Cayman Brac 2020 Trip Report

Brown Booby in Flight

I returned on March 4th from a two week stay on the remote Caribbean island of Cayman Brac. It was by far a very productive trip with a multitude of great images captured.  As usual the nesting Brown Booby birds put an an awesome show from nesting activities to in flight opportunities.

Sunrise and sunsets were a little trickier to be had this year due to heavy clouds out on the horizon, but nonetheless perseverance paid off. Virtually all of my sunrise and sunset imagery was created using stacked ND and reverse grad filters. The ND filters coupled with the reverse grads allowed me to slow the shutter speed down sufficiently to allow the incoming ocean waves to blur out nice and soft. My choice of filters for these scenes were the Singh-Ray Filters 3-Stop ND Filter, Mor-Slo 5-stop ND FIlter, and the 3_stop Reverse Graduated ND Filter

During my snorkel excursions my Nikon D500 and Nikkor 18-35mm lens inside an Ewa Marine Housing proved perfect for many of the ocean fishes encountered. I had great success with Octopus, Spotted Scorpionfish and many other often difficult to photograph while snorkeling species. I will do a full blog post on the underwater success I had in the near future.

I was also quite ecstatic with finding a very co-operative, female Sister Islands Rock Iguana. These iguanas are sadly critically endangered now, but efforts are underway to lend a helping hand, which entails eradicating  invasive Green Iguanas.

As you scroll down through the images you will see a host of wonderful opportunities that were to be found during this trip. Stay tuned for announcements for the 2021 trip very soon.

Daybreak on Cayman Brac

 

Spotted Scorpionfish

 

Sister Island Rock Iguana

 

Daybreak on Cayman Brac

 

Brown Booby Preening

 

West Indian Whistling Ducks

 

Brown Booby Family

 

Yellow Stingray

 

Sunrise at Pollard Bay, Cayman Brac

 

Octopus

 

Green Heron

 

Willet

 

White-spotted File Fish

 

Cuban Tree Frog (invasive on Cayman Brac)

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Cayman Brac – Brown Booby Nesting Season

Brown Booby (male)
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR @ 400mm
ISO 400, f16 @ 1/125 sec.

During my visit to Cayman Brac in February 2014 I was able to photograph the Brown Booby colony on the island as they were incubating their eggs. I kept hoping that the eggs would hatch before I departed the island, but no such luck, so I planned my recent trip to be slightly later in to the nesting season to be assured of hatchlings at the nest.

Brown Booby pair at Nest
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR @ 330mm
ISO 800, f11 @ 1/250 sec.

On Cayman Brac the Brown Booby nests at the very edge of the 144 foot bluff that dominates the east end of the tiny island (Cayman Brac is roughly 12 miles long and about 1 mile wide). My timing for my recent March 2015 visit was perfect as there were birds sitting on eggs, parents with chicks, and chicks that had began molting. Shortly before sunset I would make way to the trail that follows the edge of the bluff to photograph in the warm glow of the setting sun.

Brown Booby with Chick at the Nest
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR @ 120 mm
ISO 200, f11 @ 1/500 sec.

The experience of being able to sit and watch these majestic seabirds with their young at the very edge of the bluff is one I will not soon forget, nor is the sight of the fluffy, white chicks stretching their little wings that will one day enable them to glide over the ocean waves and plummet into the sea to catch their prey.

Brown Booby Chick
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR @ 230mm
ISO 100, f8 @1/250 sec.

During my two weeks on Cayman Brac I created several thousand photos of the Brown Booby. This post represents some of my most favorite images…hope you like them too 🙂

Do remember to click on the images to see the larger, sharper versions.

Brown Booby Chick Molting
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR @ 400mm
ISO 800, f8 @ 1/160 sec.

Brown Booby
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR @ 280mm
ISO 1250, f8 @ 1/80 sec.

Brown Booby with Chick at the Nest
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR @ 360mm
ISO 200, f16 @ 1/250 sec.

Brown Booby with Chick at the Nest
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR @ 330mm
ISO 400, f11 @ 1/320 sec.

Brown Booby with Chick
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR @ 400mm
ISO 400, f16 @ 1/250 sec.

Brown Booby (female)
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR @ 400mm
ISO 200, f11 @ 1/500 sec.

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Cayman Brac Sunrise

Sunrise on the Caribbean Island of Cayman Brac in the Cayman Islands

It has been a most hectic week for me since my return from paradise on the Caribbean island of Cayman Brac within the Cayman Islands. I have been busy sending submissions to clients and preparing my entries for the BBC / Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, which closes on February 27th. I held off on entering any images until my return from Cayman Brac as I felt the island held many great possibilities for imagery that would be worthy of entering into this year’s competition – I entered 6 images from my recent trip into the contest.

Each and every morning I would set the alarm to wake me about forty-five minutes before sunrise. I would then walk down to the beach and commence capturing numerous sunrise images. When photographing sunrise scenes it is always a best practice to get into the habit of looking behind you to see what is going on in the western skies, as I did on the morning I created the above photograph. To accurately record the lovely pinkish tones I use my Singh-Ray 3-stop Reverse Graduated Neutral Density Filter and because I was photographing at daybreak just before sun-up my exposure was long enough to pleasingly blur the ocean waves.

During my trip to Cayman Brac I really wanted to travel as lightly as possible, which was made possible by Gentec International the Canadian distributor of Manfrotto Tripods. Gentec was kind enough to loan me the new Manfrotto BeFree Tripod for my trip to Cayman Brac. Please keep an eye open next week for my full review of this wonderful tripod that makes traveling a breeze.

Do remember to click on the image above to see the larger, sharper version.

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Back From The Brac – Cayman Brac

Octopus, Cayman Brac, Cayman Islands

I returned home from the Caribbean island of Cayman Brac in the Cayman Islands. Cayman Brac is a small island, which is 12 miles long and averages 1.5 miles wide with a population of approximately 1200 very friendly people and fabulous Conch Chowder. Leaving the island to head back to the snow and cold was hard to do. Throughout my 12 day stay on the island I experienced numerous very special photographic opportunities on land and in the deep blue sea. One such opportunity took place when I reach forward, grabbing a rock to steady myself in a strong current when the rock moved and out shot a small Octopus. I was delighted that the Octopus only swam about 5 feet away before coming to rest on the sea floor in about 6 feet of water. I was using my Sony RX100 in an underwater housing with ambient light, so this shallow water setting was perfect for retaining color within the scene (more on this in a future post). I snorkeled around the octopus for about half an hour creating numerous compositions before it slowly moved to a less photogenic location. The Sony RX100 is a powerful point and shoot camera for underwater photographic applications and I shot with it in the RAW mode (which creates a 20Mb file) the entire time so that I would have full control while optimizing the images upon my return home.

In the coming weeks I will share many more images from this trip and my rookie adventures into the wonderful world of underwater photography.

Please remember to click on the image to see the larger, sharper version.

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Cayo Santa Maria Landscape Results

Here is a collection of some of initial landscape results, or perhaps more appropriately they should be referred to as ocean-scapes, from my recent trip to the island of Cayo Santa Maria in Cuba. Much of the week there were strong winds that created rough conditions on the ocean – perfect for wave blurs. The last day or so the winds diminished and the ocean settled down quite a bit for some more peaceful ocean scenes. I found my 12-24mm lens to be my most used lens on this trip with my 80-400mm lens a close second, mostly for bird life. I used an assortment of filters for these images here, from ND filters to polarizers to grad and reverse grad filters. The islands in the Jadines del rey archipelago, a Unesco World Biosphere, are dominated by many mangrove sections that are very rich in birdlife. As fate would have it, while shooting landscapes one morning with my 12-24mm lens attached three Crested Caracaras flew by. I was a little disappointed that there was not as much birdlife on this island as I had encountered on a previous visit to Cayo Guillermo in the same archipelago, but nonetheless it is a beautiful location and I was able to add several new species of birds to my image collection which will be featured in an upcoming post in the coming days. Hope you enjoy this selection of imagery.

30 Second exposure at sunrise over Mangroves

Wave blur on the Atlantic Ocean

Daybreak on Cayo Santa Maria and Atlantic Ocean

Mangroves

Wave blur on the Atlantic Ocean at Cayo Santa Maria

Cayo Santa Maria ocean scene at low-tide

Rugged shoreline handheld from catamaran with 80-400 VR lens

Sunrise over mangroves

Atlantic Ocean at low-tide on Cayo Sanata Maria

Daybreak on Cayo Santa Maria and Atlantic Ocean

 

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Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba

Trying to get back into the swing of things and caught up on some much needed sleep after arriving home from the island of Cayo Santa Maria, in Cuba, at 3 am on Wednesday morning. Many images to process over the coming weeks, but thought I would post one photographed on my last morning there. At daybreak I was greeted with a low tide that left many rocks exposed that were covered during the periods of high tide. As usual, I went down to the beach long before sunrise to shoot many ocean-scapes. On this morning, I was able capture many wonderful scenes and was running up and down the beach to capture as many of these images as I could before the sun rose. I was also running to avoid being eaten alive by no-see-ums. Hope you like the photo.

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