Wildlife and birding photographs from Costa Rica
2346 words; 34 photos; 12-minute read
I’m writing this on our last day here in Costa Rica. It’s 20°C in San José, and the sky is overcast. Earlier we had a light sprinkle of rain. Although it’s the wet season, rain has not been a factor in our three weeks here. In fact, we’ve had many beautiful days of sunshine, though it usually came with 30+° temps and 100% humidity.
The view from our balcony at the Hotel Bougainvillea is a near 10-acre spread of beautiful tropical gardens and ponds filled with flowers, birds and butterflies. Frogs and owls call at night, but right now it’s the raucous parakeets and parrots who are making their presence known. In auditory relief, the musical duets of Melodious Blackbirds are echoing from tree to tree.
OM-1 | M.Zuiko 12-100mm/4 PRO at 57mm (114mm efov) | POL | ƒ5.6 @ 1/800 | ISO 800 | Lightroom
The smouldering mass of the Arenal volcano looms over the surrounding forests. Active as recently as 2010, a plume of steam still rises from the top.
Birds have been our specific focus for much of the trip as we were two of 12 participants on an Eagle-Eye Tours birding tour. Collectively, we recorded 337 species which, from what I’m told, is a huge number. Given that Ontario has a total of 511 recorded species (ever), I guess seeing 337 species in 12 days is significant. This is thanks to our guides, Ernesto and Jody, who were, bar none, the most knowledgeable and perceptive guides I have ever worked with. It also helped that the folks on our tour were also excellent birders. Me? I spent my time looking for ideal backgrounds in a very busy space of tropical plants, pointing the camera, and patiently waiting for each bird to make its appearance, hoping I had enough light.
OM-1 | 100mm (200mm efov) | ƒ11 @ 1/1000 | ISO 12800 | Lightroom
Not only are rainforests hot, damp and dark, they have a kaleidoscope of green layers both vertically and laterally, allowing birds, frogs and insects to be heard, but rarely seen. In this scene, there appears to be lots of light, and I could have shot at ISO 1600, but with birds in the leafy shadows, I had the ISO set for action, not still life.
In a typical day, I had between 20 and 40 opportunities when birds or other wildlife were close enough for decent photographs. I translate ‘decent photographs’ into:
- the bird is close enough for a clear image without too much cropping;
- the light is contrasty enough to show their amazing colours;
- the background isn’t a milk-white sky as we often had, nor a jigsaw puzzle of distractingly glossy leaves with annoying highlights;
- there is enough light to keep ISOs at or below 12800; along with
- a high enough shutter speed to freeze my movement at high magnification and that of the bird.
It seems simple enough, but these ideal conditions simply did not occur as often as I liked. There were times when I shot absolutely nothing, despite seeing dozens of different species. Most were simply too far away, even with an 800mm equivalent zoom. I have more photos of beautifully coloured birds silhouetted against a white sky than I’d care to disclose. A waste of pixels, no matter what camera system is being used. Oh well. Despite the limitations, I think I have a fair crop of decent photos.
OM-1 | 123mm (246mm efov) | ƒ11 @ 1/160 | ISO 3200 | Lightroom
With the bulk of the birding part of our trip over (though true birders are always on alert), I began turning my attention to details in the forests. I photographed this both with focus stacking at ƒ8 and this version, a single shot, at ƒ11. They are both very similar, but I chose this version due to the slightly better composition.
I can honestly say, I’ve culled from thousands of captures, about 300 which I am happy to share. Many of them are repeats of the same species, and many have more meaning to me, personally, than to you, the objective observer. I hope the 24 I’ve chosen to share give you a sense of the experience.
As I always state up front, my goal in photography is capture the essence of place and the art inherent in nature. I think I’ve achieved that in this set of photographs. Ansel Adams always maintained that ”twelve significant photographs in a year is a good crop”. The 30 I’m presenting here aren’t all ‘significant’, but given the stunning colours of the birds, it’s hard not to include them.
OM-1 | 400mm (800mm efov) | ƒ8 @ 1/4000 | ISO 3200 | Lightroom
The industriousness of leaf-cutter ants is miraculous. Thousands of steps from their nest they climb a tree or shrub, cut the leaves and carry them down to the nest. Along the way, there are ‘quality control ants’ which determine if the leaves being cut are still acceptable as, once the leaf-cutting starts, the plant defensively begins producing toxins to discourage the ants from stripping all the leaves. Ingenious! BTW, the ants don’t eat the leaves; down in the nest, the leaves are used to farm a fungus, which is what the ants eat. If this was written into a story, no one would believe it.
As the photographer, I’m responsible for ‘working’ the composition plus all the techy stuff of exposure and post-capture processing. The beauty is in what I am photographing. The colours run the whole gamut of the spectrum; the patterns and designs are simply wild. Honeycreepers with electric blue next to azure and black with glowing red legs. The shimmering colours of hummingbirds changing in the light, blinking on and off like disco lights—amazing!
OM-1 | 400mm | ƒ8 @ 1/640 | ISO 3200 | Lightroom
Strikingly coloured, especially against the dark green of the forest, as if it’s being lit from inside.
Perhaps the most memorable moment of the trip was stopping along a highway busy and loud with transport trucks carrying bananas and pineapples to the port of Límon. The show was happening above us: thousands upon thousands of turkey vultures, black vultures, broad-winged hawks, and Swainson’s hawks were migrating—swirling and kettling and streaming above us. We often see videos of the caribou migration in the Arctic or the wildebeest migration on the Serengeti Plain; this is just as impressive. The sky was filled with large raptors. Phenomenal.
Throughout the past few weeks I was constantly reminded of how exquisitely intricate, connected, diverse, and beautiful nature is, and how vulnerable it is to our disturbing human influences.
Costa Rica is regarded around the world as a gem of biodiversity, but even it is on the edge. National Parks, the only way to actually protect tracts of land large enough for wildlife, are woefully underfunded. And, like in Canada, unless protected by conservation movements, land that’s not in a national park is fair game for just about any development that comes along.
Much of Costa Rica is farmed and cash crops are their agricultural staple. We passed thousands of hectares of plantations: oil palm, bananas, pineapple, coffee, coconuts, sugar cane, papayas, mangoes. I’m not being critical of this, especially considering our ‘plantations’ of soybeans, corn, wheat, oats, flax, lentils, not to mention all the thousands of square kilometres of monocultural tree plantations across our country. But, to our collective surprise, we learned that Costa Rica has the most intensive use of pesticides of anywhere in the world, on a per capita basis. We watched as farm workers aggressively sprayed crops, by hand, with no protection other than the clothes they wore, rubber boots, and an apron. Some had gloves. None had masks. Scarey!
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Every wonder where your tropical house plants come from? Costa Rica is not all cloud forest and rainforest! A significant area is farmed for palm oil, bananas, and pineapples, amongst others. Oil palm plantations are the worst, though. We really need to stop using palm oil.
But Costa Rica is well-forested, right? It is, but half of the forested area is secondary forest. This means that, just like in southern Ontario, the original forest has been cut down. As ecosystems go, secondary forest may look good, but it is very incomplete. The point is, Costa Rica is green, but all is not as good as it seems. Eco-tourism is fundamental to Costa Rica, but there is also a lot of greenwashing going on.
OM-1 | 123mm (246mm efov) | ƒ8 @ 1/250 | ISO 400 | Lightroom
Rainforest leaves and vegetation are renewed regularly and quickly. Seeing a growing leaf with moss and lichen on it really stands out from the the shiny, new leaves of all the vines, lianas, shrubs and trees.
Why am I telling you this? Partly for context, but also to say that the incredible biodiversity that still exists in Costa Rica is highly vulnerable. Tourism that involves seeing wildlife and birds in their natural habitats definitely helps maintain ecosystems by providing reasons for protecting that biodiversity. However, mass- and over-tourism with the subsequent demands by tourists for food, water, extravagant accommodations, and sewage disposal all lead to an erosion of that diversity. It’s a balancing act that, so far, Costa Rica is doing okay with. Hopefully that will continue.
In Canada, when our governments don’t properly protect significant habitats, at least we have land conservancies and land trusts that use public contributions (that’s you and me!) to purchase ecologically significant parcels for permanent protection (Nature Conservancy of Canada, Bruce Trail Conservancy, Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy, to name just three). This idea is just getting off the ground in Costa Rica. One such organization is Cerulean.org: a group of like-minded, ecologically-conscious researchers who have joined forces to begin the process of protecting land essential to migrating birds and endemic species alike. They will soon begin fundraising to secure the beginnings of a new and critical nature reserve.
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Due to the fast decomposition of leaf litter and recycling of nutrients, the soil in rainforests is poor and thin, forcing trees to spread their roots near the surface. To better anchor themselves, trees develop massive buttressed roots, an idea borrowed by the cathedral-builders of Western Europe. The trees also rely on the surrounding forest to reduce the impact of winds.
Okay, enough waxing; let’s see more photos. For your viewing pleasure, I’ve set this up as a gallery that you can scroll through without having to come back to this text. Unless otherwise stated, all photographs were made with an OM Systems ‘Olympus’ OM-1 with the M.Zuiko 100-400mm IS zoom lens and processed in Lightroom. I really need to credit the outstanding IBIS stabilization of the OM-1 as well as its sensor. With 20 MP packed into a Micro FourThirds sensor, I am always amazed at the image quality, even at ISO 12,800. Thanks OM Digital Solutions and Lightroom denoise for helping me to look good!
I’ve included some notes in the captions, but if you have any questions about the animals you see or the techniques or equipment used to make the photographs, be sure to add a COMMENT or send me an email.
This blog is completely free and I do not include commercial affiliate links. To help keep it free, consider buying me a coffee. And, feel free to hit the SHARE button up in your browser to pass it along to others.
Click on any photo to open the Gallery. Camera settings are available by selecting the i button in the Gallery.
For more photos, see my two early posts about Costa Rica:
- 19 Oct: Photographing in the rainforest is bloody difficult, but oh so satisfying!!
- 25 Oct: Update: Bird Photography in Costa Rica
Even the immature male is colourful.
If you think this is green, wat ’til you see the male . . .
Neon tourquoise!
A quiet, forest bird which communicates with a quiet, owl-like ’mot-mot’.
This must be the happiest, most content-looking animal around.
How our guide Ernesto saw this snake is incredible. It is only the width of a baby finger and maybe a hand-span long and was twirled around a tree, in the pitch dark.
This ‘fellow’ slowly navigated along telephone wires, past hibiscus flowers and leaves, to enjoy a meal of morning glory leaves.
This is the largest kingfisher in the Americas, as opposed to . . .
. . . the smallest kingfisher. This one was buried deep in the rainforest of Cahuita National Park.
This bird is the size of a turkey. I was only a few metres away, yet in the thick foliage and deep shadows of a 3m shrub, it completely disappeared.
This magnificent jay was the focus of some serious searching below the slopes of the Arenal volcano.
A gardener at Hotel Bougainvillea pointed out this owl and its mate to us, buried deeply in the 15m high stand of bamboo.
Affinity: Completely re-designed and absolutely free—forever—with a twist.
881 words; 5-minute read
Wow! Four weeks ago, Affinity put out a teaser that something big was on its way. We in the photographic community were fearful that a big, new, super-duper change would turn into subscription pricing. As it turns out, that’s only partially true.
A year ago, Affinity was (sadly) acquired by Canva, so subscription pricing seemed to be a certainty.
Guess what? The brand new Affinity Studio brings together Affinity Photo, Publishing, and Designer into one unified suite. And . . . “it is and always will remain completely free of charge”. That includes every update and new feature moving forward. This is truly significant!
I’ve always liked Affinity. A year ago, I dropped Photoshop from my Adobe subscription saving about $10/month. Affinity Photo was a lot less expensive and does everything I need it to do. As well, I found it to perform better on iPad than Photoshop. I use the app for merging panos, HDR blending, and focus stacking, making composite images for blogs—all on iPad. Plus, it’s great when I need to create title graphics. I’ve also used Affinity Publisher to make multi-image posters, such as the Birds of the Rideau.
Now, the three Affinity apps—Photo, Publisher and Designer—have been amalgamated into one suite that offers Vector, Pixel and Layout workspaces. And it’s incredibly powerful, and free. It’s like getting a whole slew of Adobe apps—Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, etc., etc.— all in one smooth and fast app. For free. ‘But,’ you say, ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch!’ This time, there is.
If you’re not familiar with Affinity Photo, it is, arguably, the best Photoshop replacement. You can edit photos from raw in a dedicated workspace and output your images in just about any format, including Adobe Photoshop’s .psd files. You can do masking and filtering and all the amazing things you do in Photoshop, and more. For free! Users of Affinity Photo will find the upgrade to the Suite straightforward; just keep in mind that for photos, you’ll be working in the Pixel workspace.
Perhaps the one caveat is that Affinity Suite is being marketed to ‘creatives’ as opposed to ‘photographers’. If you watch the Keynote video or the Intro video, you’ll see what I mean. Photo editing is still a mainstay of the app, however, with everything Affinity Suite can do, it really is for those who are doing far more than editing raw files, including making posters, books, graphics of all inns and just about anything that uses photos, raster and vector graphics.
The other big difference, though, is AI. Like the old Affinity Photo, the new free version, Affinity Suite, does not include AI. This suits me fine as, for my work in #RealWorldPhotography, aka #AuthenticPhotography, I’ve made the conscious decision not to include any form of generative AI. (Read my article Navigating the AI Juggernaut here.)
If you want to use Affinity and have AI available for generative fill, generative expand and generative remove, you will need to subscribe to Canva AI Studio. But, at $150/year, if AI is that important, you are better off using Photoshop with your Lightroom package. Not only is the integration seamless, but the price point is better.
I think Canva’s decision to price its Studio app as high as $150/year (= CAD 12.50/mo) is a bit surprising. Canva Studio AI will not draw Lightroom users away as, let’s face it, Lightroom is the de facto industrial-strength photo editing suite. And, adding Photoshop to Lightroom is only another $10/month, which makes it cheaper than Canva and includes 1TB of cloud space and Portfolio website design.
This seemingly high pricing is similar to Topaz’s decision to price its PhotoAI subscription as high as they do. Photo AI is about CAD $24/mo; Topaz Studio, which includes all their apps, is over $50/mo. I don’t understand the thinking behind this, as neither Canva nor Topaz have the same ‘industrial strength’ as Lightroom+Photoshop. DxO PhotoLab (reviewed here), which also carries a comparatively high price at about $28/mo or USD $239/yr, is also over-priced. Why have these companies priced their software higher than Adobe? I have no crystal ball, but my concern now is that Adobe will be jacking up their prices. Yikes! Let’s hope not.
So, what to do? First of all, Affinity Suite is only available for macOS and Windows; the iPad version is ‘coming soon’. If you’re happy with Affinity Photo, then upgrading to the free Affinity Suite may not be needed. However, if you are convinced AI is your route to better photography, then I suggest using Lightroom+Photoshop. At CAD $26/mo it’s also the most complete and the most competitively priced photo editing suite. If you have a Lightroom subscription and you’re happy doing #RealWorldPhotography with no generative IA, then stick with Lightroom plus Affinity Photo or upgrade to Affinity Suite, which is what I’ll be doing.
Thanks for reading. This blog is completely free and I do not include affiliate links. To help keep it free, consider buying me a coffee.
Be sure to SHARE with your photog friends and/or continue the discussion with a COMMENT or QUESTION.
Update: Bird Photography in Costa Rica
2113 words; 17 photos; 11-minute read
Clicking on images will enlarge them.
Although it’s the rainy season, we’ve had more than our fair share of sunny weather. Up in the Central Valley and highlands, it was actually pleasant, with just enough cloud to soften shadows. But down here on the southeast Caribbean coast, just a few kilometres north of Panama, the sunny skies bring heat and humidity. The past two days have been scorchers!
OM-1 | M.Zuiko 100-400mm at 400mm (800mm efov) | ƒ11 @ 1/200 |ISO 6400 | Lightroom
This beauty is arguably the most sought-after bird in Central America. It feeds on wild avocados, swallowing the plum-sized fruit whole, then regurgitating the pit before retreating back into the canopy.
The birds here in Costa Rica are simply stunning. Our guides from Eagle-Eye Tours are on top of everything that moves or calls, with instant identifications. Ernesto Carman is from Costa Rica and knows not just the birds but is an encyclopaedia of natural and cultural history. Jody Allair, from Birds Canada, is amazing with the IDs, and both are quick on the scopes, providing us with clear views of distant birds. Even our driver Ricardo is a birder with a keen eye.
400mm | ƒ8 @ 1/5000 | ISO 6400 | Lightroom
The hummingbirds are nothing short of magnificent and most of the time, predictable. They either have perches they return to, like this Jacobin, or like the Violet Sabrewing below, they hover away from the feeder for a brief second before and after feeding.
The folks we’re travelling with—a total of 12 —are also excellent birders. They are from across the continent from Vancouver Island to Toronto to south Texas and Arizona and bring with them a world of birding. It’s been great to share travel stories and experiences.
400mm | ƒ8 @ 1/2500 | ISO 1600 | Lightroom
And guess what? It really does make a laughing-like call. Note leaf cutter ants carrying pieces of leaves along the top edge of the branch.
From a photography perspective, I really can’t complain. I’ve had some excellent photo ops, most of which I’ve been able to take advantage of. However, I’ve also noticed that birders are satisfied with seeing a bird half a kilometre away, provided they can ID it. How they can see the leg-colour or a flash of whatever at that distance is beyond me!
400mm | ƒ8 @ 1/5000 | ISO 6400 | Lightroom
400mm | ƒ8 @ 1/200 | ISO 3200 | Lightroom
Field Equipment
On my OM-1, I’m using the M.Zuiko 100-400/5-6.3 (200-800mm efov). For me, even with an 800mm equivalent lens, I need the bird within 20m for what I would consider a successful photo. The Olympus Big White or the 150-600mm would have allowed a greater number of successes, though the added weight would have its own consequences. For ease of vertical shooting and near limitless battery power, I’ve added the HLD-10 vertical grip.
400mm | ƒ8 @ 1/5000 | ISO 6400 |Lightroom
The massive bill on this toucan is actually quite light as it is constructed with a thin skin of keratin over internal structural supports, like an airplane.
Another addition I’ve made to my set-up is a monopod. I know how Olympus/OM System users love to boast about handholding such light equipment with great stabilization, almost as a badge of honour, to the point where even on the OM System website, you’ll rarely see a tripod and never a monopod.
Holding a 2+kg system of body and lens for minutes on end while watching a hummingbird or scanning the canopy for a tell-tale flash of colour simply became uncomfortable when repeated over the course of the day, in 30° heat at 100% humidity. I’m used to a monopod from my years of shooting sports, so using one in these conditions was a no-brainer.
400mm (800mm efov) | ƒ8 @ 1/32000 | ISO 3200 | Lightroom
Silly settings for a static, sunlit silhouette. Just before this, I had been photographing birds in the shaded, dim forest canopy and failed to switch on the fly.
Two of our trip-mates are getting some great results from the Nikon P950, considered to be one of the best birding cameras within financial reach. It’s a super-zoom bridge camera that sports a 2000mm lens (efov), which is great for most sunny and bright conditions. Having a smaller sensor, it is limited to ISO 1600 and even that’s a stretch.
Another thing I’ve learned about birders is that they are happy if they can ID a bird through the leaves or branches of tree. This doesn’t really work for photographs. I have lots of photos of parts of birds seen through the leaves (mostly the butt end) that have now seen the trash bin. They ask me, “Did you get that Shining Honeycreeper?” Well, I did, but only the yellow legs!
Most of our birding has been along road sides, places Ernesto has flagged as being productive. A few great successes have resulted from patiently waiting around feeders and flower gardens set up to attract birds, especially hummingbirds. It’s fine to see the hummers on the feeder, but catching them on the wing or on flowers is a great deal more difficult, again with plenty of misses. The OM-1’s subject tracking allows me to focus on the bird while on the feeder, then track it when it backs off.
One of the most significant features of a good wildlife photo is having a clear background, free from distractions. This has been difficult in the chaotic jumble of a rainforest and tropical plants. With vines, glossy leaves and spots of sunlight through the canopy, it has been especially important to find shooting positions that provide as neutral a background as possible.
300mm (600mm efov) | ƒ8 @ 1/4000 | ISO 6400 | Lightroom
Culling & Processing
At the end of each day, I’ve had between 200 and 500 image files to wade through—the most I’ve 3ver had to deal with on a daily basis. I’m glad I brought my MacBook Air with me. Not only does it make culling faster, it provides full processing capability with Lightroom, with noise reduction and batch processing. On our Tanzania trip last year, I had only my iPad, on which Lightroom is still a bit limiting.
Using the MBA has sped things up, but with hundreds of files each day, it is still a bit of trial keeping up. I enjoy the editing side almost as much as the field work, so it’s doable. What I don’t enjoy is wading through countless rather similar photos of the same subject. But duplicates are unavoidable.
227mm (454mm efov) | ƒ8 @ 1/15 | ISO 6400 | Lightroom
The slow shutter speed and high ISO indicate that this photo was made at 6:11pm almost 45 minutes after sunset. At this point, I hadn’t started using the monopod, so it’s a good example of how good the stabilization is.
I prefer shooting in single-shot mode, but with birds in near constant motion, I find that continuous AF and burst shooting allows me to capture subtle movements resulting in better facial expressions and body position. It also means multiple near duplicates which require scrutiny.
400mm (800mm efov) | ƒ8 @ 1/1000 | ISO 12800 | Lightroom
This elusive and rarely-seen marsh bird skulks amongst the overgrown vegetation, coming out only to feed.
307mm (614mm efov) | ƒ8 @ 1/2500 | ISO 6400 | Lightroom
I start by flagging the best of the lot. As I scroll through I quickly flag potentials, X the definite out-takes and leave the duplicates of something I’ve flagged. As I’m working, I’m paying close attention to sharpness, body position, duplicates and overall design.
With over 50% of files culled in the first pass, I then check and double-check focus and facial expressions. I find the 100-400 great up to about 20m, but beyond that it noticeably softens, even at ƒ8. Some of the photos I was hoping would be production quality, simply don’t make the cut. This is disappointing. Other than investing in a different lens, I’m not sure what to do, except to be aware of the shortcomings and work within them.
400mm (800mm efov) | ƒ8 @ 1/400 | ISO 6400 | Lightroom
We must have spent 30 minutes on a grey, slightly drizzly day up in the highlands, trying to track this fellow. With its distinctive orange chest, the birders had immediately ID’d the bird, but getting a clear photograph of it was a challenge/
With flagged images identifies, I then concentrate on finding the best of them. I don’t want to waste time processing sub-standard images, so I’m really critical at this stage. If it has great potential, I give it three stars.
Initial processing includes denoising as ISO is often in the 3200 to 12800 range. I find that a Denoise value of 50 to 65 works well with 80 to 100 in Detail Sharpening, plus 30 in Masking. I built these into a preset which also includes +10 in Clarity. If I had time, I might consider running some of the troublesome files through DxO PureRAW or, to correct slight camera movement, Topaz Photo AI. I might still do so once I’m home and have the t8me, but not here.
Next, the file is off to cropping and the various Exposure adjustments. Raising shadows is always important, as well as having an accurate value for ‘White’s to lift the overall colour and presence.
400mm (800mm efov) | ƒ8 @ 1/12800 | ISO 6400 | Lightroom
Watching the behaviours of these hummingbirds—some skittish, some bold, others downright aggressive to each other—was entertaining, especially when they were displaying like this..
At this stage, I begin masking. With birds, I use two masks: Subject and Background. Once the subject mask is tweaked to include just the subject (or anything else I want lit equally, such as the branch they are on), I ‘Duplicate and Invert’ to create a background mask.
The background mask is important for reducing the visual distraction of background elements. I also find that when the exposure of the background is slightly reduced, the subject itself stands out more clearly. Again, this is done in a way that maintains the natural look of the scene. Typically, I will decrease Exposure by 0.3 to 0.5, and reduce Contrast, Highlights and Whites by 30 to 50.
400mm (800mm efov) | ƒ8 @ 1/8000 | ISO 6400 | Lightroom
300mm (800mm efov) | ƒ8 @ 1/400 | ISO 6400 | Lightroom
At this point, the file will earn an additional star, the fourth star indicating it has been processed, but is an image with high visual quality. ‘5 stars’ is reserved for only the best of the best.
So this is how I spend my downtime. Culling and editing takes time and I’m always conscious of finding the balance between being ‘in the moment’ with the group and finding that personal space I need. Laura and I just aren’t used to travelling in a group so, for me, the downtime is essential. Everyone is very understanding. Some are also doing some selecting and editing, others are leaving it all to when they get home. There’s no right way to approach it; I just find that if I’m faced with a couple thousand images at home, all of birds that are totally new to me, I would feel completely overwhelmed. So I continue to chip away at it.
400mm (800mm efov) | ƒ8 @ 1/6400 | ISO 6400 | Lightroom
Identifying the birds is the most difficult part for me. Our guides are great at calling out the names in the field as we see each bird, but my brain just. cannot retain all that new data. Once I have decided a photo is worth editing, I use the Cornell Labs Merlin Bird ID app to identify the bird and Wikipedia to look up and copy the Latin or scientific name. It is an essential tool, not just for IDing brids after the fact, but for use in the field. The Identify by Sound feature is game-changer, alerting you to what’s out there that you can’t yet see.
Stay tuned from more! Now that we’ve been down to the southeast the country and visited Cahuita National Park, I’ll be sure to post at least once more from Costa Rica.
Thanks for reading. Be sure to SHARE this with other birders and photographers and feel free to SUBSCRIBE and COMMENT. Note, this is not a commercial blog. The links are not afflicate links and I earn no kickbacks from having you read and share.
Photographing in the rainforest is bloody difficult, but oh so satisfying!!
1795 words; 28 photographs; 9-minute read
My wife Laura and I have travelled to Costa Rica to join a ’12-day’ bird-watching tour offered by Birds Canada through a Canadian company called Eagle-Eye Tours. Laura’s the birder (though not a ’ticker’!!), and I just try to keep up with her idents with photographs. However, we’re more interested in the complete spectrum of species found in various habitats, hoping to experience all that nature has to offer, so Costa Rica seemed like a good fit. We decided to come early to check out more of Costa Rica.
And guess what? It’s the rainy season, and we’re in a rainforest!
OM-1 | 400mm | ƒ8 @ 1/1000 | ISO 3200 | Lightroom
These settings are the basic ’formula’ used for many of the shots below, so I’ll not repeat it, except to say shutter speeds varied widely depending on light, as did the ISOs, going as high at ISO 25600.
Rainforests are somewhat new to us. Despite our time in Tanzania and Southeast Asia, we haven’t spent more than a few hours in an actual rainforest. You see, we melt in the heat, preferring the cooler climes of Iceland and Ontario in the Fall, Winter and Spring. However, we’re also game to try most things.
1/320 at ISO 6400
So why did we come to the rainforest in the rainy season? Well, that’s when the tour was scheduled. Eagle-Eye Tours and Birds Canada are not fly-by-night organizations, so I’m putting my trust in their knowledge. Apparently, the Caribbean side is not as rainy as the Pacific side, where we are currently located. It’s rained everyday, but mornings to mid-afternoon have been spectacular, though hot!
Of all the travelling we’ve done to across Canada, to Africa, Asia and Europe, aside from the school trips we’ve organized, this is our first ‘organized tour’. Typically, we like to book a rental car and our own accommodations, usually with kitchen facilities, so we can experience a place more like the local people by shopping in grocery stores and driving ourselves around. ‘Hotelling it” is just not in our culture. But this trip is different.
1/50 at ISO 12800
Costa Rica itself is well-known as a place of nature. Yes, they have logging and vast plantations of oil palm, bananas, mangoes and pineapples, but they seem to have convinced the world that they are ’green’ or at least greener than other places. And they are. In fact, Costa Rica is one of the greenest countries on the planet.
The country comes across as a developing nation with some of the classic tells: a spaghetti plate of telecom wires up on poles; cement construction; tin roofs; and a number of ’fixer-up specials’. So I was surprised to learn that as of 2025, the World Bank declared Costa Rica a high-income country—and the prices show it! Although the car rental wasn’t too pricey, we’re paying Canadian prices for almost everything else such as accommodations and drinks. Dinners are easily more expensive here than in Paris! My seafood fettuccini was $50 and here we are beside the ocean! Our guess is the higher prices are due to the number of American tourists here.
We began in the capital San José, at the Hotel Robledal, and are now in the village of Manual Antonio, just outside the National Park of the same name, at the Hotel Playa Espadilla. But I know, you’re more interested in the photography.
Hotel Robledal
I’m referencing the name of the hotel as it is a favourite for birding tours due to the nearly three hundred bird species identified on the property. The hotel has also made a commitment to maintaining and expanding biodiversity which includes a successful owl box programme. Although hotel-based tourism and biodiversity are at polar opposites, at least the hotel is making an attempt.
1/1000 at ISO 3200
It’s the gardens that attract the birds and butterflies, and with plants blooming all year around, there is always a source of nectar and fruits. Add in some pieces of old banana around a feeding station and voià, there are birds.
Royal Butterflies
Just off the Highway 34, about two-thirds of the way to Quepos and Manuel Antonio National Park is Royal Butterflies. Started 10 years ago by American expat ’Dan’, it’s a small, quirky place with a few butterfly species in a large outdoor net enclosure and whole pile of enthusiasm for raising butterflies.
In its typically generous way, Trip Advisor gives it a 4.9; I think a 3 is more appropriate. Dan was fantastic with his more-than-thorough explanations and stories, but with dogs underfoot and only a few species, it was only okay.
10-image focus stack
Manuel Antonio National Park
We arrived during the afternoon rain to our place just outside of the Park, chosen so that the next morning we had only a 5-minute walk to the trailhead. Being cheap and being pretty astute and observant naturalists, we balked at spending USD $80 each for a guide for two hours. But, it’s the slow season, so they offered a private guide for two us for $40 each. Evan that is more than we would typically spend, but for once we thought, ”What the heck?” Our guide Hans had a birding scope with him, so he must be legit. And he was.
1/60 @ ISO 6400
Our experience to date has been with driver-guides in Tanzania. They are equally astounding in their ability to spot details, but once we had been out on safari a few times, we felt we were pretty much on par with them. A rainforest is a very different scenario, so the $80 was well-spent. We were positively astounded at what Hans saw and we how much we would have missed—completely. An African safari is easily a magnitude greater in diversity than a hike through Algonquin; a rainforest is at least another order of magnitude greater than the savanna. On top of that is the vastly greater number of places wildlife can hide. The wall of vegetation just a metre from the trail can hide just about anything.
1/320 @ ISO 12800
1/640 @ ISO 6400
Cardinal Rule: Never Leave the Trail
We learned very quickly why you never—EVER—leave the trail. In an open spot, just a metre off the trail, Hans excitedly pointed out a highly venomous Fer-de-Lance viper. And that was the one we could see! Imagine the ones that are just under the leaf litter or so well blended in to be invisible until it’s too late. And, unlike our local Massassauga rattler, there is no warning buzz! According to TicoTravel.com, the Fer-de-Lance (’spearhead’ en englais), “accounts for 46% of snakebites and 30% of hospitalizations” in Costa Rica. At first, I wondered if the guides placed a rubber snake alongside the trail, just to make their point about staying on trail, but no. It was the real deal.
1/50 at ISO 12800 — Despite the dappled light filtering through the canopy, it was still dark!
Hans continued to point out a multitude of wildlife including both two-toed and three-toed sloths, three species of monkeys, juvenile iguanas, terrestrial crabs, not to mention the species we would never have seen without him: a tent-making bat, rainbow grasshoppers, two species of tree frog, two species of basilisk lizard, plus the innumerable interesting tid-bits he related to us about the astounding diversity of foliage, including the Giant Pelican flower.
Rainforest Photography
To put it simply, photographing in the rainforest is a completely different experience than anywhere else. Out on the East African savanna, there is no shortage of light. Even in Iceland, under cloudy skies, there is plenty of light. The forests of eastern North America can be dark, but they are nothing compared to the dimness of the rainforest. Before breakfast, we decided to do a short hike along a trail through a nature reserve created by the owners of the hotel we’re in. Being adjacent to Manuel Antonio National Park, it shares all the same wildlife. But at 7am, almost 90 minutes after sunrise, it was like someone had turned out the lights. Walking into the forest was like entering a cave.
1/80 @ ISO 12800
Trying to bend myself under the fronds of this palm which the bats had nipped to form a tent was an exercise in limbo dancing.
Even a simple shot of the rather medieval-looking Desmoncus orthacanthos required an ISO of 25600, and that only gave me ƒ/8 @ 1/60!! To capture the deer, I waited until it was stalk-still and even then I needed a very steady hand, shooting at 1/100 despite using ISO 25600. Unreal! I’m very thankful for the engineers at Adobe who have created the denoising algorithms in Lightroom.
1/60 at ISO 25800
This is the stem of a climbing palm that appears to have more in common with a mediaeval weapon, then a rainforest plant!
And then there is the dampness, the humidity, the sweat, seeping out of every pore. Even without the rain (which held off for a few days!!), with temperatures approaching 30°C at 100% humidity, we were soaked within minutes. Glasses became fogged or smeared with sunscreen and sweat and it wasn’t long before my arms and neck were tired from always looking up—way up—and hoisting the camera and lens up to follow whatever was travelling or flying through the canopy.
1/125 at ISO 6400
This one was small, about the size of two open hands.
It’s said, ‘the most important piece of photo equipment is the garbage bin’ which is where many near misses ended up, often due to a shutter speed that was too slow, my worn out muscles, and moving creatures, especially birds. Hundreds of photos have been reduced to the few I’ve posted today.
Tomorrow we head back to San José to meet up with the rest of our tour group. With only 12 of us, and with many different habitats and locations ahead of us, I think we’re in for a real treat.
Stay tuned!
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199 words; 1-minute read
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