I've photographed so many different kinds of animals in my travels. I am only uneasy with two types -- venomous snakes and these guys, Komodo dragons. They live on three islands in the Indonesian archipelago, and they are very dangerous. They hunt by biting their prey once, and then they follow it for 3 or 4 days until it drops dead from the dragons' highly toxic saliva. Thus, I'm always watching behind me when I'm anywhere near them, and I use a long lens for safety. I'm really not used to using the articulating LCD screen on my camera, preferring instead the viewfinder, but next time I lead a wildlife tour to Indonesia (Oct. 2026) I'm going to use the screen to shoot from as low a perspective as possible. That makes these 10-foot lizards look even more impressive. I couldn't lie on the ground to shoot simply because it would be dangerous. My settings were 1/400, f/14, and 1000 ISO, and for this shot my focal length was 214mm on a 100-500mm Canon zoom.
0 Comments