the trip progressed.
Talk with the scientists you are join-
ing to set up expectations about your
role on the expedition before the trip.
Your priority is to document the trip
through photography, but they will also
better tolerate your camera in their face
if you help out. Decide together what
field work you might do. Choose roles
that allow you to prioritize photography
while still helping in the field or with
daily camp chores.
Be Comfortable Being
Uncomfortable
Expeditions in the Amazon involve
making images while working in rain,
constant moisture and humidity, bad
lighting, water-sodden canoes and for-
ests cluttered with branches and leaves.
Add to that cramped quarters, long
workdays, biting insects, stomach bugs,
exhaustion and the constantly shifting
schedule of scientists on survey. As
the expedition leader told me from day
one, “If this was easy, everyone would
be doing it.” All expedition locations
will have their unique trials; make sure
you are up for the challenges and can
take care of yourself.Gear
You’ll need a variety of lenses to cap-
ture the full story of an expedition.
Wide-angle, telephoto and macro are
three go-to lenses. In the field, I always
brought a wide-angle 16-35mm and
telephoto 100-400mm with 1.4x tele-
converter for versatility. The big prime
lenses are great when you can set up
and stay in one place for a while, but
for most people they will be too large
and heavy to work with under these
conditions where a tripod is out of the
question. I kept back-up lenses in the
dry box back on the boat.
Also consider aerial photography.
Shoot from the commercial flight in or
bring a drone. Scientists will appreciate
the aerial perspective of their work.Rainforests are dark places. It’s a
struggle to get the shutter speed fast
enough and ISO low enough for sharp
images with good color saturation.
When the sun is out, the light is uneven
with dark shadows and strong high-
lights. Using a high ISO may leave
you with grainy photos—but better that
than unusable, out-of-focus images.
Trade noise for shutter speed.
Use fill flash in the forest to photo-
graph animals. I dropped my flash in
the river in the first week of the expe-
dition, but another photographer on
the trip was successful with a simple
flash and a diffusion dome on hot shoe
mount. It provided just enough light to
fill in the monkeys’ faces and produce
sharp images.Field Studio
While the Amazon is full of animals, they
are very hard to see. Macro photography
will help fill out your portfolio from an
expedition. Macro can be done in theoutdoorphotographer.com May 2019 69