"Lost World" Reveals New Species
In March, Tim went to the Cape Melville Range in Australia with Conrad Hoskin from James Cook University and discovered new species of amphibian and reptiles. This was part of an expedition traversing the Cape York Peninsula of Northeastern Australia. As you can see from the picture above, the mountain range is covered with huge boulders that make the area almost impassable. The only way in was by being dropped off by helicopter onto one of the boulders the size of a house, which didn't work the first time. You can read the full story by National Geographic News.
Testing the new Canon EF 200-400 f4L with 2x extender
I have been waiting for two years for this lens to arrive. For the kind of wildlife photography and video that I do, I have anticipated that it may replace several lenses I regularly travel with and let me respond more quickly and compose more precisely in the field. So it was very exciting when yesterday I finally got the call from my local camera gear supplier, Hunts Photo and Video, that my lens was in. I immediately drove down and picked it up and went out this morning and started shooting some test shots.
I was confident the lens would be sharp and perform well as I had already read early reviews. However, since I am often temped to push the focal length by adding extenders, one thing I was very curious about was how it would work with not only the internal 1.4x converter enabled, but also when 1.4 or even the 2x converter is added externally. I went out to one of my local wildlife spots and found a cooperative Great Blue Heron. Here are some of my first shots with this new lens. Needless to say, I am extremely pleased with the results!
HERE IS THE REAL TEST: 200-400 WITH INTERNAL 1.4X ENABLED, PLUS THE EXTERNAL CANON 2X CONVERTER III = 1120 mm focal length.
See for yourself, but my feeling is that even with this 2x converter added, the quality is there. In fact, though I haven't done the side-by side test yet, I think this looks sharper than using my 600 mm f4 with 2x converter at 1200 mm. Of course I had to manual focus this as at f11, autofocus does not work. But for extreme situations when I really want the reach, this looks totally usable to me, and has actually exceeded my expectation for this lens, so I am extremely pleased with it.
Little Explorers in Borneo
The terrific nature magazine aimed at kids called "Ranger Rick" has recently published a story which is a collaboration between my two kids Russell and Jessica, and me. Story by the kids, photos by me. My wife also played a key part, of course. She is primatologist Cheryl Knott, Professor at Boston University, and she has been doing research on wild orangutans in Borneo for many years. In recent years our kids have been traveling with us to her research site in Borneo nearly every summer. Now Ranger Rick has published the story of my kids adventure traveling deep into the rain forest in Borneo with their Mom and Dad to study orangutans, and they have told it in their own words.
And Russell even made the back cover. We found this very large stick insect right near our camp, and Russell picked it up and was letting it crawl up his shirt. When it crawled right up on his face, he didn't seem to mind at all!
Return to Cape York Peninsula in the “Wet”
I am on my way home from a three-week trip to Australia’s Cape York Peninsula on assignment for National Geographic magazine. Believe it or not, there are still places in the world without easy internet access and this was one of them. Now that I am back in contact, I will share some new images from the trip here and via my Instagram feed over the next week or so.
This ongoing project for Nat Geo has the goal of documenting the landscapes and unique biodiversity of this remote part of Northeastern Queensland. Last year I made two expeditions here in the dry season, and I now returned to cover what it looks like in the wet season, which looks dramatically different in places.
Above is an example shot from a low flying helicopter: This is Piccaninny Plains Wildlife Sanctuary, where I photographed the parched dry landscape in September. Now the same area is dotted with potholes full of water while storm clouds with more water loom above.
You can look back at my Instagram feed to see earlier shots from Cape York in the dry season, and stay tuned for some more new photos over the coming days……
Galapagos Photo Expedition – Thoughts on Gear
On a photo expedition like this recently completed one in the Galapagos, you have to come up with the right combination of photographic equipment to carry and the best way to carry it. Unlike a National Geographic Magazine assignment, where I might be working with a lot more equipment, and able to hire porters and perhaps even have a dedicated photo assistant, when I am accompanying a Photo Expedition as one of the photography instructors, I am of course carrying my own equipment around every day just like the guests on the trip.
Most people opt for a pretty lightweight outfit for the on-the-go type shooting that we do on our walks ashore every day. A good setup would be to have two bodies, and have one mounted with a wide to medium zoom like a 24-105 mm, and the second body with a telephoto zoom like a 100-400 f5.6, or a 70-200 f2.8 plus teleconverters.
I did use that setup on some hikes, but I often chose to carry a bit more. I am used to lugging around a lot of gear and it doesn’t slow me down much, and I do like to have a bigger lens with more reach. While it is true that in the Galapagos, you can often get very close to the wildlife, it is also usually not permitted to leave the trail, so longer reach can sometimes really help when you are at lagoons with flamingos, or places like that.
I came up with a really comfortable setup for carrying around the gear described below. I don’t like a huge photo backpack that fits everything. It’s too heavy when you have it on, and if you set it down and step away, then you will invariably need something from it like a teleconverter or a battery. I like the combination of a belt system for keeping the essentials handy with a slimmer backpack for the big lens and body. I have found a set of bags from ThinkTank that fit my working style very well. So what I carried ashore in the Galapagos what you see in this image on some lava rock on Fernandina Island:
Belt-Pack system with:
Canon 5D-III, 16-35 mm f2.8, 24-105 mm f4 in large belt pouch (Camera fits in the pouch without lens on with the two lenses. I take it out and mount a lens on as soon as we are ashore, or even sometimes shoot from the zodiac if conditions permit.)
70-200 f 2.8 – in lens pouch
1.4x and 2x converters and spare batteries and cards, polarizing filter in another belt pouch that always sits right on my right hip for quick access.
Long lens backpack with:
Canon 1D-IV mounted with 400 mm f2.8
Water bottle and rain hood go in side pockets
Another pouch attached to the outside of this pack has my video viewfinder and mike.
With the use of the teleconverters in this outfit, I have coverage from 16 mm to 800 mm with just four lenses, which means I am ready for just about anything.
There was plenty of light to shoot hand-held most of the time, but on some hikes I also carried my tripod especially to do a little video shooting.
Note that all these ThinkTank pouches have built in rain hoods that are perfect for protection from the spray on zodiac rides and the occasional rain shower.
Galapagos Photo Expedition – Day 7
Time for a belated final-day report from the Galapagos trip. I have been back since March 3rd, but do to several lectures for the Birds of Paradise Project, and preparing to depart for an NatGeo assignment in Australia, I didn’t get a final post done (until now, on the plane to Australia!).
We spent this final day around the island of San Cristobal. We did a great hike in the morning and then headed for the rock formation know as Kicker Rock, or Leon Dormido just off the San Cristobal coast. There we snorkeled under what I would have to say were some pretty rad snorkeling conditions. Large chop and current sweeping us through the gap between the rocks. Exciting stuff, and many sea turtles and some Galapagos sharks were seen.
We capped off the trip with a circumnavigation of this spectacular rock island right at sunset.
One of the highlights of this trip for me was to be able to share it with my father, Gordon Laman. He helped inspire my love of photography by loaning me his cameras when I was a teenager, and took me on my first wilderness trip when I was 12 in Boundary Waters Canoe Area. That got me hooked on a life of exploring nature, so it was wonderful to be able to take Dad to the Galapagos for his first time. He loved it, and claimed that he did pick up a few photo tips from me as well. Thanks for joining me Dad!
Galapagos Photo Expedition - Day 6
28 Feb 2013
This day was spent on the island of Santa Cruz. The highlight in terms of natural history and photography was a trip up into the uplands to visit a nature reserve where many of the Galapagos Giant Tortoises were roaming freely around the property. It was overcast, and the light was nice and even for photographing these animals in their lush surroundings.
We fanned out and soon found several individuals, some feeding, some apparently just hanging out. One male was particularly active, and several photo workshop members and I watched and followed him for some time.
First I got some nice tight shots of him feeding...
Then I experimented with a 45 mm Tilt-Shift lens I had brought along, shooting wide open and tilting the plane of the depth of field to throw the background out of focus severely. Just as I was lying on the ground trying this out, I got a great big yawn from the tortoise which I captured here....
Just before we were about to leave, the most active male suddenly started pursuing a nearby female. It was the most action we had seen all day and it was great to see and capture this behavior.....
Finally the male attempted to mount and mate with the female. An amazing sight for such ungainly large animals, and a fitting end to our afternoon of photographing these ancient creatures....
Galapagos Photo Expedition - Day 5
27 Feb 2013
We have been having some beautiful weather this week, but this afternoon, a heavy downpour caught us by surprise while we were on a photo hike at Puerto Egas on Santiago Island. This sent many folks scurrying back to the ship, but for me, it was just the kind of weather event that can add a lot of drama and atmosphere to pictures, and I was excited to keep shooting as long as I reasonably could.
When it started pouring, I struggled to keep the rain off my cameras, but I kept shooting as long as I reasonably could. This coastline of lava and other volcanic deposits was absolutely teaming with Sally Lightfoot Crabs and Marine Iguanas.
My favorite shot was when I spotted a crab starting to climb over an iguana that completely ignored it. The streaking rain (at 1/750sec) and bouncing spray added great atmosphere to the image, and combined with the great interaction between the creatures involved, made for a unique image.
Once everything was wet, the colors were even more saturated, and the somewhat skittish crabs were more approachable than usual, and allowed me to get this wide shot with a large number of crabs. It was a great opportunity to try to capture some images of very well photographed subjects that had a unique feel to them.
When we found this Marine Iguana waiting out the rain in a tidepool, I kept the shutter speed high to freeze those splashing water drops. This shot is more about capturing the humor of the iguana toughing out the downpour, but it capped off an exciting afternoon of with shooting in the rain as the climax before we stowed our gear and headed back to the ship.
Exploring the Galapagos Islands
For the past two weeks, I have been exploring the Galapagos Islands as part of the staff on the National Geographic Endeavor. The first week was a Natural History Expedition, and this past week was a Photo Expedition, where I was part of a team of Lindblad/National Geographic photo instructors along to help guests with their photography. Check out my other postings for photos from each day and some anecdotes from the field.
Galapagos Photo Expedition - Day 4
26 Feb 2013
Today’s highlight was snorkeling along the coast of Tagus Cove on Isabela Island. This is a famous anchorage where not only the ship 'Beagle' on which Darwin travelled anchored, but many other ships over the generations have made a stopover. The cliffs of this cove drop straight into the sea and offer fabulous snorkeling with Green Sea Turtles, Flightless Cormorants, Galapagos Penguins, and the ubiquitous Galapagos Sea Lions.
One sea lion in particular was very relaxed and curious and approached me many times, taking a close look at the dome port on my camera housing, allowing me to get the shot above.
Galapagos Photo Expedition - Day 3
25 Feb 2014
We had an otherworldly morning on Fernandina Island. We landed at dawn, in a hazy, humid overcast onto bare lava rock. Piles of ancient, primitive looking Marine Iguanas were everywhere on the fresh black lava. A truly prehistoric feeling, like being dropped into a primeval world.
I worked on some ideas of how to capture that feeling. First I concentrated on very slow shutter pan blurs of iguanas moving over the lava as they went out to the ocean for their morning feed. It seemed to be working and you can see one example above.
After over three hours of working the lava terrain and its wildlife, including sea lions, Flightless Cormorants, Blue-footed Boobies, and Sally Lightfoot Crabs, we headed back to the boat for a quick switch to snorkeling gear, and headed back to the coast of Fernandina by Zodiac. The shoreline was again black lava, covered in iguanas. The water was rich in plankton and basically like green soup (these are the rich colder waters of the western Galapagos, and area of upwelling sea), but no sooner had I jumped in than I saw three sea turtles right below me. I spent my snorkeling time searching for the Marine Iguanas in the water, and eventually had some luck. I was able to follow one foraging iguana and approach and photograph it as it grazed on algae. I was excited to be able to capture this unique behavior.
Truly a great morning with in this amazing place.
Galapagos Photo Expedition - Day 2
24 Feb 2014
We landed just after sunrise at North Seymour Island which was simply teaming with wildlife. The hard part all morning was just deciding what to concentrate on. As we walked the loop trail that first followed the coast and then passed through the scrubby Palo Santo forest, we ran the gauntlet past nursing Galapagos Sea Lion pups, displaying Blue-footed Boobies, preening Brown Pelicans, basking Marine Iguanas, a frigatebird nesting colony, and numerous endemic Land Iguanas. A real highlight in terms of amazing animal behavior was seeing a Land Iguana feeding on a cactus pad. Hard to believe they can handle such a prickly diet.
Galapagos Photo Expedition - Day 1
This week I am working as part of the photo instructional team on a National Geographic/Lindblad Photo Expedition in the Galapagos Islands. I am going to share one or more photos taken each day during the trip.
23 Feb 2013
On the very afternoon that the photo expedition participants reached the ship National Geographic Endeavor, we made our first landing at Bachas Beach on Santa Cruz Island and got an immediate introduction to the riches of Galapagos wildlife. The black lava rock outcrops along the beach were crawling with the classic Galapagos species, the Sally Lightfoot crab with its amazing colors. After a hike to a brackish lagoon to photograph a lone Greater Flamingo and some stilts, I worked the crabs in the late afternoon light. My favorite shot of the day came when the sun popped out of the clouds just before sunset, and I got down low with a 400 mm.
Galapagos Bound
I'm in Quito, Ecuador tonight, and will be flying out to the Galapagos Islands tomorrow morning, working on assignment for NG Expeditions as part of the photo instructional team. This will be my fourth trip to the Islands, and it is always exciting to go back. One of the great places on the planet for wildlife photography and learning about natural history. Located 1000 km off the West coast of South America, they are just an amazing laboratory for evolution. Stay tuned for some photos from the field over the coming days.
Snap Me!
On one of our first Bird-of-Paradise Project trips back in 2004, we were driving a rural road in the Western Highlands of New Guinea. Passing a small village, we noticed a huge gathering of people. There appeared to be a traditional ceremony going on. We stopped and saw that indeed, there was a ‘singsing’, or traditional dance in progress, with dancers wearing huge headdresses of bird-of-paradise feathers, faces and bodies painted, muscles rippling and carrying battle-axes. This was exactly what I wanted to photograph, since I was very interested in documenting the use of bird-of-paradise plumes in New Guinea culture. This was not a performance for tourists, but a real village ceremony where bird-of-paradise plumes still played an important role. As I approached the fringes of the crowd, I pulled my camera out of my shoulder bag. Just then, I noticed a man striding toward me from the right. He was a dancer who had finished performing. His face and torso were painted in bold patterns, and his headdress made him look even more imposing. As he moved toward me, he was shouting something I couldn’t understand, and at the same time he was pulling his stone axe out of his belt. I became a little concerned. I tried to signal my friendly intentions with a forced smile and started shoving my camera back into the bag thinking that perhaps the sight of my camera was what had offended him. Then I finally understood what he was saying. “Snap me! Snap me!” he was yelling. He wanted to pose for a picture (with his axe)! I obliged and received a friendly reception after that. We visited the village again the next day for the continuation of the ceremony, when I took the photo above of a group of dancers sporting a huge number of bird-of-paradise plumes.
Field gear for a Birds-of-Paradise trip
In my work, every wildlife picture usually has a lot of gear and a lot of planning and preparation behind it. In this shot I am in a hotel room in Lae, Papua New Guinea, getting organized to make an expedition into the Huon Peninsula to photograph the Huon Astrapia, a very poorly known member of the Birds-of-Paradise family, back in 2006. After the international and domestic flights to get to Lae, I had to repack for a bush plane flight into a remote airstrip called Yawan. From there, I would hire villagers to help carry my gear, and make a strenuous all day hike up to a research camp. That's why here in this hotel room, I needed to repack from the large duffels used for international air travel, into reasonable porter loads consisting of small pelican cases and dry-bag backpacks. Sometimes I feel like I spend more time packing and repacking than shooting.
Sunrise at Running Creek
On the East coast of Cape York, Drew Fulton savors the pre-sunrise sky show with his morning coffee before we head off to photograph birds.
Trials of the Backroads
Tim is still in the Cape York Peninsula of Australia on an assignment for National Geographic. Below are his latest Instagram posts.
Eri Mulder and Drew Fulton change a flat on a remote track during our explorations of the Peninsula.
A Nepenthes pitcher plant highlights a wetland called Sheldon's Lagoon, an example of the incredible diversity of habitats on the Cape.
Elliot Falls, one of the falls along the beautiful pristine rivers of the Peninsula, photographed from mid river.
The Drop into Palm Creek
Eric Hahn guides Pete Ikin into the drop at the Palm Creek crossing on the Overland Telegraph Line track up the center of the Cape York Peninsula. These are the kinds of bad roads we encountered in some remote parts of the Cape York Peninsula.
Milky Way
Tim is in remote Cape York Peninsula, Australia, for an assignment for National Geographic. He has been sending out pictures along his journey where you can see them here or @TimLaman on Instagram. The Milky Way lights up the night over camp near the Archer River. It is nice to be so farm from the cities that the stars shine this brightly.
