Beyond the perfect shot: tips for photographing the soul of the Galapagosby Francesco Turano

Photographing the Galapagos Islands is, at the same time, incredibly easy and immensely difficult. Easy, because subjects are everywhere, unique, and not at all intimidated by our presence. Difficult, because capturing the true essence of this place requires more than a good lens: it demands patience, respect, and the ability to "see" beyond the postcard image. Simply documenting is one thing; immortalizing a scene and capturing the soul of a place or the moments of life is quite another. So let's set things up differently from the start and try to enter a new dimension, re-establishing contact with nature.

1. Light is our guide

The light at the equator is powerful, and when it is vertical, it can be difficult to manage. The central hours of the day (from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) can create harsh shadows and excessive contrast. The golden hours, however, are pure magic: sunrise and sunset. The light becomes warm, soft, and low. It is the perfect time to enhance colors, the textures of iguana skin, or the silhouette of a volcanic landscape. Let's make the most of every minute of these windows of magical light, trying to capture scenes of life in the right atmosphere.

2. Respecting distances

The two-meter rule is not just a Park regulation, but also a creative opportunity. Instead of getting closer, let's use a telephoto lens. This will allow us to isolate the subject, creating intimate portraits without disturbing the animal, as well as compressing the planes by visually bringing distant backgrounds closer to your subject. It is very important to capture natural behaviors: an animal at ease is a much more interesting subject than an animal on alert. Respect for nature is the foundation of any photographic approach.

3. Tell a story

A portrait of a booby is beautiful, but a photo of two boobies in the midst of their courtship dance tells a story. That's why we should look for interactions, contexts, and details. A sea lion pup playing with its mother, a Darwin's finch perched on a tortoise, or anything that seems interesting as it unfolds before our eyes. A colony of marine iguanas on a black lava cliff is much more powerful than a single, isolated iguana. But even an isolated iguana can become interesting if we capture its attitudes and behaviors. Let's learn to observe details: let's focus on the blue feet of a booby, the ancient gaze of a tortoise, the texture of a shark's skin. It is important to capture, interpret, and immortalize.

4. Ready for anything: the gear

A telephoto zoom (e.g., 70-200mm or 100-400mm) will be your best ally for respecting distances and obtaining magnificent portraits. A wide-angle lens (e.g., 16-35mm) will be indispensable for capturing breathtaking volcanic landscapes. But intermediate lenses between the two can also be useful for catching fleeting moments due to the integrated presence of some animals with people, which creates unusual situations to be seized on the fly.

The best photograph of the Galapagos will not be just the technically perfect one, but the one that, once back home, makes us feel like we are there again, evoking moments of incomparable beauty that we will always carry in our hearts after witnessing situations unique in the world. If we observe with patience and interpret with our hearts, we will bring with us the flavor of a stunning and unique world, which we will remember with nostalgia every time we look at a photo from those days.

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