Neotropic

The tropical rainforests of the Americas is where I first cut my teeth in photography, but it might be more accurate to say that these jungles first cut me as a photographer.  To me, there is no more challenging an environment for wildlife photography than the rainforest.

First, there is the light.  Or, should I say, the lack of light?  The dense canopy shades the ground so heavily in places that there often is not enough natural light to make an image.  And the equatorial light that does manage to penetrate the forest is often so bright and harsh that the specular highlights it creates on all the surrounding vegetation makes a proper exposure all but impossible to obtain.  Add to this the secretive nature of so many jungle creatures, and their penchant for camouflage, and all the stinging insects and plants, and the relentless heat and humidity.  All these factors conspire to construct the ultimate test for a photographer’s skill, creativity, and physical endurance.

As a result, my progress is slow, and entire days can go by in which I fail to make a single satisfactory picture.  Many photographers in this environment largely employ artificial feeder set-ups to make their images, and I try to limit myself only to wild subjects in their undisturbed natural environments.  You’ll find that this collection is rather small compared to some others.  But I remain compelled.  The rainforest reveals only what it wishes, but its denizens are some of the most colorful, fascinating, and evocative subjects I’ve ever photographed.

These richly biodiverse forests are also slipping away from us, due primarily to population growth and underregulated or illegal resource extraction.  New species are still being discovered in some of the most remote parts of the Amazon, but scientists fear that some may go extinct before we ever realize they existed.

At the same time, hope remains.  Some species that were feared extinct have been rediscovered in small forest remnants, and governments, most notably Costa Rica, are taking action.  As long as the rainforests of the tropical Americas remain, I suspect I will be trekking through them, in a measured hope to capture the brilliant colors of a silent trogon perched in wait for an unwary insect in the canopy, an elusive tamandua in search of an arboreal termite mound, or the shimmering blue of a giant morpho butterfly that has let its guard down just long enough for me to capture it with its wings spread open in all their dazzling glory.