Trogon Photo Tours

April 2019  - This month's newsletter features images taken from the blind at Sachatamia Lodge in Ecuador with discussions about how to handle settings starting from a dark early morning start to when there is quite a bit more light available a couple of hours later. It features mostly images of birds in the large Neotropical family, ovenbirds (furnarids). 

Strong-billed Woodcreeper photographed January 2019 at Sachatmia Lodge, Ecuador.  Canon 1DX II, 500F4 1/50 F4, iso 3200, Av mode,  600ex fill flash at -1.3, Gitzo Tripod, Wimberley head.  When you first enter the blind around 6:30 am or so it's very dark under the canopy so you are stuck with either using flash as main light on full power or shooting at a fairly high iso with a limited shutter speed and depth of field.  On this day I decided to go for more natural looking shots so I went with fill flash and the fairly high iso etc.  This isn't a great shot, I wish the bird was turned a bit more toward me, it's mostly for comparison purposes. 

Strong-billed Woodcreeper photographed at Sachatamia Lodge, Ecuador in November 2008.  Canon 1DX 500F4 1.4x teleconverter, 1/250 F8, manual exposure, iso 800, 580ex at 0, handheld.  This shot of the same species from the same lodge (no blind back then) shows the results of using the flash on full power and treating the image more like a night shot.  This is your other alternative when shooting very early in the morning with very little light in the rainforest.  The positives are you can use a lower iso, faster shutter speed, more depth of field and there is more ability to stop the action.  The negative is the shot looks overflashed and not as natural as for example the previous image. 

Plain-brown Woodcreeper photographed January 2019 at Sachatamia, Canon 1DX II, 500F4 1/60 F4.5, iso 2000, 600ex fill flash at -1.3, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley head.  This was taken about half an hour after the first image shown and it had gotten a bit lighter, allowing me to drop the iso to 2000, stop down to F4.5 and get 1/60.  Still challenging techs but a bit easier than the first shot. 

Linneated Foliage Gleaner photographed January 2019 at Sachatamia Lodge, Canon 1DX II,500F4, 1/60 F4, iso 1600, Av mode, 600ex fill flash at -1.3, Gitzo Tripod, Wimberley Head.  This was taken just shortly after the previous image.  One of the neat things about the blind at Sachatamia is there is a white sheet which is illuminated at night which attracts large numbers of moths during the night and then in the morning the birds come in to prey on the multitude of insects. 

Strong-billed Woodcreeper photographed at Sachatamia Lodge, January 2019.  Canon 1DX II, 500F4 1/80 F4.5, Av mode, iso 1600, 600ex fill flash at -2.0, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley head.  This image was taken about 15 minutes after the previous image and with a bit more light I could get a touch more shutter speed, in addition I dropped the amount of flash I was using from -1.3 to -2.0 as the amount of ambient light increased.  

Rufous-breasted Antthrush photographed January 2019 at Sachatamia Lodge, Ecuador.  Canon 1DX II, 500F4, Av mode, 1/50 F4.5, iso 1250, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley head.  This is one of the star birds which makes an appearance or two at the Sachatamia blind most mornings.  I didn't use flash on this image, I was using it but it wasn't recycling for every image and I preferred this one to the ones with flash.  These antpittas and antthrushes will sometimes stand very still allowing for a low shutter speed.  At this point it was a bit later and I had dropped the iso to 1250.

Three-striped Warbler photographed January 2019 at Sachatamia Lodge in Ecuador.  Canon 1DX II, 500F4, Av mode, 1/125 F4.5, iso 1250, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley head.  This was taken another 25 minutes or so after the previous shot and at this point I wasn't using flash on many shots as there was enough ambient light from the right direction to shoot with natural light on most images.  The setup perches near the blind allow for a clean background for species such as this that would normally be in a busy environment.  This is a small bird so I chose to present it with a fair bit of negative space. 

Masked Trogon photographed January 2019 at Sachatamia Lodge, Ecuador.  Canon 5D4, 500F4, Av mode, 1/160 F5.6, iso 1250, 600ex fill flash at -2.0, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley head.  Masked Trogons are another one of the star birds of the Sachatamia blind and they are there a lot of the time.  This was taken the next day later in the morning when there was more light.  I really liked the way he spread his tail and turned his head back toward us.  In conclusion when shooting very early in the morning under the canopy you have to choose between taking an overflashed image or one at a high iso, as the light improves the photo opportunities improve and you can back off both the iso and the flash.  Of course one of the things about birds is often some of the best birds only appear early in the morning.