Posted Dec. 6, 2018

Click to enlarge image Photo by Nicholas Hellmuth, FLAAR, 11:08 am, Nikon D5 camera, Nikkor (Nikon) 400mm, f/14, 1/1250, ISO 8000.

Click to enlarge image Photo by Nicholas Hellmuth, FLAAR, 11:08 am, Nikon D5 camera, Nikkor (Nikon) 400mm, f/14, 1/600, ISO 8000.

Dozens of waterbirds are around Lake Yaxha and adjacent Rio Ixtinto for you to see, photograph, and experience. Here is one example, the Snowy Egret (no snow in Peten, Guatemala, December, January, and February are nice temperatures here in the Neotropical seasonal rain forest).

Egretta thula can be found along the south shore, west end, and north shore of Lake Yaxha, plus along the Rio Ixtinto (which starts alongside the island of Topoxte).

Boats are available from hotel Ecolodge El Sombrero or from the visitor’s center of Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo.

Posted Dec. 5, 2018

Pollinators are important to learn about because if they are exterminated by bulldozing or chopping down all the plants, or spraying pesticides and insecticide, then flowers will not be pollinated so no next generation flowers will appear.

So FLAAR Mesoamerica is making a list of all pollinators at Yaxha: bees, butterflies, bats, beetles, birds: plus even mammals (hint, the micoleon on the balsa flower).

Visit Yaxha to experience pollinators, and the beautiful flowers here. This particular flower is of the genus Cissus, possibly Cissus gossypifolia, a vine along the entire northern shore of Lake Yaxha and areas of the edges of Topoxte Island and Rio Ixtinto.

Click to enlarge image Photo by Nicholas Hellmuth, FLAAR, 10:55 am, Nikon D5 camera, Nikkor (Nikon) 200mm, f/14, 1/320, ISO 4000.

Posted Nov. 12, 2018

Great conference on Jaguars on Nov 7th, 2018, Guatemala City. Here is a hot link to samples of the presentation by Dr Nicholas.

Here are five of the speakers; Dr Nicholas is showing the front covers of 16 of the books his team have written for Q'eqchi' Mayan children in schools in the remote mountains of Guatemala.

Certificate of Presentation.

Posted Nov. 2, 2018

The several kilometer wide Lake Yaxha (and adjacent Lake Sacnab) are home to many waterbirds. We show a sample here: the Green Heron, Butorides virescens, north shore of Lake Yaxha, Oct 31, 2018.

The Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo is open all year long; bird-watching guides are available, plus several bird-watching specialists organize field trips here (Yaxha has more diverse eco-systems so you see a lot of different flowers and birds). Hotel Ecolodge El Sombrero is where we stay every month (conveniently located at entrance to the park). Boats are available so you can experience and photograph the waterbirds.

Click to enlarge image Photo by Nicholas Hellmuth, FLAAR, 10:05 am, Nikon D5 camera, Nikkor (Nikon) 800mm, f/5.6, 1/4000, ISO 500. Since the boat rocks back and forth with the wind-generated waves, it’s a challenge to focus either automatic or manual.

Posted Sept. 10, 2018

Is this a cute groomed dog from a Dog Show? Or is this a Shetland Pony? Cell phone photo by Pokomchi Mayan member of the FLAAR Mesoamerica team, Norma Estefancy Cho Cu, in the garden surrounding her parent’s home, aldea of Chilocom, Municipio of Santa Cruz Verapaz, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Photo taken Sept. 8, 2018.

Here is another view of this “Shetland pony” furry head.

Here are another views of this “Shetland pony” furry head.

This is even more photogenic: same garden, same day as the furry dog (the furry “Shetland Pony”) If you are a student wanting to do a thesis or dissertation on moths and/or butterflies, we highly recommend Guatemala.

Posted Aug 9, 2018

We do photography of spider monkeys, however monkeys, in the Neotropical rain forests of Tikal National Park and now Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo. It definitely helps to have good equipment. A great place to see all the options for digital photography is to attend Photokina 2018, in picturesque Cologne, Germany.

The FLAAR review editors attend Photokina every time for almost two decades. We hope to see you at Photokina 2018 this autumn.

Two members of the FLAAR staff will be attending Photokina this September 2018.

Although we photograph jaguars, pumas and especially oropendola birds (and orioles and cacique birds of the Mayan forests), we specialize in macro photography of insects in general and pollinators in particular.

Here is a great photo by Erick Flores of a grasshopper trying to get nectar from an Ipomoea flower (in the FLAAR Mayan Ethnobotanical Research Garden, 1500 meters elevation, Guatemala City). Entomologists do not consider a grasshopper as “a pollinator” but Nicholas Hellmuth the same evening photographed drops of what we believe are nectar on the petals (that the grasshopper had knocked out of the flower structure). And the Hellmuth photos show pollen grains stuck to parts of the grasshopper.

After they suck on the nectar, the grasshoppers go to the end of the flowers and eat the soft ends of the petals. All this is in the evening since this is a Moonflower species of Ipomoea; its relatives are Morning Glories (the one we have is a Glory of the Night (my own lyrical name suggestion)).

If you are planning to attend Photokina 2018 this September 26 to 29, you can have as a free download our Photokina 2016 report with recomendations, comments and brands who were present. Also with photo studio equipment exhibited and digital camara reviews.