At Tom Bol Photo Workshops, we celebrate great images created on our workshops by selecting a Photo of the Month. For April we chose an image from our Costa Rica Rainforest Workshop created by Joe Campbell. We hope you enjoy Joe’s images as much as we do!
Congratulations to April 2022 ‘s featured photographer – Joe Campbell
The Story …
I had been sitting on a log having lunch by myself. I looked around and asked myself, “Where is everybody?” The guides said there was an anteater down the road so I decided to mosey down there.
I went down the road and everyone was shooting from the side by the road. Tom was on the beach side so I went and started shooting near him.
The anteater was climbing down the tree and sat down to rest for awhile. It was like I asked him to pose like that – sitting and enjoying the ocean breeze.
I was telling myself, “This is a damn good shot” How can you miss with a pose like that.
I like using the ring to set the exposure compensation. With the Nikon Z9 you can see it happen right in the viewfinder.
The ISO on the anteater was 2800. I used Topaz Denoise and it worked fine. It does a great job of removing noise most of the time.
EXIF Data:
Nikon Z9 with a 500 mm pf lens
F8, 1/640 sec, ISO 2800, Exposure Compensation +1.3
Manual Mode, Auto Focus Pattern wide-area small
This was the best shot I got from the eyelash viper shoot. Eduardo was using his hook to place the snake on the heliconia. I used content aware to remove the hook from the photo. I try to walk around the subject to get different angles and shading.
I recommend changing your position until you find something that works.
I had never really shot snakes before. I plan to do it again.
About photographing in the Costa Rica jungle
It’s hot. It’s sweaty. And it’s worth it.
I like the variety. Without the guides I would not have seen anything. I do not know how they drive and see things way up in a tree at the same time.
The same was true of the river guides. The boat driver would stop and say, “There is a boa in the tree.” How the hell did he see that. I look over and it looks just like a bee’s nest.
The Sierpe River is where I learned that toucans eat more than fruit. We heard a lot of noise up in a tree. We saw several great-tail grackles chasing a toucan. We saw that there were actually 2 toucans. One was distracting the grackles while the other stole a baby grackle from the nest.
It flew off and I was lucky enough to get a shot of the chick in its beak.
I thank the Z9 for that.
On Changing Positions:
We got a lot of shots of the Tiger Heron from right below the tree branch. Jose, the guide, suggested we move to the other side of the tree.
It popped. That was the place to be.
On Joe’s Horizon
Rookeries in New Jersey at Ocean City and Cape May (great egrets, white ibis, night herons)
Machias Seal Island for puffin
Alaska for Grizzlies
Norway for Northern Lights
We are off to South Texas next for two bird workshops at Laguna Seca and Santa Clara Ranch. After that we are headed to to Southern Spain with Strabo Photo Tours – space still available.
We will add another trip to Costa Rica in April 2024 and have a similar workshop in 2023 in the cloud forest of Ecuador, click here to learn more.
Enjoy your spring and thanks for reading our posts!
Tom and Cree