An Unexpected Opportunity
I’m living in Panama and one day I got a call from a friend who lives about 20 minutes away telling me he is looking off his terrace and there are monkeys in the tree. I had him send me a phone photo, and sure enough, there they were. So, I went over to see if there was some way I could take advantage of this unexpected opportunity if it were to happen again.
When evaluating the situation, his condo is about 30 feet from the perimeter fence. On the other side of the fence is a very steep drop deep into a wide jungle canyon with a river running at the bottom. Near the edge of the canyon were three very large trees towering above the canyon walls, a gorgeous setting.
Even though the trees were growing out of the canyon below, photographing the monkeys from the ground would still mean shooting up at them from below. If possible I would prefer to photograph them from near the same level so I can create some images from their viewpoint.
Problem solving has always been a part of my work to get the best images possible in any given situation. So I got busy, not knowing if I would ever see the monkeys because the canyon was wide, deep, and ran for miles. They could be anywhere, at any time, and I only had three trees to work with, but I knew if I didn’t try I would not get anything.
My friend’s condo was on the second floor so when standing on his terrace it provided a much better perspective by basically putting me up in the canopy with the monkeys, perfect. Now the problem was his terrace was completely screened in with permanent screens that could not be removed, bummer. Since he was renting the condo, for some reason, he thought cutting a hole in the screen to stick my lens through was a bad idea.
After looking around, the only option was to remove a screen from the far bedroom window. While this increased the distance and changed the angle making it more difficult to reach the trees available, it gave me a two-foot opening to stick a lens out and I had a chance. When evaluating the light, it was clear to me this was only a morning opportunity and right after sunrise for a couple hours at most. Because of the reach required it was going to take my 600mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter for a focal length of 840mm.
Now I had a plan, all I needed was access since it was my friend’s condo and not mine. He agreed to let me try the next four mornings to see if the monkeys would return, assuming they were still in the area. After three mornings of stimulating conversation with my friend, and about to give up on trying to photograph the monkeys, on the fourth morning thankfully they returned to the trees. To my surprise, not only were there four Mantled Howler Monkeys, but one also had an infant on board.
With me and my camera gear hanging out the window as far as possible, I was quickly and constantly evaluating which monkeys were in a good spot to maybe get a shot off while always keeping an eye on the mother and infant. Thankfully, the mother finally brought her infant out into an open spot for only a couple minutes and had some priceless interaction with her infant. I was thrilled to be able to see them, the encounter lasted 20 minutes and they were gone as quickly as they arrived. I knew I captured some great photos and was quite happy the planning and preparation paid off. It does not always work out.
Not wanting to over stay my welcome, over the next two months we tried a few more mornings and thankfully enjoyed two more short visits by the monkeys as they came to eat leaves. On the first visit the infant never released its tight grip on its mother’s fur. By the third visit the infant was already exploring the surrounding branches although never straying very far from its mother.
After that, my friend could occasionally hear the monkeys howling in the distance, but they were not seen in those trees again for about a year. By then the vegetation in the area had grown so much you could occasionally see them, but clean photos were much more difficult. I will always be grateful for the unexpected opportunity and an experience I will never forget.
If you would like to see all the photos created during my three short encounters with the Howler Monkeys the images can be found in the Mammals section and scroll down to Monkeys, or click here.
This Article's Photography Lesson
This is an example of patience, problem-solving, and seizing the moment. It explains how I approached the opportunity like a puzzle, evaluating vantage points, light, lens reach, and access, until I found a workable solution. That is the essence of field photography: adapting to the environment rather than expecting it to adapt to you.
The payoff, capturing a mother howler monkey with her infant, was not just a technical success but a deeply meaningful one. Those fleeting moments of interaction are rare, and my preparation gave me the chance to preserve them. I also explained how I respected the limits of my friend’s space and the monkeys’ natural rhythms, balancing opportunity with stewardship.
The vegetation growth significantly reducing or eliminating the photographic opportunity was a reminder of how dynamic habitats are, what’s possible one year may be gone the next, and vice versa. In a way, it makes those images even more valuable, because they can’t be replicated under the same conditions again. The point being you need to try to take advantage of an opportunity when it presents itself because you do not always get a second chance.