Ideas for new photography lodge in the Amazon

Hi everyone,

Help Wanted

It is telling that although I live in Ecuador and run trips all over the world, I have never been willing to offer a photo tour to the Amazon. I love the Ecuadorian Amazon lodges, but prefer them for birding, not eking out photos in the understory. It is just much easier in the Andes.

Sani Lodge has approached us to help set it up for serious photographers, and have essentially given carte blanche for photo ops. We are looking at every possible idea for photography, bird, mammal and macro. I am even investigating the viability of floating blinds of the Steve Gettle style, though yes, there are very big caiman and anacondas in this lagoon, so that may be a short experiment.

I intend to write a series of articles for Naturescapes on how they do this, giving up dates on what they do, how it works, what mistakes they make.

Has anyone seen something around the world or thought of something that could make for great photos. If these guys do it right, this could be an amazing place, as is the forest there is amazing.  

Any ideas from people will be greatly appreciated

Cheers,
Iain

Hi Iain, I suggest the lodge consider  sunken photo blinds at a small water feature so you can get water level shots of birds and whatever else comes to the water. Backgrounds ideally have to be clear.  These could be similar to the blinds at photo ranches in south Texas like the Santa Clara ranch and the Laguna Seca ranch, just to name a few of them. For macro, consider finding an area with an existing slope or bowl protected from wind and maybe harsh light. Then plant native plants that attract insects, butterflies, etc. The photographer can use the slope to his advantage so he is not lying flat on the ground, but maybe kneeling and shooting eye level with the plant or insect. I have never been to Amazonian habitat so I have no idea if these ideas are worthwhile or not.

Joe Smith

  The first step is to bring me down to assist with this project.   
I suggest feeding stations.  I know monkeys and coatis will make our squirrels and raccoons look like rank amateurs in the food stealing business, but they can be attractions themselves.  Some fruit feeders with attention paid to sun angle and background would be awesome. 
A bug light on a timer would be nice also.  It would be dual purpose.  The bugs themselves would be cool macro subjects and they will draw birds first thing in the morning to feast.  If this is on nightly the birds will learn to check it out every morning.
I've been to a couple of lodges in Costa Rica that built small frog ponds.  These attract the Red-eyed Treefrogs and others.
Would a salt lick attract monkeys or tapirs?

photoman4343 wrote:Hi Iain, I suggest the lodge consider  sunken photo blinds at a small water feature so you can get water level shots of birds and whatever else comes to the water. Backgrounds ideally have to be clear.  These could be similar to the blinds at photo ranches in south Texas like the Santa Clara ranch and the Laguna Seca ranch, just to name a few of them. For macro, consider finding an area with an existing slope or bowl protected from wind and maybe harsh light. Then plant native plants that attract insects, butterflies, etc. The photographer can use the slope to his advantage so he is not lying flat on the ground, but maybe kneeling and shooting eye level with the plant or insect. I have never been to Amazonian habitat so I have no idea if these ideas are worthwhile or not.

Joe Smith

Yes sunken blinds with either a pond like southern Texas or a drip like High Island or both could work. It is interesting how even though there is plenty of fresh water around, birds will still come to a small water source if we can make it safe for them. Thanks for the idea for macro.

jeff Parker wrote:  The first step is to bring me down to assist with this project.   
I suggest feeding stations.  I know monkeys and coatis will make our squirrels and raccoons look like rank amateurs in the food stealing business, but they can be attractions themselves.  Some fruit feeders with attention paid to sun angle and background would be awesome. 
A bug light on a timer would be nice also.  It would be dual purpose.  The bugs themselves would be cool macro subjects and they will draw birds first thing in the morning to feast.  If this is on nightly the birds will learn to check it out every morning.
I've been to a couple of lodges in Costa Rica that built small frog ponds.  These attract the Red-eyed Treefrogs and others.
Would a salt lick attract monkeys or tapirs?

I just bought four salt licks to place around the reserve. I wonder how long it will take for the animals to find them. 

I suggest you have a look at Bence Mates blinds in Hungary, Costa Rica and Brazil. Many award winning pictures have come from his places.

Great luck!

/ Daniel

Even in the Andes, hummingbird feeders were not all that well placed photographically with regards to lighting or backgrounds or even nice perches, not everyone wants to do multi flash setups and getting this right would be a plus. Also fruit feeders if they will draw in birds would be good, They need some nice perches above for the birds to stop on before descending to the fruit and getting banana all over their beaks. You could place them high on polished metal poles to try to discourage animals other than birds to visit.

Rather than floating blinds you may want to look at larger rafts with covers and shooting windows.

Iain, since you asked for ideas, here they are:

1. Sunken, safe blinds that allow reasonable shots of various birds that can be attracted to the feeders
2. Different types of feeders - fruit as well as hummingbirds. Also consider nuts and seeds to see if this works
3. Strategically placed perches. Even at places like Tandayapa, I think that the perches could be better
4. Pay close attention to the backgrounds and make sure that the b/g is clean or at least not super busy and evenly lit
5. Have a way to light the background
6. Have strategically placed blinds for morning and evening light

I hate it when places have "fixed" perches setup. One, they are usually somewhat boring, as really nice perches lose their beauty fairly quickly. Two, it makes for everyone getting pretty much the same shots on the same perches. Instead, it makes way more sense to have really good versatile adjustable perch holders (both fixed and moveable) so a new photo session can have new fresh perches placed as desired.

I personally do not like sunken blinds like those they have at the ranches in Texas. Makes it more difficult to get nice BGs and can quite often have you shooting up at your subject. The ideal situation is to have your subject at eye level to your lens. So I would design the blinds with that in mind.

Vivek wrote:Iain, since you asked for ideas, here they are:

1. Sunken, safe blinds that allow reasonable shots of various birds that can be attracted to the feeders
2. Different types of feeders - fruit as well as hummingbirds. Also consider nuts and seeds to see if this works
3. Strategically placed perches. Even at places like Tandayapa, I think that the perches could be better
4. Pay close attention to the backgrounds and make sure that the b/g is clean or at least not super busy and evenly lit
5. Have a way to light the background
6. Have strategically placed blinds for morning and evening light

Yes the backgrounds will be an issue. Many people love the super clean backgrounds, yet I find them generic looking. What I was planning was a few of the fruit feeders with clean backgrounds and some situated just 15 feet in front of a more textured background.

Rather than a all birds type feeder where we have fruit, seeds and nuts together, I want to look at the idea of a range of very specific type feeders for both morning and evening light. We are looking at worm and mealy worm feeders on ground, moths on the ground (morning only), a grain feeder, fruit at eye level, fruit in canopy, salt lick blind.

Tim Zurowski wrote:I hate it when places have "fixed" perches setup. One, they are usually somewhat boring, as really nice perches lose their beauty fairly quickly. Two, it makes for everyone getting pretty much the same shots on the same perches. Instead, it makes way more sense to have really good versatile adjustable perch holders (both fixed and moveable) so a new photo session can have new fresh perches placed as desired.

I personally do not like sunken blinds like those they have at the ranches in Texas. Makes it more difficult to get nice BGs and can quite often have you shooting up at your subject. The ideal situation is to have your subject at eye level to your lens. So I would design the blinds with that in mind.

I will try a mixture of partially sunken blinds for the grain and worm feeders for ground birds such as tinamous and antpittas, and raised blinds for the fruit feeders. I really like the setups that Greg Basco had where you can change perches.

Thanks,
Iain

ChrisRoss wrote:Even in the Andes, hummingbird feeders were not all that well placed photographically with regards to lighting or backgrounds or even nice perches, not everyone wants to do multi flash setups and getting this right would be a plus.  Also fruit feeders if they will draw in birds would be good, They need some nice perches above for the birds to stop on before descending to the fruit and getting banana all over their beaks.  You could place them high on polished metal poles to try to discourage animals other than birds to visit.

Rather than floating blinds you may want to look at larger rafts with covers and shooting windows.

Yes a camouflaged bass boat may be a better option than submerged blind. We looked at inflatable pontoons but one nasty stick in the lagoon could result in a lot of wet camera gear. 

The one thing that we have plenty of in the Amazon is fruit. While squirrels may not be such a target, if coatis come in that would be a great bonus.

Cheers,
Iain

Hi Iain--

I just spent some wonderful days at Sani Lodge with Glenn Bartley Photography and even without special blinds we had many great photo ops. I am surprised nobody has mentioned the canopy tower near the lodge which, for our small group, turned out to be truly amazing during two morning visits. A steady stream of parrots, tanagers (including paradise, opal-rumped, and turquoise), flycatchers, araçaris, toucans, hawks, kites, woodpeckers, woodcreepers, fruitcrows, guans, and even a sleeping potoo close to the railing of the platform kept our cameras clicking. Red Howler Monkeys in tree tops nearby added to the fun.I doubt that any blind could compete with that although their addition would obviously be welcome.
As for set-ups, while I appreciate nice clean portraits of birds, I personally prefer photos that include a sense of the natural environment. So maybe a mix would be good. I think we all know the slight disappointment of recognizing the same mossy branch in photos posted by others. Since most of the travel in the Sani territory is by canoe it would be nice perhaps to clear a small area on land in the jungle to create a sort of forest edge environment with feeders. The blind(s) could be slightly raised platforms like the wooden walkways. They could be reached by trails like the canopy tower.
I suspect you are familiar with the catamaran platforms paddled by a couple of boatmen used on oxbow lakes near Tambo Blanquillo in the Peruvian Amazon. Since they move very slowly no concealment seems necessary and they provide a very stable base for tripods.
I would love to return to the Sani Lodge, especially with added opportunities.
So please keep us posted about your progress.

Manfred Kusch