Thanks All, for your interest and responses. I’m pleased that my attempt to catch the character of this beautiful (to me, anyway) animal is appreciated.

Unless of course, you know different.

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Another from my Everglades Lizards commission; a candid portrait of Ctenosaura similis.

This character was absolutely NOT prepared to climb any further down his favorite tree, until the large, camera-toting creature had vacated the immediate vicinity. As these are the fastest lizards on the planet, it was definitely a Yoda case of “shoot or shoot not, there is no try”. 😉

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The little slice of Colombian Rainforest I visited contained several breeding pairs of Macaws.
Here's a Blue and Yellow (or, Blue & Gold, if you prefer) Macaw Couple; Ara ararauna.

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Thanks All, I’m pleased you liked this portrait.

Er… you do know that’s NOT London Bridge, right?

What you have there is an AI generated (or very heavily cut & paste reworked in Photoshop) composite of Tower Bridge, a giant moon, and what appears to be a slice of John Capenter’s The Fog (1980). Complete with lighthouse, apparently hidden behind one of the towers.

It may be a 3D graphical image, but it ain’t no photograph.

Slàinte mhath

On my recent trip to the Colombian Rainforest, I happened upon this pair of Scarlet Macaws, posing as lovebirds.

Canon R5 & RF100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM ultralight lens.

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Iguana iguana, in his natural environment. He's aware of my presence, but happy to hang out with me as I've worked my way up to him on my belly... obviously showing I'm a much slower animal than he is, if it comes to a quick sprint.

I like to think that a monochrome treatment captures his character best.

Canon R5 and RF100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM.

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What makes me giggle is that most of the people reading this, are doing so on a “smart phone”. Now, there’s a “did you buy it, or are you just paying a ridonculous usage contract fee?” question that people should be asking themselves.

Thanks All, for the positive comments. They are appreciated.

Thanks, and apologies, I tend to fall back into English English. The Libelluidae dragonfly family are generally known as Dashers in the the US and Darters in the UK.

Thanks! I'd purposely taken only this longer telephoto lens with me for this trip (part vacation, and a small commission for some Central American lizard and bird pics), as I knew that the tropics would be hot & steamy. I'm a big fan of the weather-sealed L series, "white" lenses, but honestly, with a decent filter on the front I never experienced any moisture issues at all... and I was shooting in hot temperatures and 80-95% humidity, daily.

With this lens costing less than 1/4 of the RF100-500 L, and weighing under 1.5 lbs, I really rate it for high mobility, long distance expeditions for nature "targets of opportunity" shooting. With the minimum 100mm being right in the sweet spot for detailed landscape and general photography with full frame bodies, this is my new general purpose lens for the R5.

Before visiting more remote areas, I spent a day in the Everglades, testing out my new lens on some tricky subjects. I confess to being somewhat impressed by the inexpensive, very light & handy Canon RF100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM.

I took lots of photographs of some wild & weird birdies and beasties, and here's a representative sample of what must be the commonest Dragonfly in the US, good old Pachydiplax longipennis (Blue Darter, Male). Not what I expected in the Everglades, but they seem to show up everywhere these days.

This is a very long-range, highly cropped shot of one just resting for a few seconds from his lunchtime hunting. Handheld (my new favorite wandering lens combo with one of my R5 bodies) at 400mm with a shutter speed of 1/400 sec, f/10, ISO 640.

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Lovely set, and I especially like #3. There is always room for smiles in glamour, boudoir, implied, and art nude photography.