2 thousand & 10!

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The time has come once again to wish everyone an excellent New Year. So, I offer to all of you my virtual card with an optimistic message for our nature. And stay tuned, because very soon our new Photo in Natura website will be online, with a brand new layout and an image bank with hundreds of samples for you to choose from. All the best and thank you very much for supporting this blog!

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGEArt and photos: © Daniel De Granville, 2009
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My Own Animal Garden

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.I photographed this South American Coati from inside my kitchen. It was about 6 feet away and the picture was taken with a 100 mm lens.
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2009

From my work desk, where I spend a great deal of my time facing the computer when I’m not in the field, I can see almost the entire garden and backyard of my house. While I carry on building my new website, reply to e-mails, edit pictures and perform other tasks, I am able to watch the 24 bird species who already came to feed on the seeds, fruit remains and water that we put out for them on a daily basis. In total, we have already identified 77 species that come to our house or sing nearby. There are macaws, toucans, potoos, owls, parrots, tanagers, woodpeckers. If we add up all species of the neighborhood, the number goes to 113. But here we have much more than birds.

A Wagler's Snake, one of the serpents that have already visited us
in our backyard - and even showed its tongue to the house’s owner.
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2009

The Tegu Lizard, three feet of length, comes crawling quietly through the lawn, sort of hidden by the shade of the trees. Much to our surprise and general perplexity for our cats, without ceremony he climbs up a step and enters our kitchen searching for a snack, some cat food scraps. I try to get up unnoticed to grab my camera and film the scene. I fail, lizard gets scared and rushes out through the door, one of our cats raises its hair watching everything but not understanding anything. Minutes later, there is our Tegu again cooling off inside the clay bowl that we use to provide water for the animals. But he is a bit too long for that container, so that his belly is submerged but there is a lot of head and tail left to the sides. Again, he is faster than me and goes away before I manage to take a picture…

So far, the only picture that we managed to take of the intruder lizard :-)
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2009

Some months ago we had a Giant Anteater walk past the backyard fence, at 3 PM, less than 30 feet from where I sit to work. Weeks later came the Southern Tamandua, caught in action crawling under our front gate as our car headlights gave him away. Didn’t even get scared, went into the garden and calmly climbed up a tree. Three agoutis are always around (a mother and two young that we have been watching since they were babies), as well as the coatis who every now and then pay us a visit. Completing the team we have the harmless Parrot Snake that showed up one day inside our toilet bowl and the frogs that croak all around the house. Therefore, besides birds we have accounted for 11 species of mammals and 9 reptiles around here. Our cats seem used to it and are resigned of having to share their space with so many different critters.

Southern Tamandua caught red handed upon
breaking into our garden through the front gate.
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2009

No, we do not live in a remote countryside ranch. We are just one mile away from downtown Bonito, in one of the remaining forest and savanna fragments that surround the city. You can also have an animal friendly garden or porch, take some time to search the subject on the internet. The pleasure of spending your days among wildlife is simply beyond description!

The garden that makes animals happy.
Click here for a bird’s eye view of us!
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2009
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The Pantanal Rules!!!

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.A Southern Tamandua goes for a stroll
in the Pantanal with its baby
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2009

“There’s a Southern Tamandua with its baby in front of the lodge!”, our guide said upon breaking into the room and interrupting the slideshow that one of our clients, also a professional photographer, was presenting. No one seemed to be annoyed by the sudden intervention – after all, the slides could always be resumed afterwards. But tamandua and baby, no way.

We went out to the garden and there they were, demonstrating much less worries than one could suppose from an animal that suddenly finds itself surrounded by a crowd of cameras and flashes. Everybody took some pictures and decided to go back to the room – except for Kelly, Mariana, Mike, our guide Fabiano and myself, still flabbergasted with the rare scene. All satisfied, we decided to let those critters follow on alone. Little we knew about what was yet to come…

After they had gone for about 100 feet, a super curious Crab-eating Fox comes and seems to be a little too interested on that pair of ant eaters. We quickly understood what was going on: the baby, which looked more like a stuffed toy, was about to become dinner. We left our biological purism aside and decided that there was a need to intercede: we walked towards the trio, scaring the fox away, and joined the family until the nearest tree, where they would be in safety. And that is how mother tamandua got herself a human escort for the next 200 yards and 10 minutes until they reached a safe spot. I’m really sorry, Mr. Fox, but tonight you will have to look for food elsewhere. Mision accomplished, back to Kelly’s slides!

The cute little fox almost had its night of big bad wolf!
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2009

I don’t know of any area where scenes like that are so possible and almost trivial. The fact only came to confirm the feeling that I had some days ago: that the Pantanal is for me the best place in the world to see and photograph wildlife, nature, landscapes, local culture and many other things. Each day I understand that this was the main reason for which we decided to come back and live in this region after almost two years in São Paulo.

Want to check it out? So be welcome to Fotograma’s new Month’s Gallery with a selection of 20 pictures that I took during these winter months in three Brazilian biomes where I have been: Amazon, Cerrado and Pantanal.

To see the images, click here here and choose 08.2009 gallery. If you experience any difficulties, please try this alternative link. Have a nice virtual trip!


A Giant Anteater having a chat with a Red-legged Seriema!
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2009

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The Speed of Things...

Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2008

Some firsthand thoughts that I had today about photography in the digital age.

It all started last Monday, when we met some college teachers from Rio de Janeiro that we had met in the Pantanal during one of their field excursions, back in 2004. After some chatting, we decided to take a group picture and someone made the comment about not having seen any pictures from that trip. Only then we remembered that, in those days, very few people in Brazil had digital equipment, and cell phones with cameras were a thing of the future. Then I remembered that 2004 was the year when I bought my very first digital camera, a Canon EOS 10D.

Cut to yesterday, when I went to take photos of a local hotel that I had already photographed in 2002. I have just downloaded the files from my memory cards to the computer: 227 images, considering that I haven’t yet photographed the rooms (which means that I’ll easily go over 300 shots). On those photo sessions seven years ago, all I used were no more than two rolls of film, or 72 pictures...

Finally, every now and then I go over my 10 memory cards just to make sure that no image was left behind without being saved into the computer. This afternoon I found a bunch of unpretentious photos that I took about two weeks ago. My sensation was the same as if I was looking at old pictures that remained forgotten in some picture album, and that I didn’t even remember about.

Definitely, things are really changing in this photographic world...

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"...I bless the rains down in Africa..."

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Giraffes in the rain
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2009

The introduction to my first African safari could not be more instructive. While contemplating the savanna landscape from our bus’ window, a short while before arriving at Pilanesberg National Park, situated inside the crater of an extinct volcano, the local guide gives the instructions that I should pass on to my clients:

“During the safari you must tell your clients to remain silent and avoid keeping their bodies outside of the vehicle, or else...”

Remembering my work in the Pantanal, I mentally concluded the phrase and was about to say “the animals might get scared and go away”, but she was faster than I and completed: “... might cause them to attack the vehicle”.

Welcome to Africa, Daniel!

Our tour began through a landscape that, if I showed only the photos, with no captions or animals, many observers would be sure that I was in the Brazilian Cerrado. But the scene that followed came to show that we were at a very different place.

African Savana: any resemblances with the Cerrado
are not mere coincidences
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2009

A few minutes after we left the lodge, the weather changed abruptly and our fear of rain was justified, including a severe hail storm. Even so we decided to follow on, after all the chance of coming to Africa doesn’t happen every day... A couple of miles ahead, we saw some safari trucks stopping and pulling back. We thought that they had seen something by the road, as our guide talked over the radio and also began to pull back. Only then we noticed this enormous elephant walking towards us and not willing to change its route. We kept on playing this game of backing and stopping, until finally the animal decided to leave the road and followed on through the savanna, calmly starting to devour the leaves of a tree.

Make way for the elephaaaaant!
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2009

After this came gnus, impalas, jackals, rhinos, hippos, zebras. The twilight brought us the icing on the cake: a pride of ten lionesses climbing up the hill to hunt. Lightened up by our handheld beam, their twenty eyes shined pretty much like the caimans in the Pantanal. Unforgettable. Welcome to Africa, see you next time!

Impossible not to think of those
lion chases at Animal Planet:-)
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2009

To see the image gallery of these four days, two safaris and a lot of rain in Africa, please click on the "MONTH'S GALLERY" icon, located on the right-side column of Fotograma’s main page. If you experience any problems, please try this alternative link.

A lazy moment for this lion
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2009
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Ecotourism and Volunteer Works

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."Smile, you are at the Chapada!"
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2009

For the second time since the program was created ( first time was in January 2007), I have just returned from the field trip with students of Austin College (TX) during their Jan Term named “Brazilian Ecosystems”.

We spent almost three weeks visiting the Brazilian Savannas of Chapada dos Veadeiros, the Atlantic Rainforest of The Ribeira Valley and Lagamar and the city of São Paulo. Besides in-depth views of each environment, at the Chapada dos Veadeiros we developed socioenvironmental works with students from the “Escola do Sertão de Alto Paraíso”, resulting in a series of banners in English aimed at informing tourists who come to the National Park. A relatively simple task, but whose results are extremely important to grant proper orientation and safety for foreign visitors that come to the region in increasing numbers.

Among other institutions, the initiative was planned and supported by the board of Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, Ambiental Expedições and Travessia Ecoturismo.

My first Month’s Gallery of 2009 brings a selection of the best images captured during these works with the students.

To see the images, please click on the "MONTH'S GALLERY" icon, located on the right-side column of Fotograma’s main page. If you experience any problems, please try this alternative link.


A cicada has its body covered by fungi at the Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil.
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2009
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Spiders in my Backyard: Part 3

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.This spider uses its web to build a kind of tent under the leaf,
where it remains protected together with its egg sac.
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2009

Parts 1 and 2 of this story took place some months ago at the Japi Mountains, where I was living until recently.

This time both scenes were registered on the same day at our new home in Bonito, one effectively in the backyard and the other inside the house. These are my first shots of 2009!

This one has just found dinner
in my living room!
Photo: © Daniel De Granville, 2009
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