In Kenya's Masai Mara, a seasoned male lion rests in the sun with quiet intensity, his steady gaze possessing a noble calm.

Cape Buffalo, like this one in Kenya's Masai Mara, are famously short-tempered, yet tolerate the Yellow-billed Oxpecker riding along, picking ticks and cleaning wounds.

Witnessing a lone lioness call to her pride was already a highlight of the day. Moments later, she climbed this tree, scanning the plains for their return.

Bathed in Tanzanian sunlight, the endangered Masai giraffe, the tallest land animal on Earth, maintains its elegant composure despite the flies.

At a Hwange National Park waterhole, this bull squared off and pawed the ground in warning, only moving on once stillness signaled no threat.

In the plains of Zimbabwe, a young male lion displays his dominance.

Each day during my stay in Zimbabwe, we would stop at the gate to sign in to the reserve. This baboon had joined us during the stop and sat about 15 feet away, calmly keeping an eye on the situation.

A plains zebra stands alert in the grass of Namibia's Kalahari, its stripes as individual as a fingerprint among the region's herds

In Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park, a tower, the collective term for giraffes, gathers beneath an acacia. Uncommon elsewhere, giraffes here also stoop to graze on grass as well as feed on trees.

Near Botswana's Chobe River, a cheetah and leopard faced off, then chased through the trees. Here, the cheetah eyes the leopard with intensity.

Near Botswana's Chobe River, this leopard and a cheetah spotted each other, gave chase through the woods, then doubled back to the same clearing, regaining its composure.

In Tanzania's northern Serengeti, a spotted hyena holds its ground against a mob of white-backed vultures, hooded vultures, and marabou storks competing for the same meal.

In Botswana's Okavango Delta, a lioness moves through fading evening light. The use of intentional camera movement captures her motion and softens her form.

In Tanzania, one can witness the circular migration of Blue Wildebeests across the Mara River. With over 1.5 million wildebeest alone, this is the largest mass movement of land mammals on Earth.

Along Botswana's Chobe River, African Elephants spend hours in the water to eat, drink, bathe, and even enjoy some play.

In Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park, this herd of elephants is guided by the matriarch, the oldest and most experienced female, with her generational memory, deep social bonds, and calm authority.

Reached by traditional lakana boat, Nosy Komba in Madagascar is home to this Panther Chameleon, caught mid-step on a thorny branch in its deliberate walk, mimicking a leaf in the wind.

In Nevada's Valley of Fire, desert bighorn sheep favor high, narrow ridgelines, trusting hooves that can grip footholds barely two inches wide.

In Nevada's Valley of Fire, the rippled Aztec sandstone beneath this desert bighorn sheep formed as wind-blown dunes some 150 million years ago, later cemented into stone.

In Kenya's Masai Mara, an African Elephant greets us as it returns from the savanna, with wide strides and gentle steps.

In Zimbabwe, this bushbuck came right into camp. It was eating near the deck and I was photographing with my long lens. It approached and I didn’t want to move to switch to a shorter lens, so composed for tight portraits.

At a watering hole in Zimbabwe, this baboon stares deeply “eye to eye” with the observer.

In Zimbabwe, though largely arboreal, the Flap-necked Chameleon crosses open ground when moving between trees or searching for a mate.

In Kenya, this Blue Wildebeest stands resolute against the horizon on the savannah in the Masai Mara.

Along Botswana's Chobe River, an African elephant climbs the bank at dusk after feeding in the river, mosquitoes drifting through the last of the evening light.

On a hilltop in Belize, Brahman gather beneath the trees as the morning fog lifts. The wide-open pasture feels intimate, something small, still, and close.

In Antarctica's white expanse, foraging trips can carry a Gentoo penguin far from its noisy colony and out into the open water, here alone on a raft of pack ice.

In the Guanacaste region of northern Costa Rica, this Panamanian white-faced capuchin used this branch to oversee the activity of our small boat landing on the beach.