11/30/15: I showed the photo above to Beloved and asked whether she would click on it to know more. Not only did she love it, she made me show her the whole set (“You’re not going to make me wait to see these, are you?”), all the while oohing and aahing and laughing with amazement. So you may thank her for today’s beautiful thing.

This is the incredible high-speed nature photography of Salah Baazizi. Although it looks like he gets really, really close to the birds, in reality, he’s typically at a fair distance. The secrets to his success are his 400mm super telephoto lens, his wildlife-filled location (the waters around Bolsa Chica, CA), and his almost super-human level of patience.

I decided to focus on the pictures of hunting birds. However, as incredible as these photos are, he has hundreds more amazing bird and bug photos of all descriptions. If you enjoy these as much as I do, you’ll definitely enjoy taking a look at his Flickr and 500PX accounts. You can also follow him on Beaks in Action Instagram and his Wings in Motion Instagram.