If you have been reading the last three blog posts, you know that we visited the South Pantanal before heading to the north to focus on the jaguars, which are plentiful in the area. As you will see, on the next couple of days on the river, we were treated to some great jaguar sightings and more.
The next morning started with a cayman sighting, and then we continued along the river to see if we could find a big cat.
We cruised around the river looking for any activity along the rivers edge, and did not see much. We went pretty far upstream without seeing too much, and then turned around and started our way back towards our lodge. Maybe an hour later, we were rewarded with a GREAT sighting! We saw this one male jaguar moving quickly along the edge of the river.
After moving through the brush, he came in the clear, towards the river. We were all excited to see this beautiful animal out in the open, and in perfect light. I was using my Canon R6 MKIII camera and the RF 100-500mm lens for these images.
Seconds later, a second jaguar emerged from the brush and we had TWO amazing jaguars in front of us! We all fired off a bunch of photos. This was one of my favorites, with both of their tails curled up behind them.
We were the only boat in the area, so we were able to photograph these two males without having to jockey position with anyone else.
Between the 8 of us, we must have fired off thousands of images of these two.
After walking in the plants, they both waded into the water and started swimming for the other side of the river.
We all wanted great images of the jaguars in the river...
...and were very excited to get more than one at a time.
On our afternoon ride, we spotted yet another jaguar. We saw it looking intently into the river and we were hoping that it would locate a cayman swimming by. It did not find any prey, but I really liked this moment, with the intensity in it's eyes.
Moments later, the jaguar jumped into the water, and shook off the water.
Most of the time we are looking down along the river, but this was one of those moments when we looked up and saw some Howler monkeys in the trees.
The area is also known for it's Giant river otters, and the next day we were happy to see this group all fishing together.
This time I was using the Canon R5 MKII camera and the RF 100-300mm lens with an RF 2x extender and shooting mostly at 600mm.
Clearly the river otters were not the only ones fishing in the nearby waters. We saw this Osprey flying over us and got some nice photos of it and it's catch.
It was a long stretch of time without seeing any jaguars, but during that time we came across this large group of Nanday parakeets which were sitting on a sandbar near us. All at once, they took off as a large group and we fired off photos. It was not jaguars, but it was one of my favorite photos of the day.
On our last morning on the river, we had a couple of nice sightings. It happened to be my birthday and the group was nice enough to let me take the front seat. Up until this day, I had always sat in the back of the boat, prioritizing the best seats for my guests. It was a nice gesture on their part. I got down low in the boat and took this shot of this cayman at eye level, catching the morning sunlight head-on.
We had one more jaguar sighting on that morning before we headed back to the lodge to grab some food and prepare for our journey out of the amazon. They even surprised me with a birthday cake and had a little fun for me.
On our first day on the river, we had stopped for a bathroom break and I did my best jaguar imitation. David M. captured this photo and posted it to our WhatsApp group.
Shane F. who is a little obsessed with AI decided to turn this up a notch. Oh boy!
No, neither of these last two photos are real! 😄
Thanks Shane for the fun photos and thank you to the group for making it a special day (and special trip).
For all of you who want to know when I will be going back for another photo tour of the Pantanal, I am in the final plans for a 2028 trip. I should have that trip posted to the tour page very soon!
__________________________________________________________
• 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.
_________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment