Dennis Goulet

Photography

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Costa Rica 2011 The Art of Biodiversity – Part 3

Arenal Observatory Lodge 

Arenal is the country’s most active volcano, with continuous emissions of lava and incandescent pyroclastic flows since the beginning of the present active cycle in 1968.  In 2010 when I visited this location, the eruptions could be heard day and night roaring, coughing and spitting, but due to the low cloud cover, not seen. I did get a view of the pyroclastic flows through a break in the clouds for about 30 seconds one evening. The weather did cooperate this year with clear skies one evening and clear skies one morning during sunrise.  Unfortunately, the volcano stopped erupting to a great extent three months prior to our visit.  It was quiet. You could still see steam coming from several vents in two locations near the summit, but no fireworks.  The lodge grounds offer many gardens, and there was an extensive garden right outside our room where we could observe hummingbirds feeding at the flowers.

We spent one day at a nearby facility that houses a wonderful collection of frogs, toads, snakes, and lizards. The staff set up several stages with natural vegetation, moss covered rocks and stumps; the vegetation on the nearby hills provided out of focus backgrounds, and we could photograph with natural light or with fill flash as we chose.  It was a great opportunity to photograph species which would be difficult, if not dangerous, to photograph in the wild.  The facility also had a butterfly enclosure which I visited while waiting for the set ups to be ready.  Once the stages were completed, several species were brought out and placed in the setup.  An experienced caretaker stayed with the animal at each set up, repositioning the subject when it moved into a position that was not photographic.  The caretaker would replace the animal when it appeared to be too active, or when photographic interest in that subject diminished.  At the end of the day, one caretaker asked my wife Chris if she wanted to hold the Rainbow Python, which she did.  She was surprised that it was very soft to the touch.

We also spent a morning at the Danaus Ecocenter.  There was a limited number of birds in the area due to the time of year, but quality is often better than quantity.  We had quite a long time with several Collared Aracaris feeding on fruit very close to the path.  And one of the guides showed us the location of a baby three-toed sloth since it was not on one of the main paths, but on a service road.

All in all, Arenal Observatory Lodge is one of those locations in Costa Rica which could easily support a week’s worth of photographic subjects, if you know where to look.  There are trails up through the forest to the lava fields and a large lake that we didn’t explore on this trip.  However, unless you were on a Foto Verde guided trip, you wouldn’t have the opportunity to photograph the variety of reptiles that I did on this trip.

 

Costa Rica 2011 The Art of Biodiversity – Part 4

 

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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

 

Costa Rica Photography Trip

At the beginning of March, I travelled to Costa Rica with McDonald Wildlife Photogrpahy to photograph volcanoes, hummingbirds and other rain forest creatures.  We had no luck with the volcano as El Ninio was making its impression on the Costa Rican dry season.  The rainy weather did madi it possible to photograph birds most of the day, when they would typically avoid the heat of mid-day.  One of our first stops was at a small nature preserve known for its boat-billed herons, large birds with very large bills.  Other birds visited a feeding station.  Shown here are Boat-billed Herons, a Collared Aracari, White-collared Manakin displaying, and Tent-making Bats.  The tent making bats chewa small section in the middle of the large leaf causing it to fold over, making a tent for them to sleep in.  Also shown are Pasarini’s Tanager, Summer Tanager and a Blue-grey tanager.

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Winter Has Struck Again

This week the weather forcaseters imagined a big storm hiting the Northeast; however, it only brought a few inches of snow.  The windblown snow that did arrive stuck to everything.  The first image is from the side yard, before the turkeys got to tranpling through the snow.  I also drove to some locations in town where streams pass under the road to see if I could find any good scenes to photograph.  Then I went into the back yard to photograph the birds coming to our feeding stations.   The scenic images were taken with my new Canon 5D Mark II and a 24-105mm IS lens.  The the birds were photographed with my Canon 7D,  and the 500mm f4 with a 1.4X converter on it.  I cropped the images after that.  It’s amazing how small a crop can be made and retain the details of the feathers.

Gone Fishing in Homer, AK

One thing I didn’t plan when going to Homer to photograph bald eagles was the prospet of capturing the eagles as they swooped in to catch a fish near the surface of rthe water.  I always thought that must be one lucky photographer to be in the right spot, with the right equipment, at the right time.  It didn’t occur to me that as with birds in the back yard, if you put out food, they will come.

A local water taxi operator brought us, and a couple of cases of frozen fish, to a quiet bay across from Homer.  Since the ordinance on feeding eagles only applies to the city limits of Homer, the captain is able to toss fish into the water.  While there were only three or four eagles in the tree tops when we arrived, there were more than 20 eventually.

Turkeys in the Yard

We are regularly visited by a group of seven male turkeys, who come to the yard to eat seeds we put out for the birds.  For twenty years we had never seen a turkey in our yard and for the last five years or so we’ve had as many as 27  visit at once.  They have become acoustomed to us bringing birdseed out for them, and often walk as close as  8-10 feet from us without  getting nervous.

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