A Photographic Portfolio
Taken From the Jungle Crane

STRI's jungle crane is 100 feet high, with a 115-foot boom, providing safe photographic access to a column of jungle 230 feet in diameter, and 100 feet from the ground to canopy top. The crane operator can position the gondola anywhere within that area.

Eventually I was able to schedule time for myself in the gondola. Because the gondola is suspended, it swings easily when the boom stops, if there is wind or when I moved around inside. This created the only difficulty shooting photographs. I used a 600mm lens for most of the animal and bird photographs. I don't like using high speed film so a fast telephoto, tripod and high shutter speed were necessary.

I was able to get close to the flowering plants that only bloom in the canopy. Best of all, the crane doesn't appear to disturb the jungle's inhabitants. Animals such as the toucan, green iguana, sloth, anteater, and mono titi (very small monkeys that live high in the canopy), were not frightened off by the crane or movements as it positioned me for the best photographs.

In just a few hours all my hopes for the crane as a shooting platform were realized.

1. White-necked Puffbird, Notharchus macrorhynchus hyperrhynchus, with a fine cicada for dinner.
2. Keel Billed Toucan, Ramphastos sulfuratus, one of the most colorful birds that can be photographed from the crane.
3. Red-crowned woodpecker, Melanerpes rabicapillus.
4. Blue Cotinga, Cotinga nattererii, one of the more unusual birds seen from the canopy crane. This gorgeous shiney blue male was extremely difficult to photograph against the clear blue sky. A light cloud moved in and made for a better photograph.
5. Large, three foot long, Green Iguana, Iuguana iguana, basking in the warm sunlight found at the top of the jungle canopy.
6. Unidentified flower photographed high in the canopy. There are dark ants feeding on its nectar.
7. Mono titi, Saguinus geofroyii, walking along a tree branch that is part of a jungle canopy trail that this group of monkeys follow daily in their search for food.
8. Mono titi, Saguinus geofroyii, eating a fig high in the canopy. A group of these small monkeys inhabited the site of the jungle crane before it was erected. The activity surrounding the crane's erection and subsequent use didn't scare them off. The crane offers an ideal platform from which to monitor their movements at tree-top level instead of looking up at them with a bright sky background.

• Shooting Photographs From the Jungle Construction Crane

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