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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Costa Rica - Day One - The beautiful animals of La Paz

This is my first time visiting Costa Rica, and I came here with high expectations for the photographic opportunities. On the first day, we made the one hour drive from San Jose to La Paz to visit the Waterfall Gardens. This is an excellent place to photograph animals which are native to this region.

(Canon 1DX, 100-400mm lens at 360mm, ISO 3200, f/5.6, 1/640 sec)

This was one of the first photos that I took, looking up at this Toucan. I just love the colors in this bird! As I usually do, I focused on his eyes and fired off a bunch of shots as he looked in all directions.

(Canon 1DX, 100-400mm lens at 400mm, ISO 2000, f/5.6, 1/60 sec)

We also came across this albino squirrel. I have seen thousands of squirrels before, but never a white one.

(Canon 7D Mark II, 100mm macro lens, ISO 500, f/2.8, 1/80 sec)

As I walked around the aviary, I saw this little guy and grabbed this shot. I framed this to have the bird off-center, using the rule of thirds.

(Canon 7D Mark II, 100mm macro lens, ISO 640, f/5.6, 1/200 sec, -0.3 exposure comp)

One of the highlights of the Waterfall Gardens is the butterfly building. This building has many different species of butterflies which fly all over the place, often landing on visitors. It was a great place to break out the new Canon 7D Mark II with a Canon 100mm macro lens.

(Canon 7D Mark II, 100mm macro lens, ISO 640, f/4, 1/200 sec, -0.3 exposure comp)

Check out the cool patterns on this butterfly.

(Canon 7D Mark II, 100mm macro lens, ISO 640, f/4, 1/500 sec, -0.3 exposure comp)

It was fun to get up close and personal with the macro lens.

(Canon 7D Mark II, 100mm macro lens, ISO 500, f/5.6, 1/320 sec, -0.3 exposure comp)

We were very lucky to see numerous Giant Blue Morpho butterflies with their wings open. In California, I am used to seeing the orange and brown colors on Monarch butterflies, but this was so cool to see the vibrant blue wings of this magnificent insect.

(Canon 7D Mark II, 100mm macro lens, ISO 500, f/7.1, 1/100 sec, -0.3 exposure comp)

Since this Morpho was staying still, I decided to go straight over-head and shoot down. I really like the composition and the way that it shows the structure of the insect.

(Canon 1DX, 100-400mm lens at 400mm, using the Canon 500 lens adaptor, ISO 2000, f/5.6, 1/80 sec)

I brought my Canon Closeup Lens 500D on this trip, so that I could use the long lens but get even closer. I put on this lens (which is really like a filter which screws onto a 77mm lens) and focused in really close to one of the butterflies to show you the beauty of the patterns in the wings. Chances are, you have never heard of the 500D, but this little "filter" turns any lens (yep - even Nikon and others) into a macro lens. And for only $149.

(Canon 7D Mark II, 100mm macro lens, ISO 2000, f/4, 1/125 sec, -0.3 exposure comp)

Here is a butterfly coming out of it's pupae. How often do you see that happen?

(Canon 1DX, 100-400mm lens at 285mm, ISO 640, f/5.6, 1/200 sec, Canon 600Ex-RT flash)

At this location, they have an area with numerous hummingbird feeders and they attract hundreds of these little speedsters. I was most interested in shooting the Violet Sabrewing, since we do not have those back home. And look at these colors! I used a flash to help isolate the birds in flight and to bring out their colors.

(Canon 1DX, 100-400mm lens at 300mm, ISO 800, f/5.6, 1/100 sec, Canon 600Ex-RT flash)

I shot this photo at 1/100 sec to show the motion of the wings, also using the flash on this shot. This was one of my favorite shots of the day. For any of you who have tried photographing hummingbirds, it is a real test of your patience. They move so fast and rarely stay in any one place for more than a second. As soon as you get a focal point on them, they are usually flying away.

(Canon 7D Mark II, 100mm macro lens, ISO 500, f/3.2, 1/200 sec)

This little lady decided to stop long enough for me to get this shot. Phew! That was a lot easier than shooting her in flight.

(Canon 7D Mark II, 100mm macro lens, ISO 2000, f/4, 1/60 sec)

Our last stop of the day was a visit to the frogs, but since it was late in the day, most of them were already asleep and nowhere to be found. This little guy was making an appearance from within a small plant. If you did not look closely, you would never have seen him.

(Canon 7D Mark II, 100mm macro lens, ISO 1600, f/2.8, 1/500 sec)

This last shot was taken at the end of the day, as I was walking out of the park. It had rained pretty heavily and the water was on this flower. I loved the way that the bright pink colors contrasted with the background, so I took this last shot. Overall, a really fun day. We planned on coming back for a second day to see what else we capture. Stay tuned for the next blog entry!

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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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Why my favorite things ARE my favorite things!

By now, most of you know that I am giving away more than $11,000 worth of my favorite photo gear, all donated by my sponsors. These are the best of the best in photography equipment. And to tell you why these are my favorite products, I wrote this blog. Here are my favorite products and why I rely on them as much as I do. And all of these are being given away in less than two weeks.

* DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Aerial Camera - Anyone who has tried one of these aerial cameras knows how cool they are. It is so freeing to be able to shoot photos and videos from locations and perspectives that were impossible even a year or two ago. If you haven't seen my aerial work, you can see photos here and videos here.

* Canon 70D DSLR camera with 18-135mm IS STM lens and PIXMA Pro-1 Printer - If you have been following my work from the Olympics and around the world, you know that I exclusively have used and continue to use Canon cameras. Why? Because I love the quality of their products. the cameras are awesome and the lenses are tack sharp.

* Wacom Intuos Pro Tablets - I remember the first time I tried using a Wacom tablet (about 6 years ago). It was love at first try. And now I don't edit photos without a Wacom Intuos tablet. Editing is faster and easier with this tool. These are critical to my workflow.

* 32GB Lexar Professional 1066x CF Card or 32GB 600x Lexar Professional SD card - I am not going to use the best cameras and lenses and then trust no named cards for storage. Yeah, I know I work for Lexar too, but I also believe that they are the best cards and readers in the industry.

* Lexar HR-1 Workflow Solution w/ 2 Readers - People underestimate the speed and reliability of a card reader. I can not tell you how many times I have seen people put new fast cards into an old crappy reader. These are not very expensive and make a world of different to the speed of my workflow. I love the fast read / write speeds of the 1066x CF cards and love the fast readers even more.

 * Sigma 50mm 1.4 lens - I tested this particular lens a while back and wrote a rave review on the blog. This lens is crazy crazy sharp! I carry this lens, the 85mm 1.4 and the 15mm fisheye to any event I shoot.

* Drobo 5D - I take a lot of photos and need a good reliable place to store them. On my main workstation, I have a Drobo 5D with 20TB of WD hard drives and a Crucial mSATA SSD to further boost the speed. This is now my primary drive on my Mac Pro.

* Western Digital Passport Drives - As I mentioned, my Drobo is packed full of 4TB WD hard drives. I also use the WD  8TB Thunderbolt drives as backup drives and for remote storage. When I am working on the road, especially at the Olympic Games, I rely on their Passport drives. I am happy to say that I have never lost any data from a drive error.

* Gitzo GM5561T 6x Carbon Fiber Monopod - People might think that a monopod is a monopod. That might be true until they try the GM5561T monopod from Gitzo. This particular model folds down so small that I can carry it with me anywhere. And yet it unfolds to give me more than enough height for any shoot. It is very light and built like a tank. This has been a critical piece of my Olympic gear for the last 3 Olympic Games.

* Photo Mechanic software  - You may have seen my video presentation on efficient workflow process, and if you did, you know that I rely on Photo Mechanic to cull through all my images. Does it do everything that Lightroom does? Nope. But it is exceptionally fast on both PC and Mac and has been a godsend for me. I started using this software 8 years ago, and have never looked back. I think that 90% of my fellow Olympics photographers use Photo Mechanic.

* Zenfolio - I switched to Zenfolio a couple of years ago, when I was researching a new web platform. My old software was outdated and it showed in my site. Zenfolio is super easy to use and gives me a ton of creative design options. Look at my site and see what you think. I think they make me look pretty good (and I know nothing about HTML code).

* Scott Kelby and KelbyOne - What can I say about Scott Kelby that you don't already know? The guy is the guru of Adobe Photoshop and one of the best teachers in the industry. He takes some pretty amazing photos too! He is a man of many talents, and the best selling writer in the photography industry. Oh, and he is super nice guy too. :)

* LowePro ProRunner 450AW Backpack - I think I am as picky about my camera bags as I am about my cameras and lenses. Let's face it, we haul a lot of equipment around and it is nice to have it protected in something that is compact and comfortable. Not only do I love the LowePro backpacks, but I rely on the Pro Roller as well to save my back at every Olympic Games.

* JOBY Suction Cups - These are brand new products, but since they are from our friends at Daymen (that do LowePro) I just know that they will be cool.

* Epson R2000 printer and paper - For the longest time, I refused to print my own photos. I relied on Bay Photo for all of that. But after a year of hearing "Epson Eddie" telling me the benefits of their printers I finally buckled. And boy am I glad I did. I now print so many things on my Epson printer and love the quality of the Velvet Fine Art paper. For a reasonably priced printer, the R2000 does an amazing job.

* FotoFusion Extreme software - My wife designs all the photo albums for our clients, and she was not happy with any of the design software packages that we had tried. Then we learned about Fotofusion and have used this software exclusively for the last 5 years. It is easy to use, very powerful, and they keep updating it with cool new features.

* B&H Photo - This store is the largest photo store in the world, and for a good reason. They carry just about every camera and photo gadget made, and a ton of other cool products. But most importantly, they are very reputable and have killer prices. There is a reason that B&H sells products all over the world.

* Acratech Ball Heads and Swift Clamp - I love my Gitzo tripods so much, but wanted more in my ball heads. One day I was standing in line at Starbucks (at the WPPI show) and someone from Acratech was waiting behind me. We struck up a conversation and the rest is history. I went over and checked out their products and knew instantly that these were EXACTLY what I had been looking for. They aren't cheap, but they are worth every penny.

* M&M Photo Tours - I have heard so many great things about M&M Photo Tours...so much that I decided to join them for some upcoming tours. Stay tuned - tour dates will be announced shortly!

* BlackRapid straps - Much like camera bags, people underestimate the importance of a good camera strap. Let me tell you, as someone who has a DSLR camera on me for many hours of the day, the difference between a traditional neck strap and a Black Rapid strap is night and day! I am currently using the CrossShot strap, Sport strap, and Yeti strap. I think my all-time favorite is the Yeti. Hey BlackRapid, my neck and back love you!

I hope that all of you have entered the contest to win these products. If you haven't, just go here to enter. And remember that every time a friend of yours enters the contest using your link, you get another name in the hat. The give-away ends at midnight (PST) on December 12th. Good luck!