Shooting Lemurs

So I am planning a trip to madagascar with my fiancee. This trip has become the impetus for my interest in getting a dSLR. This is going to be a once in a lifetime trip, and I want to have amazing pictures of it.

Anyway, I'm starting to plan my camera and lens purchases now, so that I can buy in a few months, thus giving myself a few months to play around and learn how to take pictures with one of these beasts.

Since we're going to Madagascar, one of my goals is to have some awesome pictures of lemurs. Some are out and about in the day, and others at night. It has occurred to me, however, that having flash go off in the middle of the jungle, at night, will probably be a bad idea. To that end, is there anything I can do to shoot a nocturnal lemur, or will those just be memories, and not pictures.

Relatedly, has anyone gone to madagascar? Any idea if I should go with the 20/30D vis a vis the 350 for durability reasons? Or the 350 over its bigger sibs for weight? Any general wilderness photography advice?

Thanks in advance.

H

congrats. sounds like a nice trip. say "hi" to alex and marty.

on a serious note, what's your budget for gear? that would be helpful.

Welcome the forum

Don't worry about using a flash at night. The animals will probably not notice since they should be familiar with lightning in bad weather (I assume even Madagascar have thunder and lightning storms).

Any of the bodies You mention will provide excellent photos.

cbock:
Ok, so budget - my budget is variable. I certainly have enough to buy a 30D and a few really nice lenses, but I don't want to spend like crazy on this stuff. If a 350 will do me just fine, than I'd rather just pocket the $800 difference. I also do not want to be, no offense to anyone here, "that photography guy." By that, I mean I do not want to hold my fiancee and guide up with tripod deployments and lens changes every 5 minutes. I'm looking for a setup that will let me get most of the shots I want, most of the time, without complex gear maneuvering. So far, that seems to mean Image Stabilization, which is totally cool with, and I am willing to pay for it. On the other hand, it's less likely that I will be schlepping around 300mm, 400mm, and 500mm primes to capture faraway lemurs.

Tommy:
Does your flash advice come from experience? Experience in Madagascar? I'm just curious. I try to be as unobtrusive as possible, in general, and I still feel apprehensive about flashing in the middle of an unfamiliar jungle. That said, if that is the way it is, would it be worth it to pick up an external flash?

Thanks everyone for the advice so far, and who are alex and marty? Do they live in Madagascar?

H

It sounds like a 100-400L IS would be ideal. Next Year I am hoping to go to Kenya on safari and for that I am considering this lens.

No have not been to Madagascar. My local zoo sometimes have open in the evening when it gets dark so I asked if it would be a problem for the animals if I used a flash and they said no because the animals would just see the flash as ligtning.

I have been twice in Madagascar recently (my father comes from there and I still have a lot of family there) and I can give you some pointers. I'll dig up some pictures to show you how close you may come to those guys and how they hide, things like that.

Do you know where you're going to see the Lemurs (Madagascar is a pretty diversified island).

asdf,

Thanks for posting! I'm not sure yet where I am going. My fiancee and I are in the process of planning the trip now, so any recommendations would be welcome. My fiancee has loved lemurs since she was very young, and this trip is the culmination of years of interest in lemurs. We will be going for 11 days or so, so we figure we will be confined to only one part of the island. Where would you recommend we go?

Howard

You are looking for a light weight, compact outfit for travel that can be used unobtrusively without a tripod, or require much set-up time. You want to be able to take pictures of everything from broad landscapes to telephoto shots wildlife (don't forget the birds and butterflies).

Camera,

The 350D is the lightest, most compact and most economical and picture quality is about the same as a 20D or 30D. If you were a real photo enthusiast I would suggest the 30D, but if you just want to take a few pictures the 350D would be more that adequate.

Landscapes
My favorite landscape lens is the 10-22. You have to learn to compose with a super wide angle to include strong foreground elements, but the results can be stunning.

Walk around/general purpose
For a 350D, there are two great walk around lenses available. The 17-85 IS EF-S and the 17-55/2.8 IS EF-S. The 17-85 is more compact, cheaper and gives a better focal length range. The 17-55 has higher optical quality and is better in low light. A photo enthusiast would probably choose the 17-55/2.8 but a traveller whose main concern is with weight and cost would usually be better off with the 17-85.

Telephoto
A compact, hand-held telephoto lens is difficult to locate. Two lenses come to my mind. The 100-400 IS has the best telephoto lens combined with image stabilization, but it is big and white so it is neither unobtrusive nor easy to pack in a small bag. The 70-300 DO IS is not quite as long, but it has the advantage of DO optics that make it quite compact for the focal length. It is black and does not look that much bigger than most normal length lenses. Neither lens qualifies as a cheap solution.

Night photos
Get an auxiliary flash. The 580EX is the best for this purpose because it has more range for use with your telephoto lens, but the 430EX is slightly more compact and cheaper.

If I was going in the circumstances you describe I would take a small bag that would hold a 30D with 10-22, 17-55 and 70-300 DO lenses, together with spare batteries, a carrier for extra CF cards, a lens cloth and a lens brush. I would also carry a 580EX flash in a separate case that could be attached to my belt when I needed to carry it. For your purposes you might want to substitute the 350D and 17-85,

Don't forget that you will also need battery chargers, electrical connection adapters and something to back up your photos. I prefer two back up devices, one that displays the images for showing to friends and one that just stores to provide a second copy.

All this should fit in your carry on luggage

Here are some shots taken during my last trip to Madagascar, I do have more but not on my laptop... They were all taken at 16.2mm (max zoom) on a A75. 16.2mm is equivalent to 105mm on Full Frame so about 70mm on a 1.6 crop. It may be better to go with a couple of zooms rather than some primes since you don't know how close you'll get to the lemurs. If I were you I'd look into renting a good (wide aperture and good performance in the CA departmenet since you'll get a lot of shots prone to this kind of problem with leaves on a bright sky background) longish zoom for the trip (something like a 70-200) and bring something wider for normal trip pictures. The wide lens would be very useful if you go to the Tsingy (I highly recommend it if you travel during summer), Morondave (nice Baobabs), Nosy Be (marvelous water) and anywhere in fact. What I think is important is having a pretty wide aperture because it can be very shady in the forest where you're most likely to see lemurs and a off-camera flash (mainly used as a fill during day) because you never know if the animals are going to be heavily backlit or just in a little bit of shade.

I'm looking forward to hear more about your plans.
And here are a couple of shots straight from the camera (only resized) to give you an idea of how close you can come to them. I know chromatic aberration is horrible on many of them and they would need a level/curves job.

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I'm sorry, but I have to hate you! I've spent all my time on the main continent and still want to go there. Ah time and money. That aside, I highly recommend the Canon 100-400L IS. And a 1.4 tlelconverter.Keep in mind that it will not auto focus with the TC attached. Metering light up into the trees with a bright sky is tricky. try to get as low of an angle as you can or you just get silloettes Spot meter on the animals and hope the sky does not blow out too much. A CP filter helps some.

G'day Redroark,
My wife and I spent almost a month in Madagascar back in February. Great travel destination - you won't be disappointed. We took a EOS-3, D60, 100-400, 28-135, 100 macro, 17-40, 580EX, MT24EX. I think the 100-400 was essential for "shooting" the lemurs, 17-40 for landscapes. Definately take an external flash. Even in the forests during the day it can be dark. Here are a few shots.

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some more

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I, speaking solely of myself wouldn't be able to prepare adequately for a trip in just a few months. Your mileage may wary.

To get kicking pictures you also need:
Expensive lenses. The 100-400 may turn out to be too slow
A tripod - there's a reason why everybody who gives a damn about their pictures has a couple of tripods.
Correct light - that's the most difficult part. You need to learn to see photographically for that.

That last step can take a few years.

I'd take a normal lens and shoot your fiance in the jungle, on location... etc... instead of lemurs.

I know... I know... the lens will be bought!