[Leica] Re: The Galapagos Islands

[Doug Cooper <visigoth@echonyc.com>]

Gerry Walden wrote:

>My wife and I are planning a "once in a lifetime" trip to the Galapagos
>Islands for May and I wondered if any other LUGers had any experience of
>the islands.   

I shot the Galapagos for Time Out New York (and almost lost my position at
New York Magazine as a result; you shouldn't really do a gig for the
arch-competitor...)

>In particular a couple of questions come up.   Firstly, we
>are being offered a 4 day and a 7 day trip.   Do the islands warrant a 7
>day visit or will we get sick of looking at blue footed boobies etc. and
>just find ourselves repeating the experience over again.   

I did four days, and wish I had done seven.  The variation between
islands, geographically, is astonishing; and the species variation is even
more extreme.  Yes, you'll see a lot of boobies, but they don't lose their
charm that quickly.  Most books suggest at least seven days, as it takes a
while to get to the outer islands.

>Secondly, a stop over in Quito can be arranged for 4 days - is this
>worthwhile and how difficult is the altitude there to deal with.  

Quito is certainly worth seeing.  Whether it is worth four days, depends
upon your interest in colonial architecture and urbanism.  Quito is
important from a design perspective, with its gilded church interiors and
colonial town square fully intact.  Beware pickpockets:  they're
*good*.  A woman in our group had her purse slashed in a crowded market,
and didn't notice until some time later.  Good way to lose a 35mm
Aspherical.

>And thirdly (and partly to keep it on subject) will my 200mm lens (Leica
>of course) be long enough for most of the wildlife, who I have a feeling
>are so used to cameras they are sponsored by Kodak!

It's not that they're used to cameras; it's that they don't know how
vicious humans can be.  They're not afraid of our species.  So yes, you
can scratch the front element of your 15mm Heliar against a booby's beak,
if you're not careful.  In fact, when I did this trip, my arsenal
consisted of an original Hexar (35mm) and a GR1 (28mm); I got superb
results.  This was simply macho posturing on my part, however -- I liked
that I could fit my entire professional kit into the tiniest Tenba bag,
about 6"x6"x3", and still hold my own with stumbling oafs porting
Hasselblads.  I even got a lovely full-page spread of a blue-footed booby,
treed, against a bright blue sky with a moon in it, using the *Hexar
flash* (a famously useless accessory).

I've grown up a bit since then (although some would argue that my macho
impulse was the *Leica* impulse); I now wish I'd had a short to medium
telephoto for creatures off the trail.

So bring your 200mm, but don't go out of your way to bring anything
longer, unless you're a birding fanatic, and have a Canon with predictive
autofocus for creatures in flight.  Expect to shoot mostly with 35-90mm
lenses.  And, if you have one, bring an ultrawide for vistas:  it would be
worth buying an LTM and a Heliar for this trip.  With your new 15mm, you
can get a tiny red crab looking all huge and glamorous in the foreground,
with miles of wet black rock to set it off like theatrical curtains.  
(The "Sally Lightfoot" crab is in fact named after an exotic dancer, I
seem to remember. Pack Velvia for this shot.)  Flash is illegal in the
islands, and ecologically insensitive; I shouldn't have used one.  (Used
it once, for a shot I knew was to die for, but perhaps I should have been
killed.)

Oh, and bring a waterproof bag for the daily transport from the boat to
the island.  You'll do some wading.

Hope this helps,


Douglas Cooper