Gerry Ellis - September 16, 2006 - Mantadia National Park
The most virgin of all the rainforest remaining in the area of Perinet is in Mantadia National Park. The boundary is only 1.5 miles from the very comfortable lodge Vakona ($85 room & board/day), but it’s a further 8 miles deeper into the forest where the trailheads begin the search for the lemurs and sifakas.
Searching for mammals of any kind in the tropical rainforest is problematic—it’s dark, shadowy, and the creatures you are usually after are agile, camouflaged, and skilled at not being seen as they slip away silently. Malagasy rainforests are no different in many respects, but one—lemurs are often as curious as shy. You are just as likely to bump into a lemur that approaches you as one that will spring away across the tree tops. Today we got lucky, really lucky! Red-bellied lemurs that seemed as fascinated by us, for a few minutes, as we were by them. The two photos above are the result. Created at ISO 400, f/4 at 1/100th sec. with a 200mm.
The above Diadem Sifakas photos are representative of the difficulty and reward of photographing very mobile arboreal mammals in the tropical rainforest. The first photo illustrates the typical view one gets—Diadems feed at the very top of the highest trees and offer little to work with without incredible patience. The next two photos were created at ISO 320, at 200mm. Photo #1 at 1/100th sec. at f/3.5, the photo #2 at 1/100th at f/2.8 The last is one worth emailing home about. These opportunities came after over two hours of slipping and sliding along muddy hillside trails before we finally caught a break and got up slope from the Sifakas and they obliged by leaping down from their leaf-eating tree-top perches.
The detail from the under-story of the rainforest in Mantadia National Park can be compared to the larger landscape from Nosy Mangabe (island) rainforest created a couple days ago. To create rainforest images that have texture and depth it’s critical to insure layers of green, as well as shapes and textures that the viewers understand to mean rainforest.
Heading out of the rainforest can be a bit of a shock to the visual senses. The rainforests of the world are under tremendous pressure by the poor who continually chew away at these spectacular treasures of biological diversity. On the island of Madagascar it isn’t any different. These last couple of images were from the new peasant farms cleared into the edge of the park boundary at Mantadia and of a young woman with her banana harvest from one of these clearings.
Searching for mammals of any kind in the tropical rainforest is problematic—it’s dark, shadowy, and the creatures you are usually after are agile, camouflaged, and skilled at not being seen as they slip away silently. Malagasy rainforests are no different in many respects, but one—lemurs are often as curious as shy. You are just as likely to bump into a lemur that approaches you as one that will spring away across the tree tops. Today we got lucky, really lucky! Red-bellied lemurs that seemed as fascinated by us, for a few minutes, as we were by them. The two photos above are the result. Created at ISO 400, f/4 at 1/100th sec. with a 200mm.
The above Diadem Sifakas photos are representative of the difficulty and reward of photographing very mobile arboreal mammals in the tropical rainforest. The first photo illustrates the typical view one gets—Diadems feed at the very top of the highest trees and offer little to work with without incredible patience. The next two photos were created at ISO 320, at 200mm. Photo #1 at 1/100th sec. at f/3.5, the photo #2 at 1/100th at f/2.8 The last is one worth emailing home about. These opportunities came after over two hours of slipping and sliding along muddy hillside trails before we finally caught a break and got up slope from the Sifakas and they obliged by leaping down from their leaf-eating tree-top perches.
The detail from the under-story of the rainforest in Mantadia National Park can be compared to the larger landscape from Nosy Mangabe (island) rainforest created a couple days ago. To create rainforest images that have texture and depth it’s critical to insure layers of green, as well as shapes and textures that the viewers understand to mean rainforest.
Heading out of the rainforest can be a bit of a shock to the visual senses. The rainforests of the world are under tremendous pressure by the poor who continually chew away at these spectacular treasures of biological diversity. On the island of Madagascar it isn’t any different. These last couple of images were from the new peasant farms cleared into the edge of the park boundary at Mantadia and of a young woman with her banana harvest from one of these clearings.
# posted by Pro Photo Supply @ 3:40 PM
Gerry Ellis - September 15, 2006 – Perinet Special Reserve
Wake this morning to a light soaking drizzle, a chorus of bird calls and somewhere out there Indris (pronounced EN-dreez), largest of the living lemurs, are waiting. And with any luck a chance at their near equal in size perhaps the most beautiful of all lemus, Diadems sifaka.
The roads that snake through the reserve
After an hour of patience and constant following their treetop leapings the Indris finally gave one small low level look. The opportunity was only about 90 seconds long, but the black and white Indris were finally against forest instead of cloudy sky.
The roads that snake through the reserve
After an hour of patience and constant following their treetop leapings the Indris finally gave one small low level look. The opportunity was only about 90 seconds long, but the black and white Indris were finally against forest instead of cloudy sky.
# posted by Pro Photo Supply @ 3:38 PM
Gerry Ellis - September 14, 2006 – Perinet Special Reserve
In sharp contrast to the lowland forest of Nosy Mangabe (island) the hilly tropical rainforests of the Perinet region, at just over 2,000 ft., are cool and night air invites a jacket. We arrive late but just in time for a night wildlife walk, Perinet is excellent for spotting frogs, lizards and small nocturnal lemurs by their eye-shine from our flashlights. Every night we will head out and see what we will find, and every night should offer different opportunities. The below photos we created with the Nikon D200 built-in flash and an 80-200mm f/2.8 lens; ISO set at 200.
# posted by Pro Photo Supply @ 3:37 PM
Gerry Ellis - September 12, 2006 – Nosy Mangabe (Island)
Nosy Mangabe (Nosy means island in Malagasy) is a small rounded triangular lump nestled deep in the heart of Baie D’ Antongil (Bay of Antongil) on the northeast coast of Madagascar. Protected by law and the sea from the forest clearing that has plagued so much of the coastal tropical rainforest, it has become a favorite for visitors hoping to discover a vision of what wet tropical Madagascar once looked like. Several species of lemurs live on the island including the bizarre nocturnal Aye-aye (pronounced eye-eye), as well as chameleons and the cryptic leaf-tailed gecko Uroplatus—a lizard with no clear head or tail.
Unfortunately all those wonderful photo opportunities are a 30 minute boat ride away and like so often can happen in the coastal wet tropics, torrential and wind have swept in and I can only stare across the bay at a faint image of Nosy Mangabe in the grey. Not worth the risk of damaging all the gear with virtually no chance of photographing anything in this downpour. So we wait—a key reason to have the laptop loaded with a copy of PhotoSHop CS2… a chance to catch up on getting photos ready for this blog and other projects. In the wet tropics always come prepared to have rain down time, eventually you will clean all the gear and have time on your hands.
After a few hours the captain gives us the word and we sail for Nosy Mangabe; half hour trip is nearly an hour of rough water—I ALWAYS pack all gear in ziplocks when taxiing by water—water over the bow drenches everything. My main objective is general rainforest images and a few new photos of Uroplatus; lemurs on the island are pretty wild and fleeting, better opportunities elsewhere for the same species.
Nosy Mangabe is famous for these amazing lizards that they even have a trail called Uroplatus trail…
# posted by Pro Photo Supply @ 3:35 PM
Gerry Ellis - September 11, 2006 – Markets of Tana
Before leaving Antananarivo this morning for the northeast coast we all decided to check out the local craft market. It did give me a chance to grab a couple shots of vendors selling wildlife. While this kind of this is rare in Madagascar Nile crocodiles and sea shells seem to be the exception.
Note of Caution:
Not everyone selling wildlife products like their picture taken. I have found this especially true in Asian markets. Most people hocking animals and animal products tend to know what they are doing and know it is illegal or at least shady at best. As a consequence if you are planning of photographing situations like this travel in with another person. Look around a bit first, don’t just bee-line it for the stuffed animal or product. Have the other person notice the animal product first, so it seems more natural they would want their picture taken next to it as a curio.
I prefer using wide angle lenses for three reasons:
1) wide angles are smaller lenses, they look less alarming and professional,
2) they render a wide sweep which allows me to look as though I’m not solely focusing on the animal subject, and
3) they allow shooting at a lower hand-held speed, which is often necessary in dimly lit market stalls.
Note of Caution:
Not everyone selling wildlife products like their picture taken. I have found this especially true in Asian markets. Most people hocking animals and animal products tend to know what they are doing and know it is illegal or at least shady at best. As a consequence if you are planning of photographing situations like this travel in with another person. Look around a bit first, don’t just bee-line it for the stuffed animal or product. Have the other person notice the animal product first, so it seems more natural they would want their picture taken next to it as a curio.
I prefer using wide angle lenses for three reasons:
1) wide angles are smaller lenses, they look less alarming and professional,
2) they render a wide sweep which allows me to look as though I’m not solely focusing on the animal subject, and
3) they allow shooting at a lower hand-held speed, which is often necessary in dimly lit market stalls.
# posted by Pro Photo Supply @ 3:32 PM
