Trip Reports — Page 2

Dennis July 11, 2011 2 Comments

Costa Rica 2011 The Art of Biodiversity – Part 2

Selva Verde Lodge

We spent three days at this tropical rainforest lodge located on the banks of the Sarapiqui River. The attraction here is the abundance of green and black poison dart frogs and red poison dart frogs as well as masked and red-eyed tree frogs. One back lit basilisk lizard was a challenge to photograph as we tried to move through the undergrowth off the path and not chase the lizard off. There were also lizards climbing a tree next to the dining room, and we even saw a baby fer-de-lance on the side of the path. It couldn’t have been more than three inches in diameter coiled less than a foot from the path. The lodge naturalist moved the snake into the forest for everyone’s (and the snake’s) safety. When Greg was selecting some vegetation for nighttime photography of a red-eyed tree frog, he explained that we had to carefully look under the low vegetation to make certain no fer-de-lance were there. We could hear numerous birds throughout the forest, but they were elusive with the exception of a mot-mot, a chestnut billed toucan, and an ochre bellied flycatcher on the nest. We also had some time with howler monkeys which were very close and almost eye-level from the balcony of the lodge’s classroom. The naturalist believes they come to see their reflection in the floor to ceiling windows.

One morning we traveled to a nearby farm owned by a local family that has preserved some of its property as forest. Great Green Macaws and Scarlet Macaws live in the forest and stay close to the farm to roost and feed. He also had a large enclosure that injured birds, which locals had found were rehabilitated and allowed to go free. There is an opening in the cage where birds can come and go as they please. The owner also rescued two jaguars from being hunted and killed by local villagers for killing cattle. The farmer got the villagers to agree to let him capture the animals rather than just kill them. He built an enclosure to house the jaguars and takes good care of them; they look healthier than some zoo animals I’ve seen.

Costa Rica 2011 The Art of Biodiversity -Part 3

Dennis July 8, 2011 1 Comment

Costa Rica 2011 The Art of Biodiversity Part I

Chris and I traveled recently to Costa Rica with my friend and tour leader, Greg Basco, cofounder of Foto Verde Tours, a provider of tours designed for photographers. Last year I traveled to Costa Rica with Joe and Maryann McDonald primarily to photograph hummingbirds, and met Greg who organized and co-led the trip. This year I signed up early for the Art of Biodiversity tour which offered a wider variety of photographic subjects at the start of the rainy season. Chris decided to join me at a later date, which worked out well as there were only two other participants for a total of four plus Greg and Jose Lopez, our driver and also a very good photographer.

My blog entries for this trip will be divided by location, starting with the Bougainvillea Hotel in Heredia, near San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. We also traveled to Selve Verde Lodge, the Arenal Observatory Lodge, and the Bosque de Paz Ecolodge as well as side trips from those locations.

Don’t want to miss any posts? Sign up for an automatic email letting you know when I’ve posted something new using the widget on the right side panel.

The Bougainvillea Hotel This was my third trip to Costa Rica and each time I stayed at the Bougainvillea to start and end each trip. Tour providers choose this hotel in a residential area for its 10+ acres of gardens that include over 50 species of bromeliads, native trees, orchids and frog ponds. Each visit offered different plants in blossom. And while my two visits in March had quite a few birds in the garden, in June the migratory birds were gone, and the local birds were raising chicks and mostly staying hidden. There were more plants in blossom, but fewer orchids. In any case, I wasn’t disappointed with the opportunities to use my macro lens.

Costa Rica 2011 The Art of Biodiversity – Part 2

Dennis April 21, 2011 2 Comments

Yellowstone National Park in Winter
Part 2

After attending the Natural Exposures Yellowstone in Winter Photo Tour described in Part 1, I picked up a rental car in Bozeman and continued my winter adventure based in Gardiner, MT. Gardiner is only a few miles from the north entrance to the park and Mammoth Hot Springs. Highway 212 passes through the northern section of the park to Cooke City just outside the northeast park boundary. This road is maintained year round and is the only means to reach Cooke City during the winter.

[Read more…]

Dennis March 3, 2011 6 Comments

Yellowstone National Park in Winter — Part 1

Yellowstone National Park in Winter — Part 1

I’ve always wanted to visit Yellowstone in winter to photograph the scenery and wildlife. After considerable internet searching, this year I signed on for a February trip with National Geographic contributing photographer Daniel J. Cox (Natural Exposures). The trip schedule included four day-long excursions by snow coach into the park from West Yellowstone and a day on either end to travel from/to Bozeman. Since I was going to travel to Montana, I added on three days of photographing the park from north entrance at Mammoth Hot Springs, the only area of the park that clears the roads for automobile travel during the winter. More about my independent travels in Part 2.

Part 1 is long and includes both my trip report and a review of the Natural Exposures Yellowstone in Winter Photo Tour for those considering this trip or this tour company. [Read more…]

Dennis October 17, 2010 2 Comments

Fall Color in Rhode Island

The leaves are changing and there’s no predicting where it will be good color, or when. For the first time ever I ventured into western RI to find locatons for fall color photogrpahy. All of these images used High Dynamic Range techniques to capture the hightlight and shadow detail in the high contrast situations. While I definitely needed this technique for cases where the scene was in a dark location (graveyard, stream) and it was backlit, I tried it on reflected light scenes to see if it made a difference and to get some experience in processing those types of images. The first two images were taken 8 October at Carbuncle Pond, and the others were taken on or near the Scituate Resevoir on 13 October.

Dennis October 17, 2010 1 Comment

Jack-o-Lantern Spectacular

Thesea photos were taked at the Jack-o-Lantern Spectacular at Roger Williams Zoo. The featured pumpkins are painted with black ink on teh outside and carved on the inside to allow differing amounts of light to shine through the pumpkin. Hundreds of traditionally carved pumpkins also line the walkway and fill in the spaces around pumpkins decoreated following the theme for the year.