In a personal account, Smithsonian photographer Laurie Minor-Penland describes her trip to photograph nesting endangered Green Sea Turtles and the nearby tropical rainforest.
On my first day at Tortuguero, Tom Divney took me out in a johnboat. I did not get very good pictures that first day. We saw Macaws (too far away), Howler Monkeys and White Faced Monkeys (too far and too fast). 
We did run into a lot of spiders. I think Tom rather enjoyed driving the boat and me through the brush and under the trees, knowing full well I was terrified of spiders. That night I had a beer and was feeling rather disturbed. Tom was leaving the next morning and I was beginning to feel stranded. There was no one else there who spoke English. The next day, I focused on my main task and I quickly got into the swing of things. The best light for photographing the flora and fauna of the rain forest is from 5 am to 8 am and 5 pm to 8 pm. These would normally be easy hours, but I had to be back on the beach at 10 pm and out until 2 am to photograph the nesting turtles. I would try to sleep during the day but this was not easy. There were other people around who were up at this time. One week of those hours was plenty for me. The following images are a result of that sleep deprivation.
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