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| This Swallow-tailed Gull chick being fed regurgitated squid was photographed with the Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS Canon lens (handheld at 200mm) and the EOS-1D MIV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/400 sec. at f/5.6 set manually. The lightweight 70-200 f/4L IS is one of my very favorite lenses for the Galapagos. |
Darwin Bay, on Tower Island (Genovesa) is one of the world’s great wildlife photography locations ranking right up there with most Antarctica landings sites and East Africa. After our second wet landing the group was overwhelmed by the huge variety of photographic opportunities; what to photograph first?
Several pairs of Swallow-tailed Gulls puked up squid caught the previous night to feed to their small chicks. Large fluffy white Red-footed Booby chicks sat in their nests with a single adult. Tower hosts the world’s largest breeding population of this species with the dark morphs outnumbering the gorgeous white morphs by about 10 to 1. Frigatebird nests with white chicks and a single adult were seemingly everywhere at knee level. Both species nest in the low bushes with the Magniificents outnumbering the Greats again by about 10-1. Handsome Nazca Boobies were setting up territories.
A few Lava Gulls, the world’s rarest gull species–only 400 pairs at present–foraged in tidal pools along with adult and young Yellow-crowned Night Herons. The latter species is much darker than the birds that breed in North America. Thousands of seabirds in flight above the sandy beach added to the mix. In addition to the water birds there are five species of Darwin’s Finches on Tower: Small Ground, Large Ground, Large Cactus, Warbler, and Sharp-beaked.
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| This Red-footed Booby chick was in the process of being fed in its waist level nest by a dark morph parent. The image was created with the Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS Canon lens (handheld at 200mm) and the EOS-1D MIV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/500 sec. at f/5.6 set manually. The tameness of most Galapagos birds needs to be experienced to be believed. |
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| This foraging Lava Gull image was created with the Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS Canon lens (handheld at 200mm) and the EOS-1D MIV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops: 1/1000 sec. at f/8. When working with tame birds and short lenses it is most important to get low; this image was created while kneeling. |
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| This yawning Great Frigatebird chick image was created with the Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS lens (handheld at 121 mm) and the EOS-1D MIV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/500 sec. at f/13. Here with the large dark adult in the background added only 1/3 stop of light to the suggested exposure to avoid burning the white feathers. |
Many of the birds on Tower are so tame that I found myself needing to add either a 12 mm or a 25mm Extension tube to both the 70-200 and the 800 lenses to allow for closer focusing when creating tight images of a bird’s head or close-up pattern-type images of its plumage.
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| This close-up of the head and bill of an adult female Great Frigatebird sitting on its nest was created with the Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS lens (handheld at 121 mm) and the EOS-1D MIV. A 25mm Extension tube was mounted between the lens and the camera body to allow for close focusing. (Extension tubes make it easy to photography bugs and flowers with intermeditate telephoto lenses. ISO 800. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/200 sec. at f/9. It was cloudy dark when we landed. Then it brightened. Then the sun was out for a while. Then it was cloudy bright one second and cloudy dark the next. Only those with a good understanding of digital exposure and histograms were able to create consistently good exposures. You can learn about both of these vital topics in ABP II ((16 pages on CD only). |
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| This close-up of the mantle feathers of a male Great Frigatebird sitting on its nest was created with the Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS lens (handheld at 155 mm) and the EOS-1D MIV. A 25mm Extension tube was mounted between the lens and the camera body to allow for close focusing. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/100 sec. at f/4. Working at the wide open aperture due to the low light it was important to parallel the subject as closely as possible. |
The images above represent only a small fraction of the wonderful photographs that I created during our memorable morning landing at Darwin Bay. Though our overnight navigation to Tower Island in the far northwestern corner of the archipelago had been quite a rough one with the boat rolling pretty severely for more than seven hours, all agreed that our great morning at Darwin Bay had made the sleepless night well worth it. And amazingly, nobody had gotten seasick.
Hi,
the Frigatebird photos are of Great Frigatebird, not Magnificent (female’s red eyering and male’s green sheen on back feathers are diagnostic. Furthermore, when I was at Genovesa in June we saw thousands of Great but only one or two Magnificent).
Thanks! You are indeed correct. I shall make the changes.
While all great my favorite is the close-up of the mantle feathers.
Neat graphic!!
Stunning shots! Galapagos is one those must see places to visit and this is the proof
Thanks for your kind words. You are right!
This are fantastic shots – as always. Must have been an awesome trip. I especially like the yawning Magnificent Frigatebird chick.