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Tropical Landscapes & Seascapes
Open Photo Adventure
April 20-30, 2007
January 4-14, 2008
Day 1
Arrival to Costa Rica. Meet our representative at the
Juan Santamaría International Airport and transfer
to your hotel on the outskirts of Costa Rica’s capital
city, San José.
Rosa de las Americas
(no meals included) |
Day
2
After an early breakfast, we will visit the Poas Volcano
National Park to photograph the famous crater, which is
one of the world’s largest. From there, we proceed
to Greg’s hometown of Zarcero and his house, where
we will enjoy a light lunch, followed by discussion of
photographic concepts such as camera functions, exposure,
light, composition, and color. Later in the afternoon,
we will head out to the surrounding mountains to photograph
the fantastic sunsets that Zarcero offers. After sunset,
we head to a nearby restaurant for a group dinner and
evening photo review. This first day will be a relaxing,
but information-packed day designed to introduce techniques
and concepts that we will revisit throughout our trip.
Your overnight accommodations are a family-owned bed and
breakfast just off Zarcero’s famed park and church.
Note: The Don Beto offers free Internet to guests.
Rosa de las Americas (B) Greg’s house (L)
Il Atico (D) Don Beto overnight |
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Day
3
After breakfast, we will travel to the La Fortuna area
for photography of the famous Arenal volcano. Our ecolodge,
the Arenal Observatory Lodge, affords some of the area’s
best photographic views of the Arenal volcano and offers
fantastic sunset views over Lake Arenal and the surrounding
hills. Upon arrival, we will have time to unpack, relax
for a bit, and discuss some of the concepts of landscape
photography – in particular, the use of small apertures
to maximize depth of field, long exposures, use of polarizing
filters, controlling light with graduated filters (traditional
and digital), and composition. We will put these to practice
while photographing the volcano and the lake in late afternoon
light and at night after dinner from the hotel grounds
and the nearby rural road.
Don Beto (B) Arenal Observatory Lodge (L, D) |
Day 4
Today, we will wake up for sunrise photographs of the
Arenal volcano. After breakfast, we will travel to the
nearby Danaus Ecocenter for great photographic opportunities
of tropical butterflies and their life cycle, tropical
flowers, reptiles, and boat-billed herons. This will be
a chance to employ a wide range of the techniques and
concepts about which we’ve learned so far. We will
enjoy lunch in the nearby town of La Fortuna and then
head to the Aerial Skytram, where we will have a late
afternoon tram ride over the forest canopy with spectacular
views of the Arenal Volcano and Lake Arenal as well as
a good opportunity for aerial perspective shots of the
rainforest canopy. After dinner, we will adjourn to a
private room to review our photos and recap the lessons
learned thus far with ample time for questions and answers.
If the weather is clear, we can continue photographing
the Arenal volcano’s pyroclastics at night.
Arenal Observatory Lodge (B, D) Lava Rocks Café
(L)
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Day
5
Early wakeup for our last chance at photographing the
Arenal volcano and then breakfast, after which we’re
off toward the spectacular, but rarely visited Rio Celeste
area. Our lodging will be at the Heliconias Lodge, which
is a very interesting ecotourism project run by an association
of local residents. After a typical lunch upon arrival,
we will take the afternoon to explore the suspension bridges
in the lodge’s private cloud forest reserve or to
photograph any interesting animals which the lodge staff
are so adept at spotting. In the late afternoon, we will
watch for interesting landscape opportunities of the hills
surrounding the Miravalles volcano and the Lake of Nicaragua
from the lodge grounds outside the restaurant.
Arenal Observatory Lodge (B) Heliconias Lodge
(L, D) |
Day 6
After an early breakfast, we are off to the nearby Tenorio
Volcano National Park for a full morning of photography,
focusing on landscape images of the rainforest and of
course, the enchanting Rio Celeste. The Rio Celeste is
a volcanic river whose sapphire blue color is the result
of the confluence of two rivers, one with a high sulfur
content and the other with a high copper content. We will
take our time in the park to capture dramatic landscape
photos of the Rio Celeste and the nearby waterfall. We
will enjoy a typical lunch at a local roadside restaurant
and then return to Heliconias Lodge where we are free
to relax or roam the lodge grounds for more photographs.
Before dinner, we will adjourn to the dining hall for
a cold drink and discussion of our photography so far.
Heliconias Lodge (B, D) Lunch at local restaurant
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Day
7
After a relaxing breakfast, we pack up and head toward
the beautiful beaches of Guanacaste. We will have lunch
en route at a typical restaurant. Upon arrival at the
EcoPlaya Lodge, we will unpack and scout the area to choose
our landscape photo compositions in anticipation of the
late afternoon light and sunset. We will enjoy a leisurely
dinner and then a cold drink at the bar while reviewing
the day’s photos.
Heliconias Lodge (B) Lunch en route TBD Ecoplaya
Lodge (D) |
Day 8
This morning we will take a break from landscape photography
and travel by boat to Bolaños Island, a refuge
for the brown pelican and a prime nesting ground for the
magnificent frigatebird. After lunch, we will visit nearby
Cuajiniquil Bay for an afternoon of landscape photography
on the beach. We return to Ecoplaya Lodge for dinner.
Ecoplaya Lodge (B,L,D)
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Day
9
This morning we will explore the grounds in search of
any remaining landscape photo opportunities as well as
photos of monkeys, iguanas, and colorful magpie jays.
After lunch, we head toward the Ensenada Lodge, which
has a private reserve that includes mangroves, a very
interesting ecosystem. In the late afternoon, we will
focus on colorful habitat shots with birds and the spectacular
sunsets for which Ensenada is famous.
Ecoplaya Lodge (B, L) Ensenada Lodge (D) |
Day 10
This morning we will take advantage of the early light
for landscape photography of the nearby dry forest and
mangroves. Mid-morning we return to the San Jose area,
stopping for a light lunch en route, and arriving at
our hotel above the hills of the capital with time to
relax, pack, and confirm our flights. In the late afternoon
and early evening, we will review our photos and share
with the group, while also providing remaining caption
information for your images. We will then enjoy a farewell
dinner at a nearby local restaurant.
Ensenada Lodge (B) Lunch en route (TBD) Dinner
TBD Overnight at Buena Vista
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Day
11
Private transfer to the Juan Santamaria International
Airport for your departure flight back home.
Hotel Buena Vista (B) |
Tropical
Landscapes & Seascapes Open Tour Pricing |
| #
of participants |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9
- 15 |
| price
per person |
$1,902 |
$1,793 |
$1,720 |
$1,667 |
$1,553 |
$1,531 |
Open
signup tour prices are in US dollars and include
all taxes and service charges. except for tips.
Prices also include all services as specified
in the itinerary above. Note that the prices do
not include international airfare. Final price
depends on the number of participants that sign
up. We will communicate the final price to you
no fewer than 60 days from the start of the tour.
Your reserve deposit counts as a payment toward
your total trip cost. Transportation is in a spacious
and air-conditioned minibus with a professional
driver. |
Click the button above to
reserve your spot on one of our open signup photo adventures.
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