So I’m back home from Panama! This would be a reasonably routine introduction to a travel report until about a year ago. But thanks to unpredictable times these past two years, when nothing can be planned and what is planned must be changed many times or improvised, this is a sentence that I have not been able to say out loud for a long time. And so I’ll say it again – I’m home from Panama. Yeah, it feels great to have been able again to plan, realise and complete something. Who knew, right?

View of the Panama City through Soberanía National Park lowlands

My fifth visit to Panama was challenging, beautiful, convoluted, and yet absolutely relaxing. It came to be by a combination of circumstances that did not allow me to implement other trips that I had to reschedule or cancel due to covid-19. And so, one early morning at the Ruzyně airport, the four of us happened to check in flabbergasted that it was actually happening. When we landed in Panama and went through all the necessary safety procedures, we began to suspect that it was not a dream. The next day, having flown across Panama to the Costa Rican border and accommodating ourselves in the first hostel, everything was so beautiful there that we were doubtful again that it was real. When we woke up the following day at the same place and the photos from the first day were still on the SD cards, it was clear that it was real, we were really in Panama, and those hummingbirds were real too. Thus began a two-week trip, in which I planned to explore three different habitats: mountains – highlands – lowlands. Apart from visiting the earlier mentioned areas, we had no specific goal. We merely wished to observe the surroundings in-depth and look for exciting motifs to photograph on numerous outings. Panama hostels are much less adapted for photographers than in Costa Rica or Ecuador. Although there are bird feeders, you will find they are built mainly for observing. As such, they lack the emphasis on perfect perch branches, distant backgrounds or a steady attraction to various species. By the way, that was the reason why I planned this trip and why the cancelled trip to Costa Rica would have had very similar parameters. I craved, or needed, impulses that would lure us further away from the hostel and allow us to create photos that might be imperfect and yet truly natural with an element of chance, which is exactly what makes them difficult to repeat.

Note: You will find more than 40 photos in this article, so it may take a little longer to load fully. If it takes too long, try refreshing the page (F5). To fully appreciate the photos, I recommend (especially the landscape ones) clicking on the lightbox or right-click to open in a new window.

Grren-crowned Brilliant, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 150-400mm/4.5 IS TC

THE MOUNTAINS

Our first destination was the Mount Totumas Lodge, where a few years ago, I found a natural paradise and my second home. Due to us visiting in the out of season and the ongoing pandemic, we had the whole complex to ourselves. And that is, believe me, the best impact of the pandemic. If you manage to get someplace, there are so few people that you can enjoy the place to the fullest. The weather in the mountains was notoriously capricious, gracing us with everything from frozen hands and horizontal rain to a clear sky, overcast as well as an impenetrable fog. All randomly and sometimes even twice a day. If you succeed to force yourself for a bit to stop photographing only birds and just look around, you will notice a wide variety of numerous other species. Insects, lizards and hummingbirds all represent an integral part of the Panama mountain forests and occur in ample numbers. Below you can see sample photographs from my day and night walks here. The list is far from complete, but it will take me many weeks to process everything from this trip.

Spot-crowned Woodcreeper, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 150-400mm/4.5 IS TC

Treehopper, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 60mm/2.8 Macro

Squirrel Cuckoo, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 150-400mm/4.5 IS TC

Dusky Nightjar, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 150-400mm/4.5 IS TC

Acorn Woodpecker, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 150-400mm/4.5 IS TC

Three-wattled Bellbird, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 150-400mm/4.5 IS TC

Violet Sabrewing, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 150-400mm/4.5 IS TC

Manduca sp. Moth, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 8-25mm/4

Spider Monkey, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 150-400mm/4.5 IS TC

BACKSTAGE

The main lodge of Mount Totumas

Photo hunt of a wren

Search for mountain birds

Coffee, mountains, hummingbirds, relax

THE HIGHLANDS

The lower altitude of Canopy Lodge in El Valle also brought about the change in the species that we encountered. During the first hours, we met the first motmots, trogons, toucans and barbets. Naturally, frolicking primarily in the bush or far up in the treetops. When we got a little more “within range”, we got faced with a toucan, which could be photographed quite well but had an injured beak; the motmot lost its eye after a fight and had a torn tail, and the kingfisher was being a little impetuous. One of the motifs I wished to photograph was the basilisks that like basking in the sun on rocks in a local stream. I managed to take a few long exposure photos with blurred water in the first minutes of my arrival and was falsely led to believe that the next step (photo of a basilisk at a wide-angle) would be a piece of cake. So, I crossed the stream and set up my camera to take pictures of the place all morning. The plan was straightforward; the basilisk will climb on his favourite boulder, which will result in an impressive photo. In the end, it didn’t turn out that way, but I also almost lost my camera. The locals warned me that the stream might flood after the rain and that my waterproof gear might be irrelevant. Luckily, I trusted them, and as soon as a regular afternoon downpour approached, I hastily removed my camera just in time. After the rain, the water level rose so much that all the rocks disappeared, including “mine”. So, I don’t have a wide-angle photo of the basilisk, but I have plans for doing it in the future. In addition to these daily trips, we explored the garden at night, finding great places to photograph frogs and insects, which you can see in the following gallery.

Hourglass Tree Frog, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 60mm/2.8 Macro

Common Basilisk, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 150-400mm/4.5 IS TC

Katydid, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 60mm/2.8 Macro

Fleischmann’s Glass Frog, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 60mm/2.8 Macro

Fleischmann’s Glass Frog, pulci na listu, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 60mm/2.8 Macro

Red-webbed Tree Frog, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 60mm/2.8 Macro

Fleischmann’s Glass Frog, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 60mm/2.8 Macro

BACKSTAGE

Canopy Lodge, El Valle

On this rock I placed my camera to photograph a basilisk (before the rain/ after the rain)

THE LOWLANDS

Our last location was around the Panama Canal. Here, in the territory of the Soberanía Park, you can encounter an incredible number of bird species. The world-famous Pipeline Road, which stretches for tens of kilometres into the park, holds the record for the highest number of bird species counted in 24 hours. In one day, an incomprehensible 357 bird species were recorded here! The composition of the birds is again very different in the lowlands from what we have seen in the previous two destinations, mainly since the elevation is around 50 m above sea level. Here, you get the most out of all the bird species by walking, peeking and praying. The heat was quite oppressive, followed up by incessant mosquitoes, and due to uneasy dark undergrowth, we were only able to recognise some species back home once reviewing the files on the card. From an ornithological point of view, the most valuable encounter was with the antbirds and other birds closely related to Army ants. This phenomenon is one of the most exciting observations you can watch in the rainforest. Army ants go through the forest in large numbers, catching and tearing many insects to pieces instilling panic in terms of ‘save your soul’. Grasshoppers, caterpillars, flies (but also smaller vertebrates) all flee the ants at all costs. Enter antbirds that make the most of this mayhem indifferently, leaving the ants alone. As a result, if you find raging ants, it is possible to observe many other bird species otherwise closely hidden. Once, we managed to do this with the help of a local guide (tamanduaphoto.com), and we were indeed able to OBSERVE several species of the antbirds. Photographing them is an entirely different story. In the pictures from behind the scenes, you can see what such a place looks like. In an utterly chaotic undergrowth, several birds are hopping about, and their colours are left to your imagination while you try to find a peephole with the camera in your hand to capture the bird. Unfortunately, the surrounding darkness is not your friend. To get at least 1/ 50s exposure time, the lowest ISO is about 3200. The lens is heavy, and you can forget about a tripod because the birds have a perverted ability to hop away just when you think you found the right spot. That’s why it seemed like a dream when I had the opportunity to photograph ocellated antbird, arguably the king on an imaginary throne of all antbirds thanks to his colourful plumage. He didn’t show up while watching the ants, but I photographed him a day later elsewhere. The circumstances were most peculiar. I played the sounds of the three most attractive ones on my walk to know what kind of ant is around. And as I walked and played the sound of the Ocellated Antbird, something flickered in the undergrowth whence I could hear the same sound. I made sure it wasn’t a recording but an actual bird. I briefly spotted a blackbird-sized antbird on a low branch and tried to take a picture of it before it flew off to another branch and then disappeared altogether. That was all. Five whole days and all I got was a few lousy seconds with this little guy. He no longer responded to further attempts to lure him back. A later visit to a Canopy Tower was much less adventurous and more relaxed. There, we had the opportunity to photograph several sloths face to face and we even caught glimpses of the panorama of Panama City skyline through the morning mist that, with its impressive modern architecture, surpass everything that can be seen in Central America. Below are some more day and night photos. I’ll get to the rest gradually.

Variable Seedeater, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 150-400mm/4.5 IS TC

Three-toed sloth, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 150-400mm/4.5 IS TC

Keel-billed Toucan, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 150-400mm/4.5 IS TC

American Snail-Eater, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 8-25mm/4

Spectacled Caiman (young), Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 8-25mm/4

Ocellated Antbird, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 150-400mm/4.5 IS TC

Long-billed Hermit, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 150-400mm/4.5 IS TC

Rosenberg’s Tree Frog, Panama, Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus 8-25mm/4

BACKSTAGE

Panorama from Canopy Tower

Antbirds habitat in Soberanía NP

Searching for birds on Pipeline Road

Morning fog in Gamboa

GEAR

While on the trip, I had the chance to test several amazing pieces of new technology. I mainly used the Olympus E-M1 Mark III body leaving the E-M1 II as a backup. For the second time, I was also able to use the Olympus 150-400mm / 4.5 IS TC lens, which I reviewed in my articles from Costa Rica. I still consider it to be best telephoto lens on the market thanks to its design and performance – in my opinion it’s a small miracle. It will be some time before I can add it to my equipment permanently, but one day. My second lens was the new Olympus 8-25mm/ 4 with very promising specs for shooting wide-angle “close-ups” and for night hunts of frogs, insects and other bugs. It performed impressively in all of the above so much so that I added it to my gear permanently right after my return. Shortly, I will write a few lines in a separate review highlighting what I like about the lens and what annoys me. I will also be reviewing separately the Laowa 10mm/ 2 Zero-D manual lens, which I also had with me but didn’t use it that much. After all, the trip was not about testing new gear but about photography as such and about improving the photographic skills of other members on the expedition. In total, I took 7 lenses with me to Panama and I was interested to see which one will be most versatile. If it was a usual trip with photoshoots by the bird feeders, I probably wouldn’t care about it that much, but on an expedition where we walked day and night over 60 km (and that’s really above standard on a phototrip to Latin America) I thought twice about every gram in my backpack. Admittedly, around 95% of all motifs were delivered by my trusted trio – Olympus 150-400/ 4.5 IS TC, Olympus 8-25mm/ 4 and Olympus 60mm/ 2.8 Macro. About twice I wished for a different lens – especially with sloths, when 150mm was too much and 25mm not enough. A 40-150mm would have been ideal and I borrowed one from Vítek (thanks); or a 12-100mm which I left in the hostel. It was satisfying to acknowledge that I could do with three lenses. If I had planned to take pictures of the night landscape, I would pack a Laowa 7.5mm/ 2 or a Laowa 10mm/ 2. These are both so tiny and light that they don’t encumber even if you take only the essentials. I barely used my tripod, but when I did I was thankful for the minimal dimensions and weight of my favorite Peak Design Travel Tripod. As always, all my gear was in a Shimoda Explore 30l backpack, which has been my travel companion for two years now and I’m still happy with it. By the way, its second version will hit the shelves soon! I also had a lot of junk that I didn’t use with me, but that’s the way it is.

This Shimoda Explore 30l backpack has been my trusty companion for over two years

Time to relax with Olympus 150-400mm/ 4.5 IS TC

My base in the woods during a shoot of the treehoppers

Size comparison of Olympus 150-400mm/ 4.5 IS TC and Sigma 500mm/ 4

CONCLUSION

I like to think that the trip to Panama was successful and a lot more memorable, having had the opportunity to photograph several attractive species in their natural habitats. In general, it was a very different expedition to Costa Rica or Ecuador mentioned above, where people tend to spend a lot of time by the feeders. I genuinely believe that the travel situation will gradually stabilise. It will then be possible to realise similar trips again because I have a lot of ideas for where to return next.