By Jim Zuckerman
I am in Costa Rica right now. Today I encountered one of the animals I’ve wanted to photograph for many years. The two-toed sloth is a direct descendant of the giant ground sloth that went extinct 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. It’s a unique, slow moving animal, and that made it easier to photograph than most of the animals and birds I’ve been trying to capture these past few days.
There are several challenges when shooting in jungle environments. First, it is usually very dark in the shade. I always want a low ISO if I can get away with it (400 or below), yet the shutter has to be fast enough to freeze the subject’s movement in the low light. Fast moving animals like monkeys and birds are really difficult, but the sloth’s movements were much easier to handle.
Second, there are always a million leaves and branches between the camera and the subject. Animals feel more secure when they are less visible, and they hide in the thick vegetation.
Third, the heat and humidity is oppressive. It drains your energy, making the photography much more difficult. This is the dry season, but the weather feels like South Florida in August – times ten. Rain isn’t a problem now, but I have to make sure that my lenses are clean and that they haven’t fogged up.
I used 400 ISO for the sloth, and the lens I chose was the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS at full telephoto. The f/2.8 lens aperture was worth its weight in gold in this shooting situation because the extra light gathering ability made the difference between getting the picture tack sharp and being disappointed in havng an almost-sharp picture.
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