Costa Rica - Day Two - Tree frogs and more from La Paz

On day 2 of my trip to Costa Rica, we made our way back to La Paz to get more close up photos of the critters native to this area. When planning for this trip, the one shot I really wanted to come home with, was a nice shot of the tree frog. They are so colorful and interesting looking. And, as it turned out, this was a day to fulfill that wish.

The previous day, we looked for the tree frog, but since it was later in the afternoon, they had all gone to sleep. But for day 2, we arrived early and found this little guy, and the shooting began.

For all of the macro shots here, I used the new Canon 7D Mark II with the Canon 100mm macro lens attached. Flash is not allowed in most of the parks here, so these are all taken in natural light. As soon as we saw this little guy, I was in photography heaven. At first, I fired off a bunch of shots, just excited to get any shots in focus, and then, since he stayed put, I moved around to get different angles and backgrounds.

For any of you who are photographers out there, you know the excitement of capturing a subject like this. Seriously, I was giddy after getting these shots.

I posted this one on my Facebook page, since it made me laugh. It looks like the frog is saying "Whoa, that's enough photos for now!"

And then he just sat there for a little longer and dealt with me.

As I was shooting, he turned towards me and started to make his move. I quickly reframed and got my focus on his eyes.

He jumped to one of the vertical leaves, and I got what I thought was one of my last shots of him.

He jumped from the green leaf to a darker plant and I thought I was done photographing him. But, luckily I stayed with him and grabbed this frame. Even though I love the other shots of him, I find this one more unique, since it shows the most interesting parts of the tree frog (eyes and webbed feet), but frames him nicely with the lines of the plant.

After many minutes of photographing him, he tucked himself into the plant for some quiet time. At that point, I knew I had the shots that I wanted and I left him alone.

We also came across this dart frog. These guys are cool looking, but as amazing as the colors of the previous tree frog. I also found it harder to shoot these frogs with the darker colors.

Again, trying different angles to show a different view of the frog, but also get more interesting foreground and backgrounds.

This is another type of dart frog, and I love the markings on his body. I tried photographing him from a couple of different angles, but really liked this one the best. What I love about the macro lens, is that it lets us view these tiny creatures (about an inch or two long) in their full glory.

After shooting the frogs, I went back to capturing photos of the butterflies for a little while, trying to capture them at different angles from the previous day.

I also used my extension tubes on the macro lens to get in even closer than the day before.

I like the way that this butterfly appears to be stretching.

After a great day of shooting, we returned to the hotel in San Jose at 3:30pm to get something to eat. As we sat outside at the cafe, we saw a bunch of hummingbirds feeding off the nearby plants. And being photographers, we could not help ourselves. So, I mounted the 100-400mm lens on the 7D Mark II and started shooting some more.

For the next couple of blog entries, we move to Monte Verde and Manuel Antonio National Park for some really cool shots of the birds, monkeys, sloths and more. Stay tuned...

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If you are interested in purchasing any camera equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. I would really appreciate that.

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