Steller Sea Eagle Rausu Japan. Nikon D850 with Sigma 150-600 Sports lens @49mm 1/2000th sec f/8 ISO 400 manual mode handheld.

Japan Winter Wildlife Tour 2019

March 17, 2019

This year’s Japan tour was was a big success thanks to a very nice group of participants we had lots of great photo opportunities and lots of fun. Although this was one of the most unusual tours that I have led in Japan due to a lack of snow, in one of the snowiest places on earth, everyone was able to return home with plenty of GBs of images thanks to careful tour planning.

The sea eagle photography this year was spectacular thanks to excellent sea ice conditions off the Shiretoko Peninsula. The eagle images you see posted were all made at sea level from a special chartered boat that gave us a unique low angle of view that can’t be duplicated from the typical commercial photo boats that look down on the eagles and the sea ice. Each and every year we improve our tour and this year was a dream come true with the exclusive use of chartered boat free of tourists.

Cranes dancing, Hokkaido Japan. Nikon D850 with Sigma 500mm Sports lens 1/4000th sec f/5.6 ISO 400 manual mode.

The Japanese red-crowned crane’s graceful synchronized dancing never disappoints and the soft lighting conditions this year made for superb conditions so everyone on the tour went home with plenty of wonderful crane images. The red-crowned crane’s displaying and vocalizing rituals and the opportunities they present are something that has to be seen in person to be believed.

Steller Sea Eagle Rausu Japan. Nikon D500 with Sigma 120-300 Sports lens @350mm 1/4000th sec f/8 ISO 400 manual mode handheld.

One of the funnier moments this year was when a tourist deciding to fly a drone over a group of Steller’s sea eagles on the ice on lake Furen with a huge group of photographers watching. What could possibly go wrong? Half the eagles flew away for starters. Drone operators always go out of their way to make sure that the world loves them and this operator was doing a really great job.

The 2020 tour has been booked and confirmed and openings are available. To join us email me and to find out more details, follow this link: https://www.robertotoole.com/japan-tour

Nikon D500, Sigma 500 sports lens manual mode 1/2000 at f/5.6 ISO 125 EV -0.7

Bosque Del Apache Report 2018

November 20, 2018

Right before the crane festival this year the official bird count for the week of my tour was showing 25 birds on the reserve. This is perfect since it keeps all the inexperienced and unknowledgeable workshop leaders and photographers away. The opportunities for my week was actually really good and best of all it was peaceful, quiet and festival crowd free. Too bad there are never any birds in Bosque before the crane festival!

Nikon D850, Sigma 500 sports lens manual mode 1/1600 at f/4 ISO 200 EV -0.7

Cranes flying in front of dark storm clouds lit by the first rays of the sunrise is my favorite lighting setup at Bosque. The only problem is that these images are so dramatic looking that all of your other images are a little boring by comparison.

The weather this year was a blessing, two huge low pressure systems collided somewhere over the southwest bring lots of clouds and wind to Bosque but the precipitation stopped about 10 or 20 miles to the east of Bosque but in areas to the southeast in Texas there were temps in the teens with snow and rain.

Nikon D850, Sigma 500 sports lens manual mode 1/2000 at f/4 ISO 64 EV -0.3

Late one morning I found a large group of geese south of the eagle deck so my group and I waited and waited and waited for a blast off. The wind was from the WSW so this was the spot to be in. After almost an hour. finally, the geese blasted off in a big white wave directly towards us and even circled back in forth a few times. We were the only people there to see the action and that was fine with us.

Seriously though I don’t know who runs the birds counts at Bosque but they must sleep in until 10 AM and by then the birds are all spread out foraging in different areas in many cases outside the reserve. The count is accurate for other birds like raptors that like to sit on perches in the morning but that’s okay with me, I would never complain since the low numbers don’t bother me at all.

Nikon D850, Sigma 500 sports lens manual mode 1/30 at f/16 ISO 100 EV -0.7

The number of cranes at Bosque this year was pretty surprising and the numbers don’t peak until later in the season. There were big changes this year at the crane pools though. My all-time favorite, the north crane pool is now 95% overgrown and since they closed the parking lot completely, I have a feeling there are no plans to flood the area again. The good news is that the larger south crane pool has a new paved parking lot and the shooting area is now closer to the cranes.

Nikon D850, Sigma 500 sports lens manual mode 1/1600 at f/4 ISO 110 EV -0.7

This year I am glad to report there is nothing but good news from Bosque but there are always people will find things to complain about and like to moan and groan about how good the reserve was in the good old days and yes it was spectacularly good 10-12 years ago, but Bosque is still an awesome place to visit and create striking images that are just as good or better than photos made 10 years ago.

Thanks to everyone in my tour group this year for making the trip possible, I appreciated all of the time I was able to spend with my fantastic tour participants.

If you would like to visit Bosque and enjoy a photo tour there, let me know or follow the link below for more info, I am not about to stop making trips there anytime soon don’t worry. See you in New Mexico in 2019!

For more info on my 2019 is available here: http://www.robertotoole.com/bosque-tour/

**Hallo Bay, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska, Nikon D850, Sigma 500 Sports lens, Manual mode, 1/1600 sec, f/4, Auto ISO, ISO 180, -0.3 EV, tripod**

Bear Cub Photo Tour 2018

July 17, 2018

My flight home from Anchorage wasn't exactly smooth, the departure was delayed an hour, and the it got worse once I arrived at LAX, a jammed cargo door, then the Alaska Air luggage belt system broke down, so instead of 8PM, I arrived home after Midnight. That 4 hour delay was nothing compared to the two photo tours that I was returning from!

**Hallo Bay, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska, Nikon D850, Sigma 500 Sports lens, Manual mode, 1/1250 sec, f/4, Auto ISO, ISO 280, -0.3 EV, tripod**

This years tours were exceptional, the weather was the worst, we lost more days to continuous rain than any other June or July trip ever in the past 15 years. But between the rained-out days, the photography was exceptionally good. We had 3 brown bear mothers with cubs in a single meadow one morning, and naturally there was a little bit of friction between the bears. A good-sized yearling cub went after two spring cubs that were playing, trying to join them, but the mother bear stepped in and chased the yearling. That brought out a larger mother bear, the boss of that meadow, that chased the mother and spring cubs away. They returned a few minutes later and this time everything was peaceful. We had all the bears to ourselves until 8.30, when another photography group arrived that had slept-in.

Even with the days of rain, we had so much fun and there was nothing but positive attitudes on the entire tour, I am lucky to have the best participants ever, thank you!

**Hallo Bay, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska, Nikon D850, Sigma 500 Sports lens, Manual mode, 1/1600 sec, f/4, Auto ISO, ISO 560, -0.3 EV, tripod**

If you have never photographed brown bear cubs, you would be surprised how much they play, a single strand of giant kelp kept this yearling, and our group, entertained for about 40 minutes. That is a lot of images at 10 or 11 frames per second.

**Hallo Bay, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska, Nikon D850, Sigma 500 Sports lens, Manual mode, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, Auto ISO, ISO 450, -0.3 EV, tripod**

Generally brown bears ignore photographers so getting one to look up at in the direction of the camera is a challenge, getting 3 bears to look up and stare in the same direction naturally without pressuring them is pure luck. We got 'lucky' time after time by being in the right place at the perfect time.

**Hallo Bay, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska, Nikon D850, Sigma 500 Sports lens, Manual mode, 1/1000 sec, f/4, Auto ISO, ISO 150, -0.3 EV, tripod**

June has really been great for bears with cubs over the last couple of years with less crowds and better weather than later dates like August. Let me know right away if you are thinking about joining us. There are still some spots available for both tours in 2019, for more details see follow this link: http://www.robertotoole.com/bear-tour/

Please email me right away with any questions or for more info. Thanks.

NIKON D500 and Sigma 500mm f/4 sports lens at 1/500th sec, f/4, ISO 1000 manual mode, EV -0.7, handheld.

The Ultimate Leopard Photo Tour Part 3

May 17, 2018

The stars of our Africa tour, had to be the leopard cubs. We put a lot of time into checking on this new den site every day, and we finally got lucky, thanks to our ranger extraordinaire Omega, and our superb tracker Roger, we were able to watch the new cubs come to their mother as she called.

The lighting conditions at the den site, were only good for a few minutes each day, so these images were not easy to make, but these were the most rewarding and unforgettable sessions ever.

If you would like to join us next year, 2019 tour dates and prices have been confirmed, please see this link for more info: http://www.robertotoole.com/south-africa-tour/

Questions or comments welcome.

The Ultimate Leopard Photo Tour Part 2

May 16, 2018

By the last days of our 14-day tour we were almost at the point of leopard overload. In fact, after I post this, I plan on getting back to processing leopard images, I can't remember ever being this far behind on images, ever. My leopard tour is unusual in that; it is set up to get as much photography of leopards, other big cats and the big 5 as possible. This means we don't spend time experiencing the culture of local villages, as this would take time away from our safari drives, we do not waste time driving to and from different lodges, we just concentrate on going on safari drives at least twice a day, sometimes more. This has a big impact on your photography time in the field, most 11-day safaris offer maybe 12-13 drives, during our 11-day tour we normally manage to go on 18 drives in 11 days, those 5 extra safari drives can make a huge difference on leaving Africa with the images you really want on your hard-drive.

NIKON D850 and Sigma 120-300 f/2.8 sports lens at 120mm, 1/1250th sec, f/3.5, ISO 2500 manual mode, Auto-ISO, EV 0, handheld.

We were able to spend a couple of hours one morning with this male, who has just taken over the territory and females, of a very old male leopard. Leopards like to walk along river banks in the morning, surveying their territory, and marking their property every chance they have.

NIKON D850 and Sigma 500mm f/4 sports lens at 1/800th sec, f/4, ISO 1600 manual mode, Auto-ISO, EV 0, handheld.

This leopard is taking a much deserved rest from taking care of her two cubs, we spent a lot of time with her and the young ones over our 14 days of the tour. This female's two cubs will be the main subject of the next tour report.

NIKON D500 and Sigma 500mm f/4 sports lens at 1/500th sec, f/4, ISO 450 manual mode, Auto-ISO, EV +0.3, handheld.

This leopard is really interested in something she heard, and is scanning the horizon, she might have heard something that sounded like one of her cubs.

NIKON D500 and Sigma 120-300 f/2.8 sports lens at 120mm, 1/1600th sec, f/4, ISO 320 manual mode, Auto-ISO, EV -0.3, handheld.

After an exhausting week this male and is taking a quick 5 minute breather before getting back to work. We watched this leopard mate with two different females more than a few times over a week. They normally stay with a female for 3 or so days, mating every 15-20 minutes. This male would alternate over 7 days, one day with one female and back with another a day or two later.

NIKON D850 and Sigma 500mm f/4 sports lens at 1/500th sec, f/4, ISO 640 manual mode, Auto-ISO, EV +0, handheld.

Tomorrow's post will feature leopard cubs, one my very favorite subjects of all time, so check back in a day or two for part 3 of the report.

If you are thinking about joining us in 2019, this tour in unlike anything you can find anywhere else. Tour dates and prices have been confirmed, please see this link for more info: http://www.robertotoole.com/south-africa-tour/