Animals are hard to photograph. They’re either far away, skittish, or moving fast. I take these challenges as opportunities to play with focus, impressionistic images, and motion.
Scroll through this page or click on their names to see photographs of monkeys, birds, amphibians and reptiles, insects, and spotted dolphins.
We saw all four species of monkeys that occur on the Osa Peninsula, and photographed three of them: Squirrel monkeys, Spider monkeys, and Howler monkeys. Post-processing of these images mostly involved cropping, as even though I was using a 300- or 400-mm telephoto lens, there was still a lot of background that could be dispensed with.
Click anywhere on the mosaic below to start a slideshow. Within the slideshow, there’s a click-box at the bottom right of each image for viewing the full-size photograph.
The Osa is also a great place for birding, and we were fortunate not only to photograph birds in the forest but also out on the water and in the mangroves.
Click anywhere on the mosaic below to start a slideshow. Within the slideshow, there’s a click-box at the bottom right of each image for viewing the full-size photograph.
Reptiles and amphibians abound in the rainforest. We were fortunate to see two species of poison-dart frogs, as well as lizards and turtles.
In this first set, photographing the frogs presented particular challenges, since there was really very little light. I set the ISO at 12,800 for photographing the frogs.
Click anywhere on the tryptich below to start a slideshow. Within the slideshow, there’s a click-box at the bottom right of each image for viewing the full-size photograph.
There was some discussion as to which of these two turtle photographs “worked” better. Sybil, Brenda, and Adam preferred the left one, I preferred the right.
Click on either photo to start a slideshow. Within the slideshow, there’s a click-box at the bottom right of each image for viewing the full-size photograph.
These next four photos illustrate show cropping changes one’s impression of the scene. My initial crop of the Basilisk lizard (top left) was quite severe. Sybil and Brenda wanted more of the lizard (top right). In contrast, my initial crop of the fence lizard (bottom left) left more of the scene, but Sybil wanted a zoom-in of the lizard (bottom right). How do you feel?
Click anywhere on the grid to start a slideshow. Within the slideshow, there’s a click-box at the bottom right of each image for viewing the full-sized photograph.
Next up, a handful of insects. The puddling butterflies and the army ants were photographed with a 105-mm macro lens and a ring-light strobe flash. The beetle and the owlet butterfly were photographed in natural light with a telephoto lens. There are also some Azteca ants walking along the horns of the Bullhorn acacia shown on the “Form and Function” page.
Click anywhere on the mosaic to start a slideshow. Within the slideshow, there’s a click-box at the bottom right of each image for viewing the full-sized photograph.
Last, but certainly not least, spotted dolphins in Golfo Dulce. We were fortunate to see hundreds of them.
Click anywhere on the mosaic to start a slideshow. Within the slideshow, there’s a click-box at the bottom right of each image for viewing the full-sized photograph.
All photographs are © 2016 by Aaron M. Ellison, all rights reserved. For permission to use or reproduce any of these images, or to purchase a print, please contact me.
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