Monkeys from Costa Rica (FZ18, low light)

We spent 2 weeks down there in "Pura Vida" country, liked it very much. But it was tough to find good light for all the monkeys we saw, most always in trees, under jungle canopy, and/or overcast. But they sure were fun to watch! I did have to use some rather high ISOs to catch them though, and also a bit of Noise Ninja. See what you think? Here's a White Faced (Capuchin) Monkey just begging for your approval at ISO 400:



When is wasn't raining so hard you couldn't hear the sounds of the jungle, these Howler Monkeys would wake us up in the morning, sounding a lot like bloodhounds baying. This one at full zoom, ISO 800:



Another Capuchin at full zoom, ISO 800, picking his teeth?



This Howler in a more comfortable light, ISO 100, full zoom:



Another White Face at ISO 400, Full Zoom:



'Fraid this is the best I could do for a Squirrel Monkey (Titi); these guys were ALWAYS on the move, though the camera used ISO 160 for this, the shutterspeed was too slow (1/125) to freeze the durn thing:



Very human-like expressions sometimes, don't you think?



Except for the Titi, all these shots were taken in 5MP EZ mode with my Nikon TC-E17ED mounted, handheld sans tripod. I've got some other flora & fauna & scenery up my sleeve; stay tuned if you're interested in seeing more? Thanks for looking.
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Just cruisin' ...



EffZeeThirty (Got the Gull), EffZeeEighteen, TeeZeeThree

..about the facial expressions on the capuchin monkeys in particular & I must say the one picking its teeth is a crack-up, his dentist could nearly use that shot for his annual check-up......

• FWIW, do you have any pics taken at 35mm, to try and get a feel for how far away you were & the general lighting conditions ?? Cheers RonS

Here's a TZ3 shot of the jungle near the beach at Manuel San Antonio, near Quepos, on the Pacific coast. The jungle here is bordered by a sunny, sandy beach, but you can see that the trees where the monkeys cavort about can get pretty dark. Often times near the beach, the little fellows would become enamored with food that people offered and come down to eat, yet they still generally stayed in the shade, though I'll admit that some of the Capuchin closeups came from such sorties? ;-)
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Just cruisin' ...



EffZeeThirty (Got the Gull), EffZeeEighteen, TeeZeeThree

Sorry 'bout that!



You can see that though the sand is brightly lit by the Sun, the trees get in the way very quickly in the jungle.
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Just cruisin' ...



EffZeeThirty (Got the Gull), EffZeeEighteen, TeeZeeThree

John, loved the pics, you are right it is hard to get some of the monkey shots due to the trees, distance etc. Were they all in MA? I think CR is wonderful to get birding and monkey photos! Yours were great. here are a few of mine from our last trip, heading back to CR...to MA and the OSA in May.
Were the pics all from MA area?

Mine are with the FZ7, I will probably upgrade to the FZ18 before our trip. I assume you love the FZ18. I had some problems due to the poor lighting and distance, the monkey pics are all grainy, but the Aracari ones are much better, more light.

The others were taken from the balcony of our rented condo, which jutted out into the surrounding jungle. We heard the howlers every morning noon and night! Your Toucan shots are great, I wasn't so lucky with Toucans, never really found one in decent lighting.
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Just cruisin' ...



EffZeeThirty (Got the Gull), EffZeeEighteen, TeeZeeThree

Very nice!

Sounds like a fun trip, collecting exotic photo subjects.

As to the low light etc, doesn't seem to hurt much, although I do find - IMHO - that these are improved by adding about +15 contrast in PSE 4, gets rid of the "hazy" look. 8^)

-Erik
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I don't see "hazy" on my monitors, but different folks will see with different eyeballs. Thanks for your comments! I'll try to improve in the future.
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Just cruisin' ...



EffZeeThirty (Got the Gull), EffZeeEighteen, TeeZeeThree

John_Reed said:

I don't see "hazy" on my monitors, but different folks will see with
different eyeballs. Thanks for your comments! I'll try to improve in
the future.
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Just cruisin' ...



EffZeeThirty (Got the Gull), EffZeeEighteen, TeeZeeThree

Click to expand...

Considering the lighting, you got great results, though I do think some of the backgrounds are blown out, which the FZ-18 has a tendency to do. I think you can offset that by adjusting contrast.

Very cute monkey faces.

Costa Rica is a truly amazing place. I was there in 2004. as you have posted there are monkeys everywhere!

BTW Did you have a Harlan spotting when you were down there? He has built a nice place from his pics on Pbase.
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Jeff



Link for Gallery: http://atomicfish.smugmug.com

John_Reed said:

I don't see "hazy" on my monitors, but different folks will see with
different eyeballs.

Click to expand...

actually, I was thinking 'hazy' too. lack of contrast. milky looking.

hey, did you visit harlan? isn't he down there somewhere?

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Bryan
(pic stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/linux-works ) ~

I don't think I went anywhere near the part of the country where Harlan is supposed to live. That's in San Gerardo de Dota, I think, and the nearest I got to that place was Quepos/Manuel San Antonio. So my chances of encountering Harlan were slim to none.
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Just cruisin' ...



EffZeeThirty (Got the Gull), EffZeeEighteen, TeeZeeThree

John_Reed said:

I don't think I went anywhere near the part of the country where
Harlan is supposed to live. That's in San Gerardo de Dota, I think,
and the nearest I got to that place was Quepos/Manuel San Antonio. So
my chances of encountering Harlan were slim to none.

Click to expand...

you just have to know the right tree he's hiding in ...

(LOL)

sorry harlan. j/k

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Bryan
(pic stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/linux-works ) ~

Considering the distance, light and high ISO used, these are really good shots. I think some of these are a bit soft .... but thats probably the result of high ISO and subsequent NR..... all in all liked them John.

Sounds like you had a very good time ... seems like a place to visit with long zooms.
Cheers
aftab
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All Photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aftab/
Selected Photos
http://aftab.zenfolio.com/
Keep trying ......

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Just cruisin' ...



EffZeeThirty (Got the Gull), EffZeeEighteen, TeeZeeThree