My love for nature photography started in the late 60's, in college and graduate school. But for the next several decades it lay dormant, as my time was dominated by family and career. Starting about 4 years ago, it reawakened, and has been growing exponentially ever since. My wife and I have started to travel more, and our destinations are usually selected in terms of the photographic opportunities they offer.

As I participated in a variety of online photography forums, and read Outdoor Photographer magazine, the country of Costa Rica seemed to be popping up more and more. Because I am a somewhat timid international traveler, I was initially reluctant to consider traveling to any country in Central America., primarily due to concerns about health and safety. But as I did my research, and spoke with a surprising number of friends and acquaintances who had recently traveled there, often with their families, these concerns were laid to rest.

It turns out that Costa Rica is a surprisingly peaceful and civilized country, with no military, low crime, and a strong democratic tradition. While Spanish is the dominant language, English is spoken extensively. Costa Rica has a very high literacy rate, and is often referred to as the "Switzerland of the Americas." The country has a strong interest in maintaining and promoting their extremely rich natural resources, and is very "American-friendly." About 18% of their territory is devoted to National Parks and Preserves. More and more Americans travel there for ecotourism, fishing, adventure tours, rafting, surfing, and a wide variety of other activities, with an increasing number moving there for retirement.

I was initially attracted to the more than 800 species of birds present in the country, but there is an abundance of wildlife in almost every category - monkeys, anteaters, tapirs, snakes and other reptiles, amphibians, an amazing assortment of butterflies, and a wide variety of plant life as well. And in terms of landscape opportunities, there are tropical rain forests, mountain cloud forests, rivers, waterfalls, mountains, volcanoes, beaches, coral reefs and more.

Our first trip there was in March of 2004. This was a Photography tour led by none other than Tom Vezo, with travel arrangements provided by Costa Rica Expeditions. We flew into San Jose (a non-stop flight from Charlotte, NC!), spent the night at a beautiful Hotel, and left the next morning for Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast of the country. As we would find wherever we went, we saw and photographed as much nature and wildlife during the trip itself as at the final destination, proving the statement "getting there is half the fun."

While in Tortuguero the birds we encountered included Motmots, Aracaris, Hummingbirds, Kiskadees, Flycatchers, Oropendulas, Jacanas, various Tanagers, Olive-backed Euphonium, Tiger Herons, Ringed Kingfishers, and a variety of Raptors, Trogons and Woodpeckers. We also had fun shooting 3 species of monkeys: Howler Monkeys, Spider Monkeys and White-faced Monkeys. Further, there were Sloths, Long-nosed Bats, Eyelash Vipers, Vine Snakes, the famous Red Eyed Tree Frog, Iguanas, Basilisks, Poison Dart Frogs, Elephant Beetles, and a wild assortment of spiders, caterpillars and other invertebrates. The diversity is simply beyond comprehension.

Leaving Tortuguero we drove back to San Jose, and left the next morning for the Monteverde Cloud Forest area. Here we saw a variety of different bird species, including the famous Resplendent Quetzal! We spent several hours at the Fogden's Hummingbird garden, and came back with photographs of around 8 species of these exquisite birds. We also saw Coatimundis, Agoutis and an Olingo. A few of us also spent part of a day doing a "Canopy Trek" where we hurtled above the rain forest on 'zip lines' and this was quite an adventure!

A few months after posting images from this trip on my website, I was contacted by the people at Crocodile Bay Lodge, on the Osa Peninsula on the Pacific side of the country. They asked if I would be interested in leading a Photo Safari to that area of the country, and I jumped at the chance. This trip took place the last week in September, and we had a phenomenal time. We went out shooting during the day, and had Workshop sessions in their Conference Center after dinner each evening. Once again, we were astonished at the variety of wildlife that we saw. At times there were so many different subjects to shoot simultaneously that we felt like we had 'attention deficit disorder' and found it hard to decide what to photograph!

Among the more interesting and beautiful species we encountered were the Scarlet Macaw, Red-lored Parrot, Lineated and Smoky-brown Woodpeckers, Roadside Hawk, Crested and Yellow Caracaras, Green Kingfisher, Black-belled Whistling Duck, Chestnut-mandibled Toucan, Red-rumped Tanager, Red-breasted Blackbird, Brown Booby, White-necked Puffbird, Black-shouldered Kite, White Hawk, Mangrove Hawk, Grey-necked Wood Rail, and many many more. We even added the 4th monkey species to our collection - the Squirrel Monkey. Further, a boat trip on the Gulfo Dulce enabled us to see and shoot a Humpback Whale mother with her calf.

The hardest part of preparing this article was trying to pick only 5 images to represent the huge number of species that we saw. There's just no way to do justice to the biodiversity of this incredible country with even 10 times that many photos. I have a wider selection of images from both of these trips on my website for those who want to see more.

I am recently finalized plans for a return Workshop to Costa Rica, which will take place Dec. 2nd through Dec. 10th, 2005. Details and information on this trip can be found here:

http://www.dlcphoto.com/CRPS2/PhotoSafari2General.htm

Please email me at dlc@dlcphoto.com if you have questions or interest.

About the Author

Don Cohen became interested in nature and wildlife photography while studying Fisheries Biology in College and Graduate School, in the early 1970's. But the demands of a growing family, and a career shift to Medicine, caused this to be put on the 'back burner' for several decades. In late 1998, his fascination with computers converged with his dormant interest in photography, resulting in the purchase of a digital camera (the Nikon Coolpix 900s). His involvement in Photography has grown exponentially since that first purchase, and he has spent countless hours pursuing his newly awakened passion, covering a wide variety of areas: artistic, technical, equipment, the unique needs of working digitally, etc.

In terms of equipment, he is now shooting with the Canon 1DMkII, an 8.2 megapixel digital SLR capable of shooting at 8.5 frames/second, with an ISO range from 50-3200. His passion for photographing birds led to his acquiring the Canon 600L/f4 IS, perhaps the best birding lens out there, along with a wide variety of other lenses and accessories.

He started his website (www.dlcphoto.com) in early 2001, which now contains over 500 images from a wide variety of locations both inside and outside the United States (Costa Rica, New Zealand, Fiji, Grand Cayman, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Maine, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, etc.). His website also contains information on a wide variety of topics helpful to both beginning and advanced photographers.

The North Carolina Zoo at Asheboro has used a number of his photos, and his images have appeared on many covers of the Zoo Society's Quarterly magazine "Alive." He received First Place in the Member's Choice contest at the 2004 Carolina Nature Photographer's Association Annual meeting, which was the first time he attended this conference. In addition, his work has appeared in Lake Norman Magazine, Digital Camera (a United Kingdom periodical), and a variety of other publications. All this has been accomplished while still working full-time as an Ophthalmologist in his home town of Mooresville, NC. He sells prints both through his website, and through merchants in his home town.

He led a group of photographers in a "Photo Safari" to the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica in September of 2004, with plans now in place for another group December 2-10, 2005. He has made presentations to numerous Photography Clubs and other organizations, and now that he has taken a partner in his medical practice, will be devoting more and more time to photography and related pursuits.

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