This is a wild white-throated toucan. I was able to get this extreme closeup because on private property in the Amazon there is a couple who set up feeding stations for wild birds. Photographers pay a small fee to photograph the avian visitors like hummingbirds, toucans, tanagers, etc. This particular toucan not only enjoys the free food but likes to interact with people. The local couple named her Lola, and while Lola is very photogenic, she also bites. So, petting and hand feeding is out of the question. That huge beak is very powerful. When someone uses the enclosed toilet, Lola jumps up on the open window sill and watches. It's really quite comical. I used a 500mm focal length for this tight portrait, and my settings were 1/1600, f/7.1, and 3200 ISO. Because at this close range a 500mm lens has such shallow depth of field, I angled the camera such that the plane of the digital sensor (i.e. the back the camera) was as parallel as possible with the plane of the toucan's face. This gave me as much DOF as possible.
2 Comments
Oct 18, 2022, 8:41:28 AM
Jim - Hi Debi, Great to hear from you. No, on this trip we didn't do the pink dolphins. Next time.
Oct 17, 2022, 10:33:44 PM
Debi Tepper - Love this shot!! Did you photograph the pink dolphins too?