry

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1/400 • f/9 • ISO 560 • Nikon Z8 • 27mm • Nikon Z 24-120mm


This was captured just after a storm passed in Wind Cave national park using Nikon's Auto Capture on my Z8 with a 24-120 lens. (Auto Capture allowed me to step back and keep a comfortable distance away while the camera captured the photos.)

The trick with this one was that the prairie dog was REALLY slow in accepting the camera at first. He’d pop out, freeze for 10 seconds, then drop back into his burrow.

Also, the rainbow wasn’t there when I started. I began with the camera pointed in the opposite direction, and it took the little guy about fifteen minutes to pop back up after I initially placed the camera. After about an hour (I was photographing other ‘dogs while Auto Capture worked), he was very comfortable with it and was now more curious than cautious. The camera captured hundreds - heck, thousands - of images. Then, the storm skirted the area and rainbow began to form. 

Although I knew it was a long shot, I decided to move the camera so I had the rainbow in the background and see if the little guy decided to pop right back out or if moving the camera would reset the 15-minute waiting period (too long for the rainbow). Fortunately, it only took him a minute or two to reemerge and continue his investigation of the strange apparatus lurking outside his den. (And yes, I was grinning the entire time!)

 
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Avian Impressionism

 

Photographer: Mark Cook

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1/1000 • f/7.1 • ISO 800 • Canon EOS R5 • 300mm • Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM


Blue-winged Teal create ephemeral artwork as they dabble for food in the chai-coloured shallows of Florida Bay, Florida. The image was taken last autumn after the summer rains had sent much needed freshwater flows into the Florida Bay estuary. The odd yellow colour is entirely natural and originates from the mangroves lining the bay; the first flush of freshwater from the Everglades gains this rich whiskey hue as it passes through the swamp and extracts the tannins leached from decaying mangrove leaves. The migrating teal are feeding just downstream of the mangroves dabbling and filtering high densities of algae and other microorganisms from a large drying pond adjacent to the bay. It can be a challenge to produce creative images of the topographically-challenged Everglades so it’s important to find subjects with whom I can collaborate artistically and are willing to interact with their habits in strange and wonderful ways, like these artistic teal. Here my aim was to capture something of the ecology or essence of the ducks while also attempting to fit that into a visually appealing composition that incorporates, to the extent possible, the patterns, textures, and colours of the environment. It’s this combination of animal behavior within a captivating habitat that I believe make for the most compelling images.

 
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Mountainous Leap

 

Photographer: Josh Hauge

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1/2000 • f/1.8 • ISO 125 • Nikon Z6II • 85mm • Nikon Z 85mm f/1.8 S


A young Mountain Goat prepares to jump over a waterfall in the mountains of Alaska. I was hiking with my family in the summertime and came across some Mountain Goats as they traversed the vast landscape. Placing myself at the base of this waterfall, I watched as this Mountain Goat's mother leapt over the waterfall and I captured this image as this young Mountain Goat followed its mother. It was incredible to watch these animals skillfully scale the rocks with ease amidst the expansive habitat they call home.

 
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Land of Luxury

 

Photographer: Rupert Kogler

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1/2000 • f/18 • ISO 2000 • Canon EOS 5D Mark III • 16mm • Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM


One day, during a family evening stroll, I noticed quite a few very beautiful butterflies feeding on the lilies on this particular meadow. I decided to come back the next day without the kids to go for some back-lit wide-angle habitat images of the insects. But unfortunatley this day, I couldn't spot a single butterfly. After some time of waiting, I still couldn't see one of them, but unexpectedly I noticed this red-winged blackbird flying over the area from time to time. So I sat down and went for the kind of image, I actually intended to do with the butterflies, but with the bird instead. My main goal was to show the fantastic habitat of the animal, with the lovely wildlowers, the meadow, some trees, the bright Californian sun and, of course, the stunning walls of rock, as a framing. Although, it took me just a few tries, until I was rather successful, I wanted to stay longer, for some more shots, but at one point, I was unsure, whether I might disturb the bird, so I decided to leave.

 
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Mammoth Magpie

 

Photographer: Justin Theurer

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1/640 • f/6.3 • ISO 180 • Nikon D500 • 250mm • Tamron SP AF 150-600mm


A Black-billed Magpie at the terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs, where warm, mineral-rich waters create pockets of life even in harsh conditions. These thermal pools support aquatic invertebrates year-round, offering an opportunistic food source for birds willing to pay attention. In Yellowstone, survival often belongs to those that notice the details, and adapt quickly to what the landscape provides.

 
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Flying with Swallows

 

Photographer: Caleb Hoover

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1/8000 • f/5 • ISO 1250 • Canon 7D Mark II • 20mm • Tokina 11-20mm f/2.8


A small colony of Cliff Swallows flocks and nests over a small river in Rural Tennessee. Boasting one of the furthest migrations in the animal kingdom, these special little birds spend but a few short months breeding here before making the long trek to South America.

 
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Still Dawn

 

Photographer: Tobias Gjerde

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1/2500 • f/2.8 • ISO 400 • Canon R5 • 200mm • Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM


The calm summer dawn awakens, as the sun crests above the trees and makes the morning mist glow. A ripple in the water disturbs the stillness, as a horned grebe carefully glides out into the open. In the reeds, it stops to have a look around. With a gentle splash, it dives and disappears. Where it resurfaced, I will never know.

 
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City Sapsucker

 

Photographer: Ryan Mclaughlin

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1/2000 • f/4 • ISO 64 • Nikon D850 • 24mm • Nikon 24-120mm f/4


After stepping off the train in Manhattan, this Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker was the very first bird I noticed. I have seen Sapsuckers in urban environments before, but never so low just a few feet away from bustling pedestrians. This bird was a treat to watch and photograph, and I had fun trying varying focal lengths and compositions as it pecked away for insect lunch.

There were practically no foreground elements to work with, so I put on a polarizer filter and tried to lean into the sun flares for added depth in the short window that the sun peaked through the buildings. In post, converted to black and white which felt culturally appropriate for this scene outside of the iconic New York Public Library steps. Fun scene to shoot.

 
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Calma

 

Photographer: Kelley Luikey

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1/1000 • f/3.2 • ISO 5,000 • Canon R3 • 300mm • Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 II


While I love the challenge of photographing hummingbirds in flight, it can also be fun to catch them at rest. At my favorite lodge in Colombia, there is a large palm where many species of
hummingbirds often come to rest. The possibilities for composition are endless and I always make it a point to spend time to photographing the palm and various hummingbirds that spend time there. Each time I go, I get something totally different. In this image, I love how the large palm fronds highlight the diminutive scale of the bird. The yellow in the background is the result of the foliage behind the palm being lit up from the morning sunlight and helps isolate all of the greens of both the palm and the shimmering Steely-vented Hummingbird.

 
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Fire and Flight

 

Photographer: Liron Gertsman

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1/2500 • f/16 • ISO 2500 • Canon R5 • 254mm • Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM


In August 2025, I visited Kilauea Volcano on the island of Hawai’i, with the goal of photographing birds against the backdrop of an erupting volcano. Timing a volcanic eruption is never easy. After 10 days of scouting and waiting, the volcano finally came alive on my birthday- August 22nd. In the background of this image, multiple volcanic phenomena are visible: the white plumes on the left are mostly water vapor and carbon dioxide, the blue gases at the top right are sulfur dioxide, and the brown clouds are volcanic ash. Most striking of all, the glowing lava fountain can be seen. The White-tailed Tropicbirds nest in cracks along the crater walls, perfectly protected from predators. They use the thermals generated by the volcano’s heat to gain lift as they fly to and from the ocean to gather food, returning safely to their nests in this extreme yet beautiful environment.

 
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Solitary

 

Photographer: Hiresha Senanayake

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1/3,200 • f/5.6 • ISO 800 • Canon 1D X Mark II • 35mm • Canon EF 16-35mm f/4 L IS USM


A lone elephant moves through the vast African savanna, dwarfed by the land and the dramatic sky above. I intentionally chose a 16–35mm lens to emphasize the scale of the landscape, allowing the openness of the savanna to dominate the frame and place the elephant within its immense world. The image speaks to solitude and resilience, how even the largest land animal becomes part of something far greater. It is a reminder of the space these animals need, and how fragile and irreplaceable these wild places truly are.

 
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Misty Morning Fly By

 

Photographer: Vince Maidens

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1/800 • f/5.6 • ISO 3,200 • Canon R5 Mk II • 860mm • Canon RF 600mm f/4


A rare ice mist morning, a couple of times a year this occurs and the birds hopefully launch, if they do there is no stopping getting out there to try and capture them flying the fields.

 
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Under The Towers

 

Photographer: Simon Smith

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1/640 • f/2.8 • ISO 100 • Sony Z7Rv • 400mm • Sony FE 400mm f/2.8 GM OSS


A lone guanaco under the iconic towers of Torres Del Paine, Chile. We had spent the morning in thick fog looking for pumas but had no luck, in an effort to get some sunshine we decided to drive up above the fog layer to get a view of the mountain. Just as we were about to get back into the car to continue our search for cats, we saw the head of a guanaco appearing from out behind a snowy hill. I rushed to get in a position where I could line up the subject and background. With the thick snow covering the entire foreground and the fog that had caused us so much trouble in the morning creating the perfect white background, it made for the perfect conditions to capture this image!

 
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Movement

 

Photographer: Ray Hennessy

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5 Seconds • f/4.8 • ISO 64 • Nikon Z9 • 180mm • Nikon Z 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6


For years now during my Newfoundland seabirds workshop I've always taken a similar photo like this. In the past however I've always just shoved my camera into a rock crack and done my best to hold it still while I took a long exposure with the aperture cranked up to F-who-knows-what to get the longer exposure. This year however I came prepared. I brought out a tripod and a variable ND filter and I was able to take this version with a 5 second long exposure, at least double what I've done in the past. I was also able to shoot at a normal aperture that wasn't ruining the sharpness of the photo. So here I present the an image that is exactly what I've been after for years but only finally captured properly. I love what the waves do on the rocks below and how still many of these Common Murre stay during a 5 second exposure!

 
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Morning Mist

 

Photographer: Dana Brooks

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1/1000 • f/5.6 • ISO 250 • Canon R5 Mark II • 140mm • Canon 100mm-300mm f/2.8


Early morning on still water.
A Great Egret stands still as soft light breaks through the fog.
A quiet moment, shaped by light, stillness, and space.

 
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Sunset Serenade

 

Photographer: Grzegorz Długosz

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1/8000 • f/7.1 • ISO 640 • Canon R5 • 500mm • Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1


Fields around Seville are full of 2 things: Corn Buntings and Marian Thistle, I love the shape of both so I really wanted to get a sillouethe against the setting sun, although it proved much more difficult than expected (mainly due to shorts and 2 meter tall thistle meadow is not the best combination) but this image seems worth it after all, as I loved how the flowers looked out of focus and I managed to place the bird in the exactly right spot with no interference.

 
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Early Morning on Lake Michigan

 

Photographer: Emily Tornga

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1/30 • f/4.8 • ISO 1600 • Nikon Z8 • 165mm • Nikon Z 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6


If you go to the lakeshore early enough you can catch the pier lights still on. Paired with pink tinged clouds and a little light rain, and you have the perfect setting for hanging out with a Baird's Sandpiper.

 
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Dip Into The Light

 

Photographer: Par Hermansson

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1/5000 • f/2.8 • ISO 320 • Canon R5 • 400mm • Canon RF 400mm f/2.8 L IS USM


The Swedish winter months are dark, cold, and can be challenging for photography. This day was no different, with temperatures down to -20 degrees Celsius and strong winds. But in these harsh and unforgiving conditions, the European Dipper thrives. Hunting for food in a small patch of open water, in the otherwise frozen river, it shows off its beauty in the backlight of the setting winter sun.

 
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My Drakensberg Kingdom

 

Photographer: Richard Flack

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1/4000 • f/10 • ISO 3200 • Canon EOS R5 • 100mm • Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L


An Endangered Bearded Vulture soars over an iconic African scene high up in the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa. This image has a very special place in my heart. It represents so much of what I love about the Drakensberg in South Africa and specifically Giant’s Castle; dramatic skies, magical light, wrinkled mountains and incredible wildlife. It makes me wonder about birds and the God of wonder. It speaks to me of quiet, contemplative moments and answers to prayer.

 
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Sunrise Silhouette

 

Photographer: Jill Payne

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1/2500 • f/5.6 • ISO 1000 • Canon R5 • 500mm • Canon 500mm f/4


At high tide, a lone silhouette hunted— the little blue heron deliberate and unhurried as sunrise colored the sky in hues of orange and pink.

 
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