Playing Hooky

I have been pretty quiet on the Blog lately, with a family wedding in Boston and a visit with friends in Montreal. Believe or not, I have not taken a picture in nearly two weeks – a situation that bears an eerie resemblance to a vacation. So, just to keep the visuals coming, I am posting an unpublished out-take from the Amazon River Dolphin story I did for National Geographic last year. Although I took thousands of images, only a dozen made it into the final story, while some others got left out – including some of my favorites. This simple underwater portrait, showing the extraordinary beaks of these freshwater dolphins, is one of those. Mind you, these Pinocchio-length snouts are a bit exaggerated by my wide-angle lens – I was shooting at 12mm… But after what may be 50 million years of evolution within the Amazon, these guys really do look pretty odd.

Nikon D200 in Sea & Sea housing, 12-24mm DX lens