Panama impression

This summer we went to Panama. It is really an amazing country. But I believe this was the most difficult holiday for me to take pictures. You don't see many birds or other animal in the rainforest. And if you see them it is so difficult to get a clear shot. You have to use a very high iso and therefore, even do I have a nikon D700, you see a lot of noise and I hate that. If anyone has tips for a good program for noise please let me know. Uptill know I have never used it so I don't have one and I don't know which one to choose. However I have a short impression for you from, birds, orchids and insekt.

The first one is of a hummingbird in his tiny little nest. It has the size of an egg capsule. It was so impressive to see. It was beautiful made and covered with light green moss. The inside looks like it was made of soft hair. An real piece of art.

Panama during the rain is really a challenge. Very little light and if you want to shoot the hummingbirds it is terrible. But they are great to watch also without a camera :)

We were very lucky to see the quetzal. The most beautiful bird of Panama. It lives above 2100 meter so you have to be high up in the mountains. We saw them in Cerra Punta the highest village in Panama. And the big surprise was that the couple was still feeding the baby. Normally they do that in the beginning of the year around march so they were very late. The guide told us that the young bird probably was going to fly out the next week. And then they are gone till the next year. It was so dark and too far away that we only saw at home that he was feeding it with a fruit. (these are both crops)The quality of the pictures is terrible but I just wanted to share it because you don't see this very often. I had to use a very high iso. It was already dark in the forest but rain was coming. After taking the last shot we had to pack our bags and put on our raincoats. We arrived totally soaked down the hill but it was so worth it.

In Cerra Punt there is also an orchid farm. Finca Dracula. It is well know for it's over more then 2000 species. The problem is that the special ones are inside and it is very dark over there. So again a lot of noise in the shots.

The tiny yellow orchids you see below are smaller then 1 cm. 

Butterflies......I don't think there is a country were you can see more. But they never sit still. And if they do they close there beautifull coloured wings. The one below is the blue Morpho and can be 64-78 mm. You often see them in the butterfly farms in Holland. If you see them flying through the woods it looks like they are drunk. Therefore also very hard to catch in the flight.

The 2nd day I saw these great grasshoppers. We made a stopover because my friend wanted to take some pictures of the birds at the lake. When I was walking along the road my I saw these colourfull creatures. Amazing what a colours. There heads look like sculls.

I saw so many that I thought they were very common here but after this time I never saw them again.

Lucky we stopped.  

Even tiny spiders eat big grasshoppers. Not a great shot but I was a little surprised to see this so I wanted to share it.

This was a short impression. I hope you enjoyed it.