Pantanal Photo Tour, Brazil
December 1 - 9, 2025
Join Jim for one of the most unique wildlife adventures ever. There is only one place on earth where wild jaguars can be consistently and predictably seen, and that's where Jim will take you in this jungle expedition. Jaguars are at the top of the list of the big cats for stealth, beauty, power, secrecy, and intrigue. You can expect multiple encounters from a small river boat where you'll have excellent photo opportunities to shoot from low perspectives. In addition, we will see and photograph a huge number of exotic bird species (on the last trip Jim counted 51 species of birds we photographed like the sunbittern, below), capybaras, ocelot, caiman, monkeys, giant river otters, and more.
Jim chooses this time of year for the photo tour because there is a good chance the skies will be overcast (and it can rain as well), and this provides the best possible lighting for photographing jaguars. During high season in mid-summer and early autumn, the sky is mostly clear, and this creates terribly harsh lighting conditions. There is nothing worse in nature photography than dappled lighting on subjects in dense vegetation. In addition, there are so many boats on the river during high season and everyone is trying to position themselves for the best pictures. That makes serious wildlife photography very competitive and very tough. You want all the odds in your favor to get the best shots, and November and December is the best time to go.
The tour cost is based on double occupancy, but single rooms are available. You will have a private bath, good food, and the pictures from this trip will be among the best you've ever taken.
What you will learn on this tour:
What camera settings to use for action photography
Photographing birds in flight
The advantages of auto ISO
How to shoot in low light
What to look for in photographing backgrounds for composites
Using the camera's histogram for mottled lighting
Depth of field issues when shooting in thick vegetation
Using Photoshop to replace backgrounds
Creating impossible depth of field
Itinerary
Days 1 - 2, December 1 and 2, Sunday and Monday
Arrive in Cuiaba, Brazil after a two hour non-stop flight from Sao Paulo. You will have to depart from the U.S. or Europe the day before, Dec. 1, to connect with the domestic flight from São Paulo to Cuiaba. Your international airfare should be roundtrip to Cuiaba. We will meet at the airport in Cuiaba at 1:30 pm, and then we head directly to the Pantanal by vehicle. We stop for lunch and reach South Wild Pantanal in mid-afternoon. The rest of this day will be an eye-opener because you will see how incredibly rich this environment is for wildlife and bird photography. At the lodge, there are feeders that attract stunning exotic birds (like the red-headed cardinal and the saffron finch, ), and there is a platform from which you can shoot a jabiru stork's nest at eye level. If time
permits, we will do some photography on the river as well. This area is like a wildlife smorgasbord. In the early evening, we photograph an ocelot that habitually visits the lodge. Overnight at the Southwild Pantanal Lodge.
Days 2 - 5, December 3 - 6, Tuesday - Friday
After early morning photography around the lodge and breakfast, we transfer to Jaguarland by vehicle and boat. After lunch, we have our first encounters with the amazing wildlife that abounds along the serpentine river that we explore for the next several days. We have powerful 115 horsepower boats, and when another boat spots a big cat before we do, we waste no time in getting there. Larger and more powerful than leopards, jaguars are breathtaking to see in the wild. They come down to the river's edge to hunt, drink, and rest, and even though the vegetation is thick we will have good luck in spotting them. In addition, there are hundreds of caiman, capybara, capuchin monkeys, and lots of birds to keep us enthralled for several days. Most of the time you'll be using a long lens -- in the 400mm to 600mm range -- but sometimes you'll need a lens like a 70-200mm when a jaguar allows a close approach or if one swims across the river right in front of our boat. This is wildlife photography at its best! Overnight in the Jaguar Flotilla Hotel.
Days 6 - 7, December 7 - 8, Saturday - Sunday
After breakfast we return by boat and then vehicle to the South Wild Pantantal lodge. We spend two days photographing wildlife and birds from a boat as well as around the lodge. Kingfishers diving for fish, black-collard hawks, many species of herons, hyacinth macaws, southern crested caracara, storks, capybara, caiman, capuchin monkeys, and other creatures are everywhere. A night walk to look for ocelots, tapirs, and other jungle creatures is something you'll want to do as well. In back of the lodge, there is a spiral staircase adjacent to a stork nest that provides incredible elevated perspectives on the storks, on stunning green monk parakeets
nesting in the bottom of the huge nest, and incoming flights of blue hyacinth macaws. Overnight Southwild Pantanal Lodge.
Day 8, December 9, Monday
We return to Cuiaba by vehicle to catch our international flights home (we should arrive in Cuiaba around noon, so make sure your flight is not scheduled until 2 or 3 pm or later). When you arrive home and work on your pictures, you'll be overwhelmed by the great things you've seen and photographed.
Tour cost: $8750 based on double occupancy.
Includes: All lodging from leaving Cuiaba, all meals from lunch on the first day through breakfast on the last day, all ground transportation, all boat excursions, an English-speaking guide, photo instruction, and critiques on demand. Limited to 8 people.
Single supplement: $1165 (to have your own room)
Not included: International airfare to and from Brazil, travel cancellation insurance, medical evacuation insurance, alcoholic beverages, and items of a personal nature.