Trogon Photo Tours

May 2019  - This month's newsletter features images taken during Ecuadorian Amazon extensions to Sani Lodge, it includes info on locations and photo opportunities there as well as settings from the shots and discussion of my thoughts behind them. 

Scarlet-crowned Barbet photographed August 2018 at Sani Lodge, Ecuador.  Canon 5D4, 500F4 1.4x 1/320 at F7.1, iso 1250, Av mode at 0, 600ex fill flash at 0, Gitzo Tripod, Wimberley Head.  It had been a couple of years since I had been to Sani Lodge when we went last August.  I was very surprised to see that they were setting up feeders for the birds near the lodge entrance.  In the past they had never had feeders, despite me recommending several times that they start doing some feeding.  The fruit that this bird is on top of is called Panama Hat.   This species, several tanagers including Masked Crimson and Silver-beaked were the most common species which appeared there.  The lighting was often quite difficult in this spot as the birds were in shade and the background often in sun.  To get the amount of flash correct to light up the bird and not overflash it was not easy.  In this case I went to 0 on the flash and I feel it is just a touch overflashed but the lighting on the bird and background are balanced well. 

Wire-tailed Manakin photographed August 2018 at Sani Lodge, Ecuador.  Canon 5D4, 500F4 1/100 at F4.5, iso 2000, Gitzo Tripod, Wimberley Head.  Something else which was new for me at Sani was the blind they had set up to photograph this species.  Again they were using Panama Hat fruit to attract the birds.  There isn't too much to say about the techs here, it's in a dark area inside the forest so a high iso is necessary.  This is cropped a fair bit as it's a small bird and the feeding station isn't really close to the blind.  I used flash on some images, but not on this one and I thought it turned out the best.

Many-banded Aracari photographed by Charles Gangas, August 2018 at Sani Lodge, Ecuador.  Nikon D500, 500F4 1/1250 F5.6, iso 1250, Av mode, evaluative metering -0.3, Handheld.  This image was taken by Chuck at the tower at Sani Lodge.  The tower is built into a large Kapok tree and birds land in the branches of the tree.  While these Aracari's are good sized many of the birds are small and often not very close. Therefore you want to bring as much focal distance as you have when you photograph up there.  Chuck was keeping his shutter speed up fast enough to freeze the action here when this Aracari started tossing nuts. 

Hoatzin photographed by Nate Chappell January 2010 at Sani Lodge, Ecuador.  Canon 1D3, 500F4 1/250 at F4, iso 1000, Av mode, evaluative metering at -0.3, handheld from canoe.  Boat trips on the oxbow lake to photograph the various birds are one of the staples of any trip to Sani Lodge.  This amazing species is common on the oxbow lake there.  It's one of the most primitive birds, the young have claws on the wings that they can use to crawl back into the nest if they fall out.  It's nicknamed the "Stinky Turkey" by locals because the fruit it eats makes it smell and also makes it not good to eat, so not much preys on this species.  This was taken years ago but is still my favorite Hoatzin shot, it was an Audubon top 100 image in one of their contests.  I shot this wide open as I needed to keep at least a minimal amount of shutter speed and with that camera I didn't like to go over iso 1000.  With one of my current cameras I imagine I would have stopped down to F5.6 and increased the iso. 

Amazon River Turtle photographed by Nate Chappell January 2010 at Sani Lodge in Ecuador.  Canon 1D3 500F4 1.4x 1/640 at F7.1, iso 640, Av mode, evaluative metering at -0.3, handheld.  This is not an uncommon sight in the Amazon, butterflies regularly lick salt from turtles there.  I was in the lounge at Sani Lodge when I saw a butterfly hovering around the head of this turtle.  It was just after lunch, I called to the participants who were around that I was going to run down to the dock to photograph this and they were welcome to join me.  Nobody did, I think partially because the light was terrible being the middle of the day with the sun high overhead.  I managed to get this shot of the butterfly perched right on the turtle's head.  The back of the turtle was badly blown out in the raw file and there wasn't a lot of detail in the dark areas.  I worked on the file with a lot of shadow and highlight adjustments and eventually got it to this point.  It did well in the yearly NANPA contest and was published a couple of times.  It's one of the examples I use where I always say it's worth photographing even in what you would consider poor light if you have something interesting going on. 

Dusky-faced Parakeets photographed by Nate Chappell December 2013 Napo River, Ecuador.  Canon 5D3 500F4 1/800 F7.1, iso 2500, Av mode, evaluative metering -0.3 handheld from boat in moving water.   Another of the highlights of a trip to the Amazonian Ecuador is a visit to the 2 parrot clay licks which are on the other side of the river from Sani.  It requires an early departure from the lodge to get out on the river for the early morning sun which lights up this clay bank which is right on the main river.  There is no way for the boat to anchor here as the current is very swift so you float past the parrots and then return upstream and float down past them again shooting all the while.  I used a variety of F-stops, isos and shutter speeds in this case.  I needed to keep the shutter speed fairly high as the boat was moving quickly and the birds were also moving around.  This image, which is full frame, was my favorite of the shoot. 

Orange-eared Parrots and Cobalt-winged Parakeets photographed December 2013 at Napo Wildlife Center in Ecuador.  Canon 7D 500F4 1/40 at F5.6, iso 800, Av mode, evaluative metering -1.3, Gitzo Tripod, Wimberley Head.  The other parrot clay lick on the other side of the Napo is inside the forest.  You have to hike for a half a mile or so but there is a nice blind when you get to the spot.  It's very dark at the bottom of the forest there so you are typically using fairly low shutter speeds and high isos.  For this image I purposely used a very slow shutter speed to blur the wings of the parrot (upper right) as I had seen this rainbow effect taken by other photographers when this species flew.  I had the tripod fixed in one spot as I was also trying to get the birds on the ground relatively sharp.  I dialed in -1.3 on the exposure compensation as the background was quite dark ground and otherwise the birds would have been badly overexposed (if for example shot with no exposure compensation).  This is one of my favorite images from that clay lick. 

Scarlet Macaws photographed by Charles Gangas January 2019 at Napo Wildlife Center in Ecuador.  Nikon D500 500F4 1/160 F9, iso 2000, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley head.  This species is one of the highlights of that clay lick.  They don't come in every time, I would estimate about 50% of the time we get them when we go to this location.  Here Chuck stopped down to F9 to get both birds sharp. 

Pygmy Marmoset photographed by Nate Chappell August 2018 at Sani Lodge in Ecuador.  Canon 5D4 500F4 1/400 at F4, iso 1250, handheld.  While birds are the main targets on our Ecuador tour, we usually get a few mammals as well.  This species lives near the boat docking area at Sani Lodge so often when we return from a day of photographing the parrots at Napo Wildlife Center we stop to photograph these guys.  They are the smallest monkeys weighing in at only about 3.5 ounces, their diet is largely tree sap which is what we saw them feeding on at Sani.  Nothing too exciting about the techs here, I was trying to get enough speed to get the shot sharp handheld, while moving around and trying to get everyone else in position for a good shot.  Other mammals we sometimes photograph at Sani include Red-howler Monkey, White-lipped Peccary and Black-mantled Tamarin.