Trogon Photo Tours

October 2016 - In this month's photography article I will discuss techniques for taking compelling mammal images.  It includes mostly images from our recently completed Brazil tour. 

Brazilian Tapir photographed August 2016 at Pousa Alegre Lodge, Pantanal, Brazil.  Canon 1DX II 500F4 1/2500 F5, iso 800, evaluative metering at 0, Av mode,  handheld.  This was a rare oppotunity to get this close to a wild tapir.  We saw 2 tapir from our vehicle stop at a waterhole and then continue on.  So we decided to get out of the car, follow them and try to get some shots.  Probably the most important thing when approaching mammals is to walk and move slowly with no sudden movements and no talking.  We used this approach and we found the 1st tapir at this water hole.  Soon he left but a second tapir, the one in this image, came to drink.  We were able to slowly move around and change positions to get the best angle while he was drinking.  After a time I think he smelled us and turned to try and take in what was there photographing him.  In terms of settings for this shot, I wish I had used a bit more depth of field to get the end of his snout in focus.  While he was drinking the shallow depth of field worked well but as he turned here I needed a bit more. The reason I used a shallow depth of field in the first place is that I was trying to minimize the foreground foliage on the left and blur out of the background so that the tapir would stand out well.  

Bontebok photographed September 2012, West Coast National Park, South Africa.  Nikon D7000, Sigma 150-500 at 400mm, 1/320 F9, iso 400 Av priority, handheld.  One of the techniques for getting close enough to mammals to get portraits is to stay low.  For this shot I was lying on my stomach.  Because of this a group of male Bontebok decided to investigate me.  As we are the only species that walks upright if you are standing up most animals will consider you a threat, but if you are down on the ground, they will generally be much less fearful.  Sometimes participants say "I can get down, but I can't get back up".  I understand, my response is "get as low as you can without getting uncomfortable".  In other words if you are sitting in a chair, this is much preferable to standing up, better yet if you can sit cross legged on the ground that is even better, if you can get all the way down onto your stomach, that will get you the lowest and most intimate viewpoint.  In addition to not scaring the animal getting low puts the background farther away from you which blurs it out more and typically results in a better image.  As far as the techs for this shot, I found that Sigma lens was not particulary sharp wide open so it was best to stop it down about 1 stop, this worked well in this shot to also get most of the animal in focus as well as some of the wildflowers.  Another point that I would make is that if you are walking to photograph mammals, it's best to used camouflaged clothes or at least earth colored clothing (browns and/or dull greens).  

Tayra photographed August 2012, Toucan's Trail, Atlantic Rainforest, Brazil.  Canon 1DX II, 300F4 1/320 F5.6, iso 1600, Av mode, evaluative metering at -1.0, handheld.  Here's another example of getting low to put the background further away.  I dialed in -1.0 because of the dark background, otherwise with the evaluative metering the light parts on the head would have blown out as the camera tries to turn the darks to a mid tone.  I also focused on the eyes as if they are not sharp, it typically ruins the image.  The Tayra is one of the larger members of the weasel family and is widespread from Mexico to Argentina.  I had caughten glimpses of them before but this was my first real photo opportunity with one.  This one regularly came to feed on the bananas that were put out for the birds. Unfortunately he had recently had a quarrel with a porcupine and you can see the spines coming out of his face.  I have many images of him looking straight at me, but I sometimes prefer one looking not directly at the camera as it seems more natural.  

Jaguar photographed August 2016 on the Three Brothers River, Pantanal, Brazil.  Canon 5D3, 300F4 1/1600, F5.6, iso 1600, Av mode, evaluative metering -0.3, handheld from safari boat.  I like this image for both the raised tail and the open mouth.  This is a full frame shot, while with birds over 90% of the time you will be using your longest lens, you often need a shorter lens for mammals, either a zoom or a shorter fixed lens like the 300F4 as they are much larger and sometimes you are fairly close to them.  Note that I took this image from a boat, using a boat or a vehicle you can often get much closer to an animal than on foot as the animal doesn't necessarily recognize you as humans when you are in a car or a boat.  In this case these Jaguars are pretty accustomed to having several boats full of photographers near them.  As with bird photography my default or beginning setting for depth of field is typically one stop down from wide open (ie with a lens with a largest aperture of F4, I stop down to F5.6).  I will try to focus on the eyes but even if I miss that most of the animal should be sharp if I stop down 1 stop.  Stopping down more than 1 stop you lose valuable shutter speed and it will often clutter the background.  Although in this case the background was so close to the animal that there was no way to blur it out in camera.   I used a fairly high iso because I was shooting handheld from a boat that was moving a little bit. 

Hooded Capuchin photographed August 2016 at Rio Claro Lodge, Pantanal, Brazil.  Canon 1DX II, 300F4 1/100 F5, iso 1600, Av mode, evaluative metering +0.7, handheld.  As far as compositions I like to include the whole animal or just the head and shoulders.  I enjoy photographing primates as their faces can be so expressive. With primates and animals that use their hands a lot like squirrels I like to include the hands in the image as well.  Ideally I would have liked a bit more depth of field here but as you can see the light was very limited under the canopy. 

Crab-eating Fox carrying newborn kit, photographed at Pousada Piuval, Pantanal, Brazil. Canon 1DX II, 500F4 1/1000 F5, iso 800, Av mode evaluative metering at 0, handheld. Being in the right place at the right time makes all the difference in wildlife photography. While you can say that this was very lucky, I tell people that the more time I spend in the field, the luckier I get.  Jim Heupel and I were near the front of the lodge waiting for the other participants to come when this mother fox carried a newborn kit past us.  She proceeded to go and get another kit.  At this point I went to the rooms of the other participants to tell them what was going on and she proceeded to bring 3 or 4 more kits out and carry them in her mouth down the road to a culvert.  The foxes den had been underneath the deck of the lodge but there had been a rainstorm the night before and their den had gotten wet so they were looking for a drier location.  I had the group line up on the side of the road out of her way, where we could kind of get below the level of the road to get a nice ground level view.  Again the focus is right on the eye's of the mother.

White-tailed Deer photographed April 2006 in Lakewood, WA.  Canon F1, 500F4, Provia slide film at asa 100, 580ex fill flash, I don't have the other techs.  I was looking for an out of the box portrait I had taken and ran across this scanned slide from way back in 2006.  I thought it was an interesting shot with the doe's head floating in a field of dandelions (this was taken in my back yard - I guess it was past time to mow the lawn!).