I recently returned from a family trip to the Galapagos Islands. This marked mine and Jenn’s third visit to this unique ecosystem. Oddly, our trips have been spaced apart by roughly a decade each time, but we’ve found that little has changed with the Galapagos. Visitation is still highly regulated, and the habitats and wildlife seem as healthy (and perhaps healthier) than when we first visited in 2006.
This trip was also our first opportunity to bring our son to the islands, an experience he greatly enjoyed. Overall the vibe was pretty casual, and I also happened to fall ill during the trip, so photography was perhaps not as serious as it might be normally. That said, I still hauled some serious gear along, including bringing a proper underwater housing. Unlike my last trip in 2015, this one did not leak on the first swim—or any other—so I got my first chance to try some proper underwater photography in the Galapagos. I’m still an amateur beneath the surface, but I think I did okay. A few marine species did make it into the final gallery.
Speaking of which, you may view the full photo gallery in the archive. A short preview is below.
A Blue-footed Booby displays for passing females, in case one takes an interest.
Galápagos sea lions are a common sight on most islands. They can be gregarious and photogenic, especially in the water (though we didn’t have as many snorkeling encounters as I’d hoped).
This trip offered my best opportunities to photograph the lovely Galapagos Dove.
On this trip, the Great Frigatebird was the lone frigatebird species we saw.
Once again, marine iguanas provided some of the best photo ops of our time in the Galapagos. We had our best luck with them late in the trip, on Fernandina Island.
We’d seen the classic perching lava lizard scene before, but this trip offered by far the best photo opportunities for it.
Photographing underwater is difficult, and I felt I was shooting blindly half the time. But a few shots, like this portrait of a giant hawkfish, turned out okay.
The Flightless Cormorant is one of the endemics that have evolved their own specializations in the Galapagos. Despite our efforts to keep our distance, this individual was quite curious and a little aggressive toward swimmers.
Galápagos Penguins were a top target, and I was excited to get a chance to photograph them underwater especially.
The Short-eared Owl was perhaps my top goal on this trip, since I’d never seen the Galapagos subspecies before. We made our first visit to Genovesa Island and saw a few, lucking into one close fly-by! I believe it had caught a Storm Petrel in this case.
It’s always a treat seeing giant tortoises up close (this is a stitched image using three shots).
A Great Frigatebird flies before the remnants of a Pacific Ocean storm.
View the full Galapagos 2025 gallery (86 images).
