Pantanal Photo Tour: First full day photographing the Jaguars and more!

The last two blog posts featured images and stories from the south of the Pantanal in Brazil. In this blog post, we transition from the south to the north, to focus on the jaguars which are abundant in the area.

We took an afternoon charter flight to our next lodge, in the north of the Pantanal, and arrived with a couple hours of light remaining in the day. The landing strip was connected to the lodge, so we landed and went straight to our rooms. After getting settled in, we had time to walk around the lodge to see the wildlife on the property,

There were numerous Blue and yellow macaw in the low branches around us which gave us another great opportunity to photograph them up close.

There were four of these beautiful birds feasting on this palm fruit, right at eye level.

We also saw hundreds of Capybaras walking around the open areas. As it turns out, we were having to walk through lots of these animals every morning on our way to breakfast.

That same afternoon, we found a large pack of Tufted capuchin monkeys in the trees surrounding our rooms. 

Just like the birds in the area, these animals were not frightened by us and allowed us to photograph them up close.

Since it was late in the day, the light was perfect for photos. 

The next morning we woke up early and took our first boat ride up the river to try and find some jaguars. I decided to use my Canon R5 MKII with the RF 100-300mm lens and RF 1.4x extender. This combination allowed me to shoot all the way to 420mm at f/4, which worked out really nicely.

Like many people who are on the river looking for jaguars, our first stop was to see if Madrosa was out and about. Madrosa is a female jaguar who hangs out in the same area frequently, and therefore is most easily found. We, and many other boats, were there to capture her beauty.

I reminded my guests to shoot tight...

...and also shoot wide to show the surroundings.

She is a beautiful cat, and we spent numerous hours with her!

We thought we might see her jump into the water to capture a cayman, but unfortunately, that did not happen.

She definitely watched the waters intently, hoping for a cayman to swim by.

There were cayman in the water, but not near enough to Madrosa to be easy prey.

An hour later, we watched as two of Madrosa's cubs made an appearance.

We were all excited to get such nice photos of both cubs, and the light was perfect too. Nice overcast skies for even light on the cats.

After spending time with Madrosa and the cubs, we went out looking for more wildlife along the rivers edge. This time, we found some Giant river otters that were out fishing. It was really fun capturing images of them as they feasted on the plentiful fish.

Lots of different action shots of these otters enjoying their lunch.

Before heading back to our lodge for the evening, we also found some birds to photograph. This Tree swallow was perched on a nearby branch. I put my Canon R5 MKII into pre-continuous shooting mode hoping it would take off, and got this shot as it spread it's wings and flew away.

It was getting dark, but I really liked the dark background with this Great egret and it's reflection. We all got ready for it to take off, and got some really nice photos of this bird in flight.

To say that it was a great first day on the river is an understatement. We were all thrilled with what we saw and could not wait to get back to our rooms to download and see the photos we had captured.

And this was just day one on the river. So much more to come!

 __________________________________________________________

• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Costa Rica, Peru, Galapagos, Africa, Iceland and more.

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

_________________________________________________________________ 

Pantanal Photo Tour: First time photographing the Red and green macaw!

This is the second blog post from my recent trip to the Pantanal of Brazil. We were still in the south Pantanal, but had moved to our second location, with our ultimate goal to photograph the Red and green macaw.

We arrived at our second lodge in the late afternoon, which gave us a couple of hours of daylight to explore the area. 

Only minutes into our walk, our guide spotted this Pygmy owl peeking out of it's nest. What a fun and unexpected shot.

After our walk, everyone decided to head back to their rooms. I decided to walk a little more and was treated to a monkey sighting along the entry road to the lodge. Even though I have photographed monkeys MANY times in Costa Rica, I always love capturing different species. 

This was the first time I had ever seen (and photographed) a Tufted Capuchin monkey. 

The next day, we woke up and headed to the Buraco Das Araras Sinkhole. If you have never heard of this place, it is an amazing place to photograph the Red and green macaw. Many years ago, a cave collapsed leaving a 350 deep sinkhole, and now these amazing birds nest there all year long. There are two platforms (at opposite sides of the sinkhole) where you can view the birds flying from above.   

In the morning, we had sunlight on one side of the sinkhole (which made for a really bright background), and another side in shade (which was a perfect background for photos). I encouraged everyone to photograph the macaw against the darker background. For most of these photos, I was using the Canon R5 MKII camera and the RF 100-300mm lens with a 1.4 extender. 

There were many times when the birds would fly over and land in the trees only feet from us.

We turned on the pre-continuous setting on our cameras to capture the birds as they took off from those nearby branches. 

It was amazing to capture one of these beautiful birds in flight, but even better when they flew in groups! 

These were definitely some favorite images from the sinkhole!

It was a good challenge to capture the macaw with different wing positions. 

Here you can see 5 of the macaw perched along the walls of the sinkhole...

... and many more in the nearby trees.

During the middle of the day, we left and had a nice lunch. When we returned to the sinkhole in the afternoon, we continued taking many more photos of the Red and green macaw, mainly with shutter speeds around 1/3000 sec, After a while, I challenged everyone to try and motion pan these birds in flight. I changed my camera to shutter priority and set the shutter speed to 1/80th sec. Myself and the others took many photos that were not sharp, but also walked away with some nice images.

To say that everyone had a good time would be wrong. We all had a GREAT time and captured some really nice photos to put in our collections...and this was just the first half of our trip!

Next up - the North Pantanal, with monkeys, birds and JAGUARS!

 __________________________________________________________

• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Costa Rica, Peru, Galapagos, Africa, Iceland and more.

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

_________________________________________________________________ 

Pantanal Photo Tour: Our first days in the South Pantanal

When planning my first photography tour to the Pantanal of Brazil, I had a big decision to make: Should I do the trip strictly to the north, or should I include both north and south? The north of Pantanal is known for the jaguars, but I decided to include both regions for my guests. Since we were traveling a long distance, I felt it was worth seeing more of the area. As it turns out, that was the right decision!

We spent 5 days in the south, photographing a wide variety of wildlife and some amazing birds. I am really excited to share some of these images with you all. 

At our first lodge, we arrived late in the afternoon and were welcomed by Blue and yellow macaw. I had seen these birds in Peru, but only from a mile away. Here, they were flying around the grounds and nesting just feet from the reception area. It was a photographic treasure trove of opportunity. I was using my Canon R5 MKII with the RF 100-300mm lens (with a RF 2x extender) and capturing some really fun images.

Unlike the macaw in Costa Rica, these macaw were less skittish around people, so we could all get really close to them.  

I mean...VERY close!

It was so nice to be able to photograph nice portraits of them, with clean backgrounds.

Not more than 10 minutes after we started photographing the Blue and yellow macaw, we had some Hyacinth macaw join us. Getting portraits of the birds is nice, but getting them in flight is so much better!

I turned on the pre-continuous shooting feature of the Canon R5 MKII and started capturing some Nanday parakeet that were in the area. These birds are endemic to the area, which made it even more special to get photos of them. I saw their pretty green exterior colors as they sat on nearby branches, but had no idea how truly colorful they were until I was reviewing the images on my MacBook Pro. When they spread their wings open, even more colors are visible. Just wow!

I was uncharacteristically up early the next morning and decided to go out to see if the birds were active. This Blue and yellow macaw was flying back towards it's nest and I caught this moment with the early morning sunlight lighting the wings of the macaw. Day two of the trip and I already had a favorite photo from this region! 

After an early breakfast, we went out for our first drive, looking for the Giant anteaters. It was not long before we came across one of them. We exited the vehicle and walked through the tall grass to grab images of this large animal. 

After getting back in the vehicle and driving for just a couple of minutes, we came across another Giant anteater, and this one was in really short grass. This was the PERFECT environment for a portrait! We all got down low to the grass for some really nice images.

We hit a heatwave, and it was REALLY hot, so we went back to the lodge for a break and some lunch. Late in the afternoon, we went out for another drive to see what we could find. Our guide spotted a Burrowing owl on a stump. We raised our cameras to take some photos, and seconds later, a second owl appeared! It was a long ways away, but we all had long lenses and were able to capture nice photos of these two. I took this photo with the Canon R6 MKIII with the RF 100-500mm lens, zoomed all the way out to 500mm. Another favorite!

On the way back to the lodge, we spotted a couple of Crab-eating fox in the fields. 

We were capturing photos of the two of them as they walked through the fields, and then they came right towards our vehicle. This one came especially close and wanted to check us out.

The next morning, I encouraged everyone to wake up early, to catch the early morning sunlight on the birds. Everyone was having a blast capturing the birds in flight, which made me really happy.

They were so close to us that it made it easier to catch images like these.

Once again, I was using the pre-continuous shooting feature of the Canon camera to capture images of the birds as they took off from the branches. For those that had this feature on their cameras, I helped set that up for them.

Pre-continuous shooting allowed me to capture this photo as the Nanday parakeet took off from a nearby branch. 

This beautiful Toco toucan came and landed right in front of us. This is the largest species of toucan in the world.

After taking off, I quickly reframed and caught the toucan as it flew away.

There were other birds as well. This Buff-necked Ibis flew by in that same morning light.

There were plenty of Yellow armadillo in the area. We even had one that would visit us at breakfast time each morning.

The Pantanal has a species of bird called the Greater rhea. It looks a lot like an ostrich, but it is not. It is actually the largest flightless bird native to South America.

Throughout the trip, we saw countless Capybara. It was a 100 degree day, so they were smart enough to stay cool in the water.

I took this last shot just feet from my room. I heard these two Hyacinth macaw in the tree above me, and had to capture them in conversation.

Again, this was just the first 2 days of our trip, and we were all blown away with the images we had captured.

On the next trip to the Pantanal (most likely in 2028), I will likely include both regions and one other location for even more variety. BTW, I have already started a list of people who are interested in joining me on the next trip to the Pantanal. Let me know if you want me to add your name to that list. I expect it to sell out very quickly.

More to come from this awesome trip in the next couple of blog posts.

 __________________________________________________________

• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Costa Rica, Peru, Galapagos, Africa, Iceland and more.

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

_________________________________________________________________