Hiking a trail in the Pantanal region of Brazil and seeing a jaguar in the grass would be a scary proposition, indeed. Beautiful, but scary. Fortunately I was able to capture this image from a boat. Jaguars hunt caiman and capybara in Brazil's rivers, and the best photographic opportunities are from fast boats that can speed to a location where they've been spotted. Sometimes the vegetation is dense and obstructs the view, but much of the time they are walking, resting, swimming, or hunting in plain sight. I used a Canon 500mm f/4 for this shot, and my settings were 1/1250, f/8, and 1600 ISO. I prefer to lead photo tours to the Pantanal in late October and early November to avoid high season because in the summer there are too many boats vying for vantages points from which to photograph the big cats. Also, at this time there are many more clouds than in mid-summer as a prelude to the rainy season, and this means diffused and non-contrasty light is what you have most of the time. You can never go wrong photographing nature in soft light. My next Pantanal tour begins Oct. 27, 2021. This picture is uncropped.
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