Episode 2: Photographing Monkeys along the Panama Canal
Jared and Annalise spent over week working from small native skiffs along the Panama Canal and Lago Gatun in search of monkeys and snail kites. The challenge with photographing monkeys is multifaceted. They are fast, which requires a solid focusing strategy and the ability to keep up. They make their living in the dark recesses of the rainforest where overcast days make things simpler in terms of handling highlights and shadows, but force us to work at extremely high ISOs that can exceed 20,000. The environment these animals live in is complicated, cluttered, and filled with distractions. All of these things, and more, must be overcome to be successful in the field.
In this episode, Jared and Annalise discuss the natural history of the animals they were working with and exactly how they overcame the daily challenges brought on while photographing in these conditions - from autofocus strategies to handling low light scenarios to compositional considerations when working in such cluttered environments.
Key Takeaways
Photographing monkeys in the wild, and from a boat no less, can be a real proving ground for testing your mettle as a wildlife photographer.
Cluttered background require quick thinking to suss out pleasing compositions.
While monkeys like the white faced capuchin are prime candidates for using eye detect autofocus thanks to their all too human like facial features, the nature of their environment provides an infinite number of objects that will fool the pattern recognition algorithms in your camera’s autofocus.
Mirrorless technology has revolutionized our ability to work with subjects like this in these environments thanks to the invention of Focus Peaking and Live Histograms.
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