THE GALAPAGOS PHOTO EXPERIENCE

The Galapagos Islands have been on my destination list long before I aspired to photograph nature.  Reading and seeing photos and National Geographic programs of the islands put them on my “places to see before you die” list. After doing some research about how to photograph in this the place, I finally decided, to join a photo Safari tour of the Galapagos. Let me say that the only meaningful way to photograph nature in the Galapagos is with a specialized photo tour. Although there are all kinds of tours to the islands, unless it’s specific to photography, it will be a frustrating and unproductive experience. While these trips are more expensive, they are well worth it. A photo tour, unlike others, allows you and your small group to set up tripods, be at the site at the right time, and spend time there to capture the wonders that are all around you. 

The photo destinations in Galapagos National Park are small and uninhabited islands, which are essentially low volcanic mountains, and cooled lava flows. Zodiac boats transport you to the landing site which maybe on a beach in the water or on slippery rock out-cropping. Short, marked trails, some consisting of large sharp lava rocks and boulders take you around the sights on the islands, namely, birds, sea lions, fur seals, lizards, tortoises and iguanas. A park’s naturalist who enhances the experience by teaching all about the geology and wild life accompanies all landings. Remarkably, the wild life has not learned mankind to be a threat, which permits for close up observations of behaviors and appearance that cannot be experienced elsewhere.  Photography can be an intimate affair between you and the subjects.

This brings me to focal length for the Galapagos. Before I went on the trip I e-mailed the group leader, a very experienced nature photographer who has been to the Galapagos several times, asking him to recommend lenses to bring out of my six lens array. His cautious but unhelpful reply was “bring them all” and maybe there was some wisdom in the advice. I did not follow his suggestion; for my Nikon DSLR I brought my 18-200 VR which I used for most shots and my 80-400 VR which I used some of the time. The photography on the islands can be well accomplished with focal length from 35 to 200, but the longer reach and wider angle is critical for some photos so I’d say that 18-400 mm would be optimal. Few opportunities presented for my 12-24 that I also had with me and I found no occasions that required my 60 mm macro.

Image stabilizing lenses are a significant advantage on a Galapagos outing. Some photography, of marine iguanas and penguins for example, takes place from aboard bouncing Zodiacs, no tripod possible. Generally, there is plenty of light in the Galapagos, the exceptions maybe sunset or particularly cloudy days. Use of Flash is not permitted by park rules. Most in my group of eight photographers used tripods almost all of the time. They missed a lot of great moments of wild life behaviors since their tripod was set up in the wrong direction or on a different subject. A booby bird pointing, sea lions frolicking, birds in flight or about to fly with wings spread, are momentary events that are over in seconds; tripods in my opinion, do not allow the spontaneity of subject and composition that hand holding brings. The wildlife is literally all around you, constantly moving, doing and changing, I wanted to be ready for any eventuality, I hand held my VR lenses and only used my tripods on a couple of sunset shoots. I was very happy with the results.

Of course, we all have our styles, objectives, and visions. A photo visit to the Galapagos, however, requires, some special focus on your photo objectives. What do you want to do there? I asked this question of my fellow travelers; some had no idea other then “take photos,” others had specific objectives for example: documentary photography of the islands species with particular attention to gender, mating rituals and care of the young, the wild life in their natural habitat context, birds in-flight, wildlife portraits and so on. Knowing what your primary objectives are help with selecting the focus of your photo activities from the endless possibilities at any given time. Let me illustrate from my experience what I mean, by recounting my first landing on the Galapagos, which as it turned out, was typical.

Cruising all night from the island of Baltra, where the airport is located, brought us, early in the morning, to the Isle of Genovesa. The target species there were Nazca booby, Magnificent frigatesbirds and Petreus owls. After a 5:30 breakfast we loaded onto the zodiac and arrived at a wet, black lava rock wall ten minutes later. We quickly discovered carefully placed boulders that made sort of a “stair case” to the top of the steep forty foot wall. Some of the less fit members of the group wondered what they got themselves into. As we neared the top of the wall and set foot on the isle, which was essentially a large flat lava rock outcropping, we first heard the very loud screeching, calling and chirping of birds. As we topped the wall, in front of us lay an open plateau covered by scrubland inhabited by thousands of birds in various sizes, shapes and colors. On the scrub and land the birds were perching, standing, running, flying, nesting, building nests, incubating eggs, feeding their young, and as we approached the trail head the birds would not move, we had to go around them. As we were standing at the trailhead bewildered at the sights, our naturalist, who came up the wall last, joined us and began to talk about what we were looking at. His talk began to organize my thoughts and focus my objectives, but you can guess at the random shots I might have begun to fired off with my two cameras each with a different focal length zoom and four gigs of CF cards, had I not had some ideas of what I wanted to do. I was looking for birds in unusual poses or ritualistic behaviors that can be captured from novel angles and composition, perhaps lofty, but nevertheless I wanted images that would endear the subject to the viewer so that by looking at the photo the subject would become cherished. Well, you judge if I succeeded.