The first thing the Caribbean teaches you is that there isn’t enough light. I knew that in theory. I understood it properly at nine in the morning under closed canopy, looking at a light meter that told me I was going to need a much wider aperture than I’d planned for.

We left San José at four in the morning to be walking by 7 am. The idea was to cover the trail system early, when the frogs are still active and the heat hasn’t shut everything down. That part worked. What didn’t work was my assumption that I could shoot handheld all day at reasonable ISO values. Most of what I brought back from the first morning is noisier than I’d like.

The one I was hoping for was the eyelash viper (Bothriechis schlegelii). We found one coiled on a heliconia about chest height, roughly two hours in. Yellow morph, completely still, which is the only reason the photos are usable. That one is the cover image of the blog now.