Costa Rica! Not your normal Quetzal shot
Resplendent Quetzal: San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2023 — I am still trying for my “best” Resplendent Quetzal photo. The light is never good, just after dawn in the shadows of the steep mountain valley on the Pacific slope of Costa Rica, and the distances are just over what we might like…and with the streamer feathers the bird is hard to fit effectively in a frame at any focal length that will capture the feather detail…but still you have to try every time this magnificent bird gives you the chance. And Quetzals in flight? Even harder 🙂 So I am happy with this photo. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 552mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator and Photo Quality (photo enhance and photo unblur). Another shot at ISO 25600.
Costa Rica! Female Quetzal
Female Resplendent Quetzal: San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2023 — The female of the Quetzal shows the birds’ membership in the Trogon tribe more clearly…and it is a fairly spectacular bird in its own right. Quetzal photography always strains the limits of whatever camera you use, as the birds are only reliably active before the sun reaches down into the depths of the Savegre valley…and this was a an overcast day after a rainy dawn anyway. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator and “photo enhancer & photo unblur”. Taken at ISO 25600. 🙂
Costa Rica! In one end and out the other
Lesser Violet-ear Hummingbird: Batsu Gardens, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2023 — Just for a smile. Stuff happens. This Lesser Violet-ear was sipping from a suspended flower and reached the saturation point. This is more common than you might think when hummingbirds drink sugar water. OM Systems OM-1 with the ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 570mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds-in-flight modifications. Processed in Photomator and “photo enhancer and unblur” (great app, terrible title).
Costa Rica! Bird of the day
Lesser Violet-ear Hummingbird: Batsu Gardens, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica — It was raining off and on and quite dark when we got to Batsu Gardens high above the Savegre River, but the hummingbirds came to flowers placed for them and doused with sugar water. This is a Lesser Violet-ear (and no, there is no greater violet-ear)…one of the common hummingbirds of the foothills and cloud forest of Central America. This is a natural light shot…not a multi-flash setup. I was very pleased with the results from the OM-1 in the low light we had to work with. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 570mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Costa Rica! Bird of the day…
Resplendent Quetzal: San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2023 — Bird of the day so far. It is not yet noon and we have an afternoon session with hummingbirds. This was before breakfast this morning, still in the deep shade of the mountains to the east. I never get tired of photographing this bird. OM Systems OM-1 with the ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Taken at ISO 25600! Processed in Photomator.
Costa Rica! Lesson of the day
Being part of a photo workshop here in Costa Rica has pushed me to try new things…or at least to try the lesson of the day my way. This is the Savegre river high in the Talamanca Mountains of Costa Rica, and the lesson of the day was, you guessed it, moving water. Olympus OMD E-M5Mk111 with 12-45mm f4 zoom at 70mm equivalent. Shutter preferred at about .6 seconds to silk the water. Processed in Photomator.
Costa Rica! Focus stacked frog
Red-eyed Leaf Frog: Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapique Valley, Costa Rica — the poster child for Costa Rican conservation, the Red-eyed Leaf Frog (or Tree Frog) is one of the main attractions of Selva Verde Lodge. They have a healthy population right at the foot of the stairs leading up to the dinning hall. They are nocturnal and sensitive to flash so you have to photograph them with led movie lights or with flashlights. This year I got to try the OM Systems OM-1’s in-camera focus stacking…which takes 8 images and stacks them to get the whole frog in focus at the same time. Quite a trick. Especially working from my monopod beanbag. I cannot argue with the results though! Perhaps my best Red-eyed Leaf Frog shot to date. 🙂 As noted the OM Systems OM-1 with the ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and in-camera focus stacking. Processed in Photomator.
Costa Rica! Bird of the day…
Great Green Macaw: We went to a local ranch here in the Sarapiqui Valley where the family has been protecting Macaws for going on two generations. Not, in the beginning, for any other reason than they liked Macaws. They now have a flock of maybe 2-300, mostly Scarlet and hybrid Scarlet and Great Green…with a few pure breed Great Greens. They have feeding platforms where you can watch, and attempt to photograph the Macaws as they fly by at eye-level…and a garden where you can get close enough for portraits…of both the Macaws, and, on the day we visited, a visiting troop of fairly tame White-faced Capuchin monkeys. It is maybe not the same as seeing the macaws at the salt-licks in the Amazon, but it is a pretty amazing experience. And it certainly put my birds-in-flight Program modifications to the test. I was pleased with results and with how easy it was. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 200mm equivalent. (This bird was literally right in my face!) Processed in Photomatic.
Costa Rica! Bird of the day…
White-necked Jacobin Hummingbird, Dave and Dave’s Costa Rican Nature Reserve, La Vegin, Costa Rica, December 2023 — Male White-necked Jacobin Hummingbird in full display flight, guarding one of the Heliconia flowers at Dave and Dave’s this morning. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 506mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds-in-flight modifications. Processed in Photomator and Apple Photos.
Costa Rica! Bird of the day…
Red-headed Barbet: Soda ye Mirador Cinchona, Costa Rica, December 2023 — I saw one of these on my very first trip to Costa Rica, at La Paz Waterfall Gardens, just up the road from here, and I have been looking for another on every trip since. And here it is. Certainly one of the most spectacular of Central American and Costa Rican birds. Worth the trip. 🙂 OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.