A Landscape Photographer Lost in the Galapagos

Keeping a secret from my wife Anita is always fraught with potential disaster. Which is why I rarely even try. But sometimes I just don’t have a choice.

For example, the Galapagos have been ranked near the top of my photographic bucket list since I picked up my first camera. With exotic and unique wildlife that has no fear of humans, I’ve long dreamed of photographing there. But I wanted to go on a pure, 100%, nothing-but-photography tour. You know, one of those tours that cater exclusively to dedicated/obsessive photographers who do nothing but take photos from sunrise to sunset.

On the Down-Low

But then one day Anita mentioned to me that she had booked a ‘tourist’ cruise going to the Galapagos. And I sat there stunned…desperately trying to think of a diplomatic way I could tell her that she had made a tragic, tragic mistake.

But I knew that I couldn’t pull that off, so I did the next best thing: I smiled and said “That sounds great honey, I’ve always wanted to go there!”

Well, Anita enjoyed her ‘tourist’ cruise…and sure, maybe it wasn’t exactly the tour I had lusted for, but I had a great time too. Heck, I even managed to come home with some of my best wildlife shots ever.

So now I just have to go to my grave without ever telling my wife the truth. My chances of success are slim, but I’m gonna give it a shot. Let’s just keep it our little secret, ok?

So, let’s talk a bit about the trip

I’ve written another blog dedicated solely to sharing photography tips, but in this article, I’m going to recap my basic impressions and show you the kind of photographs you can get on a typical tourist cruise.

A Typical Tourist Cruise?

To start, calling it a typical tourist cruise is misleading. That phrase brings to mind a huge ship with thousands of tourists and every amenity known to man. But, the cruise boats in the Galapagos are small. They restrict capacity to a maximum of 100,..heck, the lifeboats in the big cruise boats hold more than that.

Plus, this wasn’t a relaxing vacation, it was active. They often had 3 tours ashore daily: hiking, kayaking, and/or snorkeling. You visit a different island (or two) daily and go ashore on zodiacs (few of the islands have docks). Now, you don’t HAVE to do every excursion. But of course, Anita and I did. And trust me, we were ready for an early bedtime every night.

And the photography? Awesome! You’ve heard that the wildlife there has no fear of people? It’s true. Plus the critters are so numerous, varied, and freaking exotic.

And now the Photos…

Enough words. Let the pictures tell the story:

Cute Inc.

Boobies!

I think the most popular creature in the Galapagos is the Blue-Footed Booby. Maybe because of the name, maybe the feet, maybe the fact that every shop on every island has an “I love Boobies” t-shirt to sell…

There are three kinds of Boobys: Nazca, Blue-Footed, and Red-Footed. I made a point of getting close-ups of their feet so I could do this montage:

Never thought I’d be photographing Crustaceans…

My camera was drawn to the Sally Lightfoot Crabs. Could they be more colorful?

Slow but Sure…

Of course, you can’t forget the famous Galapagos Giant Tortoises.

Where’s the Iceberg?

I didn’t know that there were penguins here. Less than 1,000 Galapagos Penguins survive and they are the only penguins living north of the equator.

The Return of Godzilla

I love iguanas. Can’t tell you exactly why, maybe they remind me of the campy Godzilla movies I loved as a kid.

Avian Nirvana

Birders must feel like they’ve died and gone to heaven here.

Jacques Cousteau would fit right in here

Remember what I said about a cheap, underwater camera?

The Locals could be a bit Obnoxious

You can’t escape the wildlife, even when you are in port. Sea Lions really have no sense of personal space.

You can’t take Landscape Photographers anywhere…

Even though the Galapagos is all about the wildlife, I just couldn’t help taking some landscape shots…

And so, there you are. These are the kinds of shots an experienced photographer might expect to come home from the Galapagos with…even if you aren’t on a purely ‘photographic tour.’

With that said, I did learn a lot that I wished I’d known ahead of time. Frankly, some of the photographic tips I’d read about photographing in the Galapagos were less than helpful, if not completely inaccurate. I’ve written a separate blog detailing those learnings that you can read here.

So far Anita has no idea about my secret. Fortunately, I don’t think she reads my blog very often. We’ll see if my luck holds.

Cheers!
Jeff

Photography on a Galapagos tourist cruise

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