Working for the National Geographic, Part 2

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( Read Part 1 of this story)
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The guy who did all the damage probably looks pretty much like this… PHOTO: © Daniel De Granville, 2006

Following on with the stories about my trips with the Nat Geo, there’s a nice one about the day when we did the photo which was chosen to open the article in the magazine (an underwater shot of a caiman with fish around).

This is how it worked: I had to stand up in a rapid which was crowded with caimans (reeeeally crowded!), with water waist high, holding the underwater camera with the help of a handle which we adapted from a painters’ pole. Joel Sartore would stay on the outside, about 30 feet away, watching the whole scene through a monitor and remotely firing the camera whenever he saw the opportunity for a good shot. I had to follow his instructions: “go closer”, “lower”, “horizon is crooked”, “try to get the caiman in profile”, “tilt up”, and so on. All of this was done with the equipment about 10 inches away from the critters’ mouths, since we were using a 24 mm wide angle lens.

It took us three full days to get “ The Shot”, the one in which the photographer clicks and feels sure that it was worth all efforts. And, in our case, the efforts included the most peculiar moment of the whole story: I was fully at ease, doing my job, when I felt a sort of a thud on the camera’s pole. I thought it was a rock coming down with the current, but just to make sure I decided to check it out. I took the camera out and noticed that the underwater housing’s glass dome had some water inside. I called Joel, we analyzed the equipment and noticed some scratches plus three holes through the dome, the result of a bite that some caiman in a bad mood decided to take at our gear. Luckily I took the camera out of the water in time, before it got wet, and the glass didn’t shatter, which could have caused some wound in our crocodilian buddy (even though I am not sure if some smithereens of glass would do any harm to folks who are used to crushing live piranhas...).

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Once More, The Pantanal...

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. A cousin of the dude above was the one who almost bit off
a chunk of my toe last Sunday...
PHOTO © Daniel De Granville, 2006

The full week without any posts in FotogramaBits was due to a couple of short trips that I’ve taken through the Pantanal lately. One of them was particularly outstanding, as I was guiding British photographer Mark Hannaford, who is also the founding director of Across the Divide, a UK-based charity and corporate challenge company.

Besides a piranha bite in my toe, during these trips I got some nice shots which can be checked out in my website's Month Gallery (Nov.2006). Enjoy!

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Creatures of the Night

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.Yacare Caimans (Caiman yacare) feeding in the early night
PHOTO © Daniel De Granville, 2004

A neat challenge for wildlife photographers is to get good images of nocturnal animals. Among the difficulties, I emphasize the inherent search for critters in the dark, the need to provide supplementary light in order to make the photos and the quest for a framing or background which adds creativeness to the image.

In the Pantanal, there is a popular tourism activity called “spotlighting”, in which visitors go on roads or rivers at night with strong light beams. It is by far the best way to find animals such as foxes, ocelots, owls, nightjars, caimans and many others. Besides helping on the search, the light can be useful to help on framing, focusing and lighting up the subject.

Long-tongued bat (Phyllostomidae/Glossophaginae) making use
of a hummingbird feeder at the Atlantic Forest
PHOTO © Daniel De Granville, 2005

Speaking of light, using a flash (which I assume as a “necessary evil”) will be almost always mandatory, unless the animal is very close, the light beam is very good, your lens has a wide aperture and the ISO is at its highest settings.

A more creative image can be obtained by “playing around” with shutter speed to make use of the ambient light, or using some of the flash’s special features, or by using peculiar techniques such as “light painting”. It is important to highlight that, since these photos show critters who are less known by the general public (since they are nocturnal), this kind of photography might delight the observer more easily than a daytime shot.

Last, but just as important: the seek for animals at night must follow certain criteria to avoid excessive disturbance on them. A strong light source, used persistently during a critical period, can disturb feeding and breeding of a nocturnal animal, or make it more vulnerable to predators. If the animal has diurnal habits and is found at rest, the use of such means shall be strictly avoided.

Striped Owl (Rhinoptynx clamator), a species that prefers
open areas and whose diet includes vampire bats
PHOTO © Daniel De Granville, 2006
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Working for the National Geographic, Part I

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Setting up the camera with a remote trigger
by a Jabiru Stork’s nest 60 feet up high!
(photo: Joel Sartore - Joel Sartore Photography)

Three years ago this week, my last field trip with the National Geographic for the Pantanal story, for which I worked in several stages, was getting to an end. Doubtlessly this job became a cornerstone in my professional career and my personal life – that’s when I decided to put photography in first place on my list of priorities.

During some 4 months (besides several weeks spent on pre-production), in 2003, I traveled all over the Pantanal working as a field assistant and guide for photographer Joel Sartore, author of the images that illustrate the article. Those were extremely busy and sometimes tense days, but at the same time (as always) very rewarding. The list of funny and absurd stories might deserve a blog of its own, maybe some day I’ll dedicate myself to it...

It includes from walking in a river full of sting rays, piranhas and caimans to place the remote camera at the best angle, to the unusual strike of an anaconda who missed us by a few inches, when we were in waist-high water. Or the plane in which I had to push a button on the outside of the cabin so that the flaps would work. Or the day when we got stuck with Vavá’s (great driver and friend!) pickup truck late in the afternoon, and after walking a couple of miles in a swamp carrying cases with film rolls and gear, ended up spending the night at a ranch’s stable, lying down on horse blankets that had been intensively used the morning before. Or the time when I had to be hauled into town by plane due to a mysterious health problem, which not even the doctor was able to diagnose – at the end it was just a botfly’s maggot in my scalp...

We also had the “swamp cam” (a fancy name that we chose just to impress people, according to Sartore), probably one of the best stories: it was placed in the middle of the swamp, about an inch above the water surface. One morning a catfish got tangled in the camouflaged cloth that involved the equipment, and a wood stork came after it. The bird kept on persistently pulling the cloth until the camera sunk in the mud, while we watched the whole scene through the remote wireless monitor, 100 yards away. What followed was surreal. We were in the middle of the Pantanal, with our feet in the same water where the “swamp cam” had dived, using our satellite phone to call the Nat Geo technicians in the US and ask what we should do: “Shall we let the film dry or keep it wet?”. “Can it be recovered? Shall we ship them to you right away or try to get it processed immediately at the nearest photo lab?”. “The camera is not a problem, we have many others, but this roll of film has some killer shots!”. Since no one knew the exact answer, the solution was easy: call Fuji Japan directly and ask! The answer was that we had to keep the film moist and ship it to the USA ASAP, so that we had to set up a real rescue operation, rushing to Cuiabá (the nearest capital) in time to find FedEx’s office open.


Next Episode (coming soon): "The Day When a Caiman Bit a Hole Through our Underwater Housing's Glass Dome"

Go behind the scenes with Joel Sartore On Assignment!
OR
Read More: parts of the story and some photos in Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Turkish or Hungarian!



Joel Sartore and Daniel De Granville leaving for
another hard working day in the Pantanal
(photo: Andre Thuronyi - Araras Eco Lodge)
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