TROPICAL BIRD PHOTO SETUPS W/GREG BASCO 2012

This very small group workshop experience (4 participants maximum) is tailored to helping you learn how to create great setups for tropical bird photography. You will take home great images and a wealth of knowledge for how to do your own setups. Birds we'll be photographing include a number of hummingbird species plus toucans, aracaris, honeycreepers, macaws, tanagers, saltators, woodpeckers, parrots, oropendolas, and black guan.

• When: October 13 to 21, 2012
• Where: Northern Costa Rica
• Price: $3,002 pp, group size = 4 people

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Multi-flash hummingbirds

You'll learn how to place flashes, make backgrounds, and add plant elements for natural and interesting multiple-flash hummingbird images.

The Itinerary

Day 1, Oct. 13 San José

Arrival to Costa Rica. Meet our representative at the Juan Santamaría International Airport and transfer to your hotel near the capital city of San José, where Foto Verde Tours’ Greg Basco will be awaiting your arrival. Those who arrive early can take the afternoon to photograph the beautiful orchids and other tropical flowers in the hotel’s expansive tropical gardens. The hotel has free wireless Internet throughout the grounds and in the rooms.

no meals included

Day 2, Oct. 14 Atlantic lowland rainforest

After an early breakfast, we check out and head to our first destination, a rainforest lodge where Greg has worked to set up a feeder that offers unparalleld opportunities to photograph keel-billed toucans, chestnut-mandibled toucans, and brown-hooded parrots among many other birds. We arrive at the lodge for lunch and set in immediately to photograph at the feeders!

all meals included

Day 3, Oct. 15 Atlantic lowland rainforest

Today we divide our time at the lodge between photographing toucans and visiting the lodge manager's house, where we can set up perches to photograph red-legged honeycreepers, green honeycreepers, blue dacnis, and olive-backed euphonia. You couldn't ask for a better day photographing tropical birds!

all meals included

Day 4, Oct. 16 Atlantic lowland rainforest

And today we get to do it again! We have a second full day to photograph toucans, honeycreepers, and tanagers such as Passerini's, golden-hooded, and blue-gray.

all meals included

Day 5, Oct. 17 Atlantic slope cloud forest

After an early breakfast, we travel to the higher cloud forests of the northern Central Volcanic Mountain Range and our next lodge and photography base for the rest of our trip. Our lodge is located in one of the most biodiverse areas of the country, nestled in a picturesque valley at approximately 4,500 feet above sea level. With its rushing mountain streams, cool air, and orchid and moss-festooned trees, the area is akin to a tropical Colorado. After a bite to eat en route, we arrive to the lodge and immediately set up to photograph black guans, chestnut-capped brush finch, coatimundis, and agoutis. En route, we stop at a local farm where Greg has worked to set up feeders for the wild, free-flying great green and scarlet macaws that inhabit the owner's large farm property.

all meals included

Day 6, Oct. 18 Atlantic slope cloud forest

After breakfast, we set in immediately to begin photographing hummingbirds at our multi-flash setups right on the lodge grounds. We will concentrate on the violet sabrewing (Costa Rica’s largest species), the purple-throated mountain gem, and the green-crowned brilliant. Greg will run the setups and provide attractive native flowers to ensure that you capture some fantastic hummingbirds. Greg's company, Foto Verde Tours, is the only company that has permission to do multi-flash hummingbird photography at this lodge. When not on the setups, you can relax and download images, keep shooting the guans and coatimundis, or explore the cloud forest trails for macro and landscape photography.

all meals included

Day 7, Oct. 19 Atlantic slope cloud forest

After breakfast today, we make a day trip to a nearby waterfall, which is 110 meters high and offers beautiful photographic opportunities of the waterfall itself and the surrounding cloud forest. In addition, we have secured permission to set up our multiple flashes near the feeders at the restaurant at the waterfall, which gives us a great chance to photograph some hummingbird species, such as the green hermit, black-bellied, green thorntail, coppery-headed emerald, and white-bellied mountain gem, that are less common at our lodge. And there are some spectacular tropical foliage shots here of palms and ferns on the cliffs surrounding the waterfall. We enjoy a delicious typical lunch at the waterfall and return to our lodge in the evening for a relaxing dinner and time to download our great hummingbird and landscape images.

all meals included

Day 8, Oct. 20 Greg's house and back to San Jose

After an early breakfast, we head back toward San Jose, stopping en route at Greg's house to photograph the fantastic that visit the feeders in his yard. This stop is only offered for this trip. The species we'll concentrate on are the blue-crowned motmot and emerald toucanet, but we'll also have a chance to photograph grayish saltators, buff-throated saltators, Passerini's tanagers, blue-gray tanagers, clay-colored robin, melodious blackbird, and Hoffman's woodpecker. In the late afternoon, we head back toward San Jose and the same hotel where we began the trip.

all meals included

Day 9, Oct. 21 To airport

Private transfer to the airport for your flight home.

breakfast included

END OF SERVICES

THIS ITINERARY INCLUDES

Lodging as specified

Meals as specified

Private transfers to and from hotels on first and last days

Professional driver/photo/nature guide and private transportation in spacious tour bus

Entrance fees for all described activities

Taxes on all services listed above

THE ITINERARY ABOVE DOES NOT INCLUDE

Airfare

Airport departure tax (US $26)

Alcoholic drinks

Gratuities

Non-meal time snacks

Non-meal time soft drinks and bottled water

Single room supplement (US $182.50)