Need to make this a quick post as — you can see from the above photo — I just had eye surgery this morning and should not be on the computer (probably from staring at the sun through 400mm of Nikon glass one too many times). For those interested, I had a pterygium removed which you can read about here should you be so inclined. The doc says I’ll be fine to shoot another day, but in the meantime, below is a landscape photo from my recent trip when the old eyes were feeling a bit better than they are now. I had left my tripod back at the camp but still tried a few HDR images, which I would usually never do without a tripod. I upped the ISO a bit higher than my usual landscape images to keep the shutter speeds relatively fast. I was quite proud of the results as the five images appeared to have no vertical or horizontal shift, even with the slowest coming in at 1/10th of a second. I don’t recommend shooting HDR’s this way, but on this particular one I got lucky. This was a river that emptied into the sea near the Sirena Ranger Station in Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica.

Nikon D700 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 800, f/8 at 1/10th, 1/20th, 1/80th, 1/160th and 1/40th of a second

There are four different species of monkey that live in Costa Rica and I saw all of them on my recent trip. These are the most commonly seen throughout the country — the white faced capuchins. I was in Drake Bay and there were about 30 of them in and around this giant tree surrounded by a grove of bamboo. I took lots of close up shots but decided to pull back on this one to include the thick stalks of bamboo.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/200th of a second

Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/80th of a second

Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/60th of a second

Trogons are among my favorite birds. I’ve had the pleasure of photographing four or five different species in various locations in Central and South America. This is a male black-throated trogon, the local species in Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica. I saw quite a few males as well as the slightly less colorful females. Both of these photos are the same bird. We saw him two days in a row peeking out of that tree cavity — sitting on a couple of eggs. I was also able to get him out of the tree in all his colorful glory.

To see an agouti is to appreciate an agouti. In photos they appear to be nothing more than a rat crossed with a squirrel. They are, in fact, rodents, but they are much more regal than your average squirrel. They are bigger too, and with long, slender legs. It would appear, they also sometimes wear glasses. This guy was actually chowing down on seed pods foraged from the leaf litter.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 3200, f/4 at 1/50th of a second

These small bats sleep inside rolled up leaves during the day. They have suction cup like discs at the base of their thumbs and on the soles of their feet that allow them to cling to smooth surfaces. This poor guy was a bit alarmed when he saw my macro lens pointed at him while he was trying to get a little rest.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 105 macro lens, ISO 3200, f/8 at 1/30th of a second, Nikon pop up flash set to fill mode

The blue jeans frog is a color morph of the strawberry poison dart frog — appropriately named due to those nice indigo trousers. They are very small. Only about an inch in length. Usually, they can be found in the leaf litter during the day (a bit of a rarity as most frogs are nocturnal). This one, however, was climbing a tree trunk when I spotted him. I’ve posted close up shots of these frogs before, but kind of like this one that shows more of the environment.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/160th of a second

I saw quite a few coatis on this recent trip to Costa Rica. In fact, at one point, I was surrounded by about 25 of them as they were foraging, resting and playing in the forest. Before that encounter, however, I came across this solitary coati along a trail. I would run ahead of him, get down on the ground and fire off a few shots as he was walking toward me — eventually getting too close for my long lens to focus. I would then get up and run further down the trail and do it all over again. After doing this a few times, the coati seemed to take a liking to this little game and started running alongside me, as if he was my dog. It was fun, but made it difficult to get photos.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 290) ISO 3200, f/4 at 1/250th of a second

I figured I’d go green today to celebrate the occasion. I’m not sure of the exact species of this giant green katydid that I saw in Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica. We actually saw quite a few of them. My guide told me that the locals simply call them grasshoppers. Some of you might recall that I photographed a similar species in the cloud forest of Ecuador, but that one had yellow eyes and more defined lips (see photo here).
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 105mm macro lens, ISO 800, f/8 at 1/50th of a second

Tamanduas are a genus of anteater. There are two distinct species, the southern and the northern tamandua. The northern live in the forests of Costa Rica. This particular guy was having a good old time sucking up an army of ants that were crawling on that tree.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 330mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/200th of a second

I saw quite a few snakes last week in Costa Rica, including four eyelash vipers. Eyelash vipers are a small, but deadly pit viper and they come in many colors, including red, yellow, brown, green and pink. Of the four I saw, two were green and two were yellow. I was told that if bitten, you have up to four hours to get to a hospital before succumbing to the poisonous venom. These snakes are nocturnal, but easy to spot during the day while at rest. This guy was pretty high up in a tree and I was shooting through heavy foliage, but had just enough of an opening to frame the snake with all that out of focus green.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 1600, f/5 at 1/50th of a second