Costa Rica Photography Workshop - photos by Ann Westling

1 - In July, I had a wonderful opportunity to participate in a photography workshop in Costa Rica lead by Paulo Valerio from Foto Verde Tours and David Wong and Josh Miller, professional photographers from Grass Valley.  Instead of visiting touristy locales, we stayed in remote lodges and had the facilities mostly to ourselves.  This was a great trip - combining excellent photography coaching in a unique and beautiful area.    

Our first stop was a lodge in the Caribbean lowlands that sported a host of birds such as the Keel-billed Toucan below.

2 - The two youngsters, even though they were adult size, still begged for food from a parent.  We all got a hankering for Fruit Loops.  

3 - These male and female Shining Honeycreepers were fast flyers and often out of focus - at least in my photos.

4 - The female Curassow is a turkey size bird, very inquisitive and quite striking with her head plumage.

5 - One night, we photographed bats.  The tour leader set up several strobe lights focused on a native flower saturated with sugar water.  The strobes were activated by a motion detector so that when the bats flew to the flower, the lights flashed on.   It was pitch black except for brief flashes.   After pre-focusing, we took the shots in conjunction with the strobes, not knowing if we got any bats in our photos until we downloaded them and could increase the exposure.   Although we could not see the bats, we felt them flying near us.   It was a unique experience.

6 - To photograph hummingbirds, we used a process similar to the bats.   Strobe lights were used in combination with transmitters on our cameras.  When we hit the shutter, the strobe would go off and we got our shot.   This is a Violet Sabrewing and a Green-crowned Brilliant.

7 - These are male and female Green-crowned Brilliants feeding on a Tropical Blueberry.

8 - Although not normally seen flying together, these Green and Scarlet Macaws made a dazzling display in the sky.  

9 - We searched for sloths in many locations and finally found one in the top of the trees above the lodge where we were staying.   It was very hard to see through the leaves but finally it moved just a tad - so very slowly -  and its face became visible.    

10 - On a boat trip up the Tarcoles River near the Pacific coast, we spotted many American Crocodiles such as this big guy, estimated to weigh over a ton.