NOV. 2011
Photographing Reptiles Eyes Field Report
GUSTAVO GALLEGOS
Don’t miss our photography field trip to the South Pacific of Guatemala
Read here
Photographing Reptiles eyes In collaboration with the Aurora National Zoo of Guatemala. Serpents are central icons in most cosmologies. They are central in Pre-columbian Maya mythology; its patterns are very common in diverse representations. Serpents symbolize the rebirth and the connection with the spiritual world . The Aurora Zoo in Guatemala City has a collection of endemic animals and plants. It is located in a safe environment, which is perfect for our photography sessions.
On Monday mornings the zoo closes its doors to the public for maintenance. We enjoyed a sunny Monday morning in the zoo documenting endemic reptiles for iconographic and epigraphic research . Photos: Gustavo Gallegos
Our mission was to photograph and record reptile eyes at Parque Zoologico Nacional La Aurora. We were looking to work only with endemic species, since they were part of the Maya ecosystem. Carlos Patzån the zoo’s Herpetologist, was very helpful in handling the reptiles for us,he also taught us a lot about the animals that he loves the most, the reptiles.
Our team consisted in Priscila Sandoval, Biologist, Camila Morales, Photographer and FLAAR Production Assistant, and me recording and photographing.
Baby Moreletti crocodile. Carlos Patzan, Herpetologist, and Gustavo Gallegos Photos: Gustavo Gallegos and Camila Morales
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Photo: Gustavo Gallegos
Lighting The day was nice for taking photographs outdoors, so we used at first the sun light, which was not too strong on our subjects, and then we used a Westcott lamp on each side, far enough for separating the subject from the background. To accomplish this we set our lights slightly pointing
to the background and our subject a bit closer to the camera, near the front of the lamps. Our lighting set up was crucial, considering that we were shooting baby reptiles, we put together a light box using two Westcott lamps and a white screen as the ceiling. The sun did the rest.
Photographing Reptiles Eyes
Photos: Camila Morales
As we were happy with the images, we did not have a need to use any macro flash. I was filming HD video with the GH2 and taking photographs at the same time while Camila was photographing the shoot and also doing macro photography.
Since the begging we were eager to experiment with this lighting set up, we used the diffuser of the lamps sticked with the Velcro to diffuse the sun light and accentuate the textures of the characters with a light in each side. Whit this light we could have short exposure times for photographing fast movements. 05
Photographing Reptiles Eyes
Photos: Gustavo Gallegos
Photos: Camila Morales
Before we started the session Mr. Patzån gave us safety instructions on how to avoid snakebite and crocodile bite while shooting. A very helpful advice was that snakes’ strike up to a distance of 2/3 its size so we had to be positioned accordingly with our equipment if we did not want to end up in a hospital.
In regards with the baby crocodile Mr. Patzรกn only said that we should not try to touch it, and if we needed to change its position, he would move it for us. Camila and I were not afraid of it, on the contrary the baby crocodile was so cute we almost forgot it was dangerous. And after talking to Mr. Patzรกn it turned out that our emotional set in regards to the crocodile helped us take better pictures of it. We learned then that crocodiles have many sensor, for pressure, for vibrations and specially they for sensing fear. One can say that thanks to our amazement and appreciation the crocodile was at ease and very relaxed when we photographed it.
Photos: Camila Morales
Photographing Reptiles Eyes
First cool down, then shoot An important lesson that I learned is that crocodile’s skin dry up very quickly, and it looks very dull on the screen. A quick fix was to have a water bottle near us, and shower it once every ten minutes or so. The crocodile cooled down and calmed, and the pictures turned out much better too. Another lesson that we learned is that reptiles charged themselves Photos: Camila Morales with solar power. Mr. Patzån said that they are like batteries. Once they are fully charged nothing can stop them. Photo: Gustavo Gallegos
Crocodylus moreletii Photo: Camila Morales
They move very fast and try to escape, no matter if they are high up in a table, heights don’t matter for them. So obviously, after an hour or so our crocodile had to go back to its cage after attempting to fly out from our table a couple of times.
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Photos: Gustavo Gallegos
Our next subject was a tiny, chameleon looking fellow. It was a Coritofamus percarinatus, native to Guatemala. We learned that his skin changes color depending on its mood and surroundings, like the chameleons. 10
He was a very funny character, for cooling him down Mr. Patzรกn fed him with worms. He would hold the worm in his mouth and wait sometime before eating it. It looked as if it was smoking a cigar.
We were lucky with the “cutete” -as it’s known all over Guatemala- because he also collaborated with us during the session. He was very photogenic and seemed very interested in the worms.
Photographing Reptiles Eyes
Photos: Gustavo Gallegos
After he charged up with the sun and lights, he was trying to climb out of our set, so after some shots we decided to give it back to Mr. Patzรกn, and let him cool down for a possible later session.
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Photographing Reptiles Eyes
This photo was taken with a Lumix GH2 by Panasonic , and a 100 mm macro lenses by Canon, on a Manfrotto video head.
The versatility of brands of lenses that Gustavo can use with this camera is one of the main reasons why we acquired it.
“Cutete� Coritofamus Percarinatus Photo: Gustavo Gallegos
Photo P. 14: Persea scheideana By Camila Morales
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Photographing Reptiles Eyes
Fuerte and the strongest seedling Our last subject was a baby rattlesnake, Persea scheideana. This was a beautiful animal to say the least. We were extra careful with this specimen even though it was a baby it wasn’t that small. His estimated age was six months but Mr. Patzán said he wasn’t quite sure about it since it was a new addition to the zoo’s snake collection. The police rescued it when some people try to smuggle and sell it illegally. So being new to the collection it was hard to state its age accurately. This specimen was harder to work with because being a baby it charged up quite fast and he just could not stay in one place without trying to escape. There was a couple of times when we thought it was going to come after us, but Mr. Patzán handled the situation in a very professional manner, he realized that only with a meal our snake friend could stay steady for sometime. And it did, well at least for a little bit while devouring a small rat. Photo: Camila Morales
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Around four o’clock we had to pack up our equipment and get going because the zoo was closing at that time. We wished we could stay and shoot more and plan to go back in the near future to photograph and video more species of reptiles. This project is part of a series of photographs and videos on reptile eyes of Mesoamerica. Whit a database of the animals, the iconographic dissertation can
Top Photo: Gustavo Gallegos
Photo: Camila Morales
Photographing Reptiles Eyes be more complete. In the Photo above we can see a diamond pattern, this, as many other identify specific serpents in Maya iconography.
Photographing Reptiles Eyes
Acknowledges
Zoologico La Aurora Ciudad de Guatemala Guatemala Carlos Patzรกn Herpetologist