Episode 18: Cloud Forests of Panama and Thinking Creatively

In this episode, Jared and Annalise discuss their time photographing rare and endemic species in the cloud forests of Panama. Forget everything you think of about the tropics when it comes to exploring the forests that grow at 8,000 feet in the mountains. Dripping with moss and bromeliads, the high mountain peaks are like islands in the sky. Each mountain holds its own menagerie of endemic species and thanks to the elevation, each and everyone must be cold adapted despite being so close to the equator. 

Working from purpose built blinds to photograph species of birds that are rarely seen, let alone photographed, an ornate hawk eagle made an unexpected and dramatic cameo appearance in the forest nearby. Jared and Annalise discuss the challenges of suddenly finding themselves confronted with such an extraordinary opportunity in the deep forest. One of those challenges is getting past, psychologically, the urge to create knee-jerk documentary photographs. Despite the rarity of a situation, composition and story are still of utmost importance - likely even more so than normally from the perspective of making a living with your photography. And in this episode, the hosts discuss how they worked to pull together creative compositions to move past the oh-so-boring bird on a stick composition, and instead create images that go beyond the trite and cliche to tell stories that sell to magazines. 

Jared and Annalise offer workshops to the cloud forest of Panama. If you would like to know more about this opportunity, check out: https://www.photowildworkshops.com/cloud-forest-panama-workshop