477 - Los Cocos
I’m not going to lie to you guys, I’m a bit of a hypochondriac. If you mention an obscure disease, I’ll probably self-diagnose myself within the next week. It happens more often than not when I’m stressed, which, when you’re driving through Central America in a van with a broken foot, tends to be quite often.
You can imagine my fear when we stepped out of our van into the land of mosquitos, ripe with malaria and dengue fever. Good ole’ fashioned tropic disease was the buzzword of the day. Right at our doorstep.
See, our plan for the night was to sleep on the edge of Lago Cociboica, a massive lake in Nicaragua home to the tropic island known as Ometepe. We’d planned on taking a ferry to the island the next morning, but first we had to get through the night. What we didn’t count on was bugs here. Swarms of bugs.
I should mention that this spot that we’d rolled up to for the night wasn’t exactly a “camping” spot. It was a pull off from the highway that was situated behind some shack houses. I should also mention that it was (very) dirty. Half rotten garbage and old tires littered the shoreline. But whether we liked it or not, the sun was quickly setting and this became our home for the night.
As I inspected what appeared to be a dirty diaper washing up on the sand, a “potable water” truck came up and started filling up on water from the lake. This is why you don’t think tap water out here, folks.
The conundrum here, however, was the view- which I’ve failed to mention until now. The absolutely incredible view. The island of Ometepe, which was in the center of the lake, happens to be made up of two active volcanos. Clouds were rolling over said volcanos, white herons were fishing between litter, and waves were pouring in a 30 miles per hour. It was a debris paradise.
Now I had a choice to make. I hadn’t planned on shooting today (it was a weekend after all,) but this was too good to pass up. The bugs were the only real issue for me. I’m no stranger to wading through trash for a shot.
The problem was that we hadn’t taken any malaria or dengue fever medication for this trip. Based on my preliminary research, the chances of getting either disease was fairly low on the Pacific side of Nicaragua. It was also expensive enough to cut our trip a few weeks short- so we decided to play tropical roulette.
Of course, my hypochondriac brain couldn’t fathom this decision. It was like an angry army general screaming at me to retreat. But then the light started hitting…
…and a light went off in my brain. (You see what I did there?) Well, I simply couldn’t pass this up. I suddenly remembered some cheese ball quote from La Casa De Papel about how you shouldn’t live in fear, and my brain was sold. With a compromise.
Despite the 90 degree, above 50% humidity weather, I put on enough layers to cover every inch of my body. I rolled into sweatpants, tossed on a windbreaker, and pulled my socks up like a nerd from the 90s. I just had to find a shot before I got heat stroke.
The first thing I noticed was the birds. There was an absurd amount of white herons, which were nostalgic to me. I grew up in Colorado where they were common enough to find in local ponds, but rare enough to make them of interest. As a kid, they quickly became my favorite bird.
Now there were dozens in front of my face like it was no big deal. My inner kid was going bananas. I decided they were going to be my focus today.... Since I wasn’t even planning to shoot today, I figured I could play with fast birds during the good light and walk away feeling good if I didn’t get a shot.
See, the thing about bird photography is that it’s notoriously difficult, which is why only the “old” photographers do it. It’s not because they like the “peacefulness” of gazing at birds all day, it’s because it takes years of skill to actually do it well. If I spent every shoot chasing birds, I’d be left with nothing 99% of the time.
Birds are smart. Very smart. They know every step you’re going to take before you even take it- which means you have to constantly be taking photos. Any second your carefully aligned composition could fly away forever.
Focus is also an entirely new skillset with birds. It takes the precision of shooting a gun at a moving target to nail focus on a bird flying by on a tiny camera screen. And there’s no way to get better other than to practice.
Needless to say, I left the shoot with nothing. No good photos. Even after all those goddamn layers, the swarms of parasitic insects, and the trashy shoreline. The herons were just too goddamn fast.
But I uploaded my shots to Lightroom anyway, because I’m a data hoarder. I may be a minimalist that can live in a car with next to nothing, but if you check my hard drives, you’ll find terabytes of carefully organized photos.
However as I dug through the rubles of the shoot, I stumbled upon a shot that looked rather good decent. It couldn’t be. I zoomed in, and to my surprise, the heron was in perfect focus. I hit the jackpot:
he dozens of colorful ships that dotted the water like Dippin' Dots:
“Not Japan”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM
[ISO 2000 ~ 70mm ~ f/9 ~ 1/400s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Kind of reminds me of Japan even though I’ve never been.
Here’s today’s tip. Become a hoarder. Always keep all your shots. I never delete anything in camera, and I always upload to Lightroom even if I’m 99% convinced there’s nothing there. Because occasionally it pays off.
This shot was not without a bit of tidying up, however. The crane was actually shot about 1 foot lower than this in the original shot, so I moved in up in Photoshop to frame it perfectly in the mountain. I also had to do some de-noise action because I shot this thing severely underexposed to compensate for high shutter birds at twilight.
It’s not technically perfect by any means, but I’ll take it.
I was watching the Annie Liebovitz’s Photography Masterclass the other day, who emphasized repeatedly that technical photography was not her strong suit. Yet… she was one of the most famous photographers in the world.
She claimed she’d rather have blurry photos with emotion than technically perfect shots that don’t make you feel anything. Which got me thinking, maybe I’d entertain that notion a bit today. I decided to do another run through of the photos from the shoot, and found one more shot that I enjoyed, but wasn’t perfect:
“Five Little Birds”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM
[ISO 2000 ~ 83mm ~ f/9 ~ 1/320s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
The obvious culprits here are excessive noise and motion blur on the birds. But you know what? I’m publishing it anyway. Because it’s peaceful if you stand three feet away.
Alright, I probably should go before I find another shot that’s even blurrier. BYE.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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