Once more around the Pipeline Road (pt. 3) - Thinking outside the box

White-whiskered Puffbird (Malacoptila panamensis) - female

This post will be short, and covers part of one of our tours around the Pipeline Road. We have been very busy with our day jobs, so we haven’t been able to write a complete report as usual. Hopefully, next week we will be able to make a “Featured Species” post. 

With some of the shots here we went outside the box, trying something different. On the shot above we tried a 600mm f/4 lens paired with a 2x for a extreme closeup. Light was not the best but we were expecting to get some feathers' detail, and we ended capturing an "angry bird" look.   

Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinicus)

Again, light was not great but we did not waste the opportunity to get a really close shot with a 600mm lens.

White-whiskered Puffbird (Malacoptila panamensis) - female

We are not used to black-and-white monochrome photos, neither selective desaturation, but the harsh backlight in the shot above was calling for this kind of shot. Yet we were able to capture the red eye. This is an easy way to emphasize your main subject or parts of your image, decolorizing the image and leaving only a part in color. It can be used to enhance photos that might not have had much impact if the whole image was in color or just simply to add an artistic look.

Variegated Squirrel (Sciurus variegatoides)

Slaty-tailed Trogon (Trogon massena) - male

Laughing Falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans)

With this bird of prey we tried a low-angle shot, a shot from a camera angle positioned low on the vertical axis, below the eye line, looking up. Sometimes, it is even directly below the subject's feet. Psychologically, the effect of the low-angle shot is that it makes the subject look strong and powerful. What do you think? We opted for this angle to get the bokeh balls in the background produced by the light filtered between the leaves, and the wide open aperture.

Cocoa Woodcreeper (Xiphorhynchus susurrans) 

Cocoa Woodcreeper (Xiphorhynchus susurrans)

Cocoa Woodcreeper (Xiphorhynchus susurrans) is a common bird in Panama but with the first shot above we tried a desaturated shot for a black-and-white monochrome effect because lighting and therefore colors were not very good, given the subject was inside a hole in a tree. The second shot is from another subject in another place.

Broad-billed Motmot (Electron platyrhynchum)

Whooping Motmot (Momotus subrufescens)

Motmots are also common around the Pipeline Road but we never get tired of them.