Crazy Flying Monkeys….

My Guide and Spider Monkey Calling Extraordinaire (1/320 at f/4.0, 85mm ISO 200)

Spider monkey picking a fruit (1/40 sec at f/5.6, 280mm, ISO 250----ouch!)

Spider Monkey Eating (1/30sec at f/5.6, 280mm at ISO 250 too slow!)

Spider Monkey w/baby 1/320 at f/5.0, 280mm at ISO 250

Lens selection for any trip can be a headache.  What to take and what to leave behind are always the nagging questions.   Typically, I travel with my 16-35mm, 24-70 and my 70-200.  However, on my last few trips my 70-200 hadn’t been getting much love, so I debated leaving it behind to lighten my load (and considering my bag was searched in airport security because it surpassed their “maximum density” allowance, it maybe have been a good idea).  But, at the last minute I scrambled to make room and threw  it in the bag.    I even decided to throw in the 1.4 extender for good measure.  Of course  I’m really glad I brought the lens because  later that week I had an opportunity to photograph spider monkeys in the Mexican jungle.  Now,  I know most photographers never want you to see all their bad shots but today’s blog is just about that….all my bad shots from this shoot.  I ran around the jungle for two hours, swatting at mosquitoes, walking with my guide as he made these super cool monkey calls by blowing into his fists.    There I was with my 70-200mm lens w/1.4 extender on, scanning the trees along with my guide looking for any signs of life.  My anticipation was growing, but at the same time I was thinking that this was all a hoax and there weren’t any monkeys in these woods.   It wasn’t until 45 minutes into the walk that we finally ran into a few families of spider monkeys feasting on fruit.   Well, if I had one word to describe the scene it would be “fast.”  I felt like I was in a Donkey Kong game.  These guys were moving so fast that my camera was shooting faster than my card could write (note to self, time to upgrade memory cards).   Autofocus wasn’t working for me because of the dense foliage. And of course, because I was on the ground and they were up in the trees, they were always backlit, so exposure was an issue.   At the end of the excursion,  I finished with two or three shots that worked.  I mean, I didn’t even know I was going to be shooting monkeys when I left for this trip-  let alone the Wizard of Oz’s flying  monkeys.  I shot nearly 400 frames and less than 1% of the photos were decent…but listen, sometimes that’s what happens.  So, with that said, I hope you enjoy the video…it’s sort of a reminder to myself that we’re not perfect.  Especially, when shooting crazy monkeys!

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 9:38 am. It is filed under General, Travel, Video, Wildlife and tagged with lens, packing, Travel, Video, Wildlife. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.