Our last couple of days in the Galapagos Islands were just as exciting as our first days there. We had endless subjects to photograph, and just like all the previous days, the landscape and animals were very different as we visited new locations. One other thing...the newer technology in our mirrorless cameras helped us capture something really hard to photograph in the past. Heck, let's start with that.
In the last blog post, I mentioned that we were able to watch the Water iguanas as they fed underwater. On this morning, we were able to walk around and watch the iguanas licking the salt off the rocks.
They were not bothered by us at all, so we could get down low and pretty close to capture images like this.
There were endless iguana in sight, so it was not hard to find one to photograph. As we were watching these iguana sunning themselves, our guide pointed out that they would periodically "sneeze" out the excess salt from their noses. Everyone then tried to get a photo of that, but it was very hard to predict. One guy walked by us and said "I have been trying to get that shot for 8 years and still don't have one." It was at that point that I remembered that we had Canon's Pre-continuous shooting ability in our cameras, and we could go back half a second.
I showed everyone how to set this up in their cameras, and then we could wait for the iguana to expel the salt and hit the shutter button. And voila, it worked like a champ. You can see the middle iguana "sneezing" in this photo.
I then captured this sequence of another iguana. I was using the Canon RF 100-500mm lens at 350mm and had my Canon R5 Mark II camera set to ISO 640, f/7.1, 1/400th sec. This shutter speed freezes the action just enough but also shows the motion of the spray.
What would have been SO difficult in the past, was easily repeatable with the new cameras.
While walking around, we came across these two adorable baby Sea lions
Mom was nearby and yawning in the evening light.
I was sitting down and relaxing (just taking it all in) when I looked next to me and saw this Lava lizard hanging out right next to me. I loved the orange color along it's neck and had to get a shot of that.
The next day we were cruising along the coastline of Santiago Island when we came across this rock formation. They call this the Praying Monk and we could definitely see why they call it that.
We saw an abundance of birds on the last couple of days, including these Galapagos Brown Pelicans
This beautiful Tern was flying right towards us.
It was really fun to capture images of the Red-billed tropicbird as they flew by us, with their long flowing tails.
This was the first time that we were able to see the Red-footed booby. Just like most of the other birds in Galapagos, we could get very close to them for photos without them being bothered. This allowed me to get this tight shot (using the Canon RF 100-500mm lens at 500mm) showing the colors in the face of the bird.
This is a tight shot of a Frigate bird. I really liked this frame, showing the face of the bird off-center, with the curve of the beak leading off to the left.
We watched them as they guarded their nests...
...and watched over the young birds.
This little Frigate bird had walked away from the nest and was in danger. Our guide gently picked it up and moved it back to it's mother.
Then it was feeding time. We all got down low to get photos of this little one being fed. This baby went all the way into the adult's mouth to get food.
I saw this one Red-footed booby hanging out in a tree and I loved the way that it was perfectly framed by the dark green leaves. I encouraged all my guests to get a shot of this. I also love the expression on the face of this bird.
We even had some appearances by the Blue-footed boobies on this island.
Our big finale for the trip was the chance to photograph the male Frigate birds with their large inflatable red throats. They do this the attract the females. This was our first sighting (and my safety shot in case we did not see any more).
We ended up seeing plenty more of these amazing birds on our walk. We had an abundance of photos of the birds on the nests or in the tress, and I challenged everyone to try and get a shot of these birds in the air.
This was my first aerial photo, and what I thought would be my only one.
Right as we were about to get into our Zodiac to head back to our boat, I saw this Frigate bird flying past us. I quickly raised the Canon R5 Mark II and fired off a bunch of frames. It was the perfect ending to a magical week in the Galapagos.
For those who want to join me in the Galapagos, I have added a 2027 trip on my website and have 6 spots available. Feel free to reach out so I can hold a spot for you! And remember, you can borrow almost any Canon camera or lens you want at no charge for the trip. Not that you have to be a Canon user to join my trips, but...
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