Blog and Photos by Leonardo Carrizo

This summer I had an amazing opportunity to travel to one of the most beautiful tropical locations in the world: Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Raja Ampat means Five Kingdoms, it is an archipelago in the province of West Papua that belongs to Indonesia. It’s a location gaining popularity for adventure travelers, yet since it’s so far and difficult to get to, it is still very pristine. It truly is a paradise for underwater scuba divers, snorkelers, birders, all things nature and of course photographers.

My style of photography is not necessary landscapes, but I will not pass the opportunity to capture beautiful landscapes on my travel adventures. This brings me to point out that I enjoy doing panoramic images. Now days it is extremely easy to make panoramic images, and I don’t mean easy by using your smart phone.

Adobe Lightroom makes stitching images a breeze. The panoramic image below is 14 images stitched together. This image was shot with a Canon R6 Mark II and a RF 15-35mm f/2.8 IS USM lens.

Tip: I suggest shooting vertical images to make your panoramic instead of always shooting horizontal images. This will make your images taller. If the panoramic are too narrow and long you might be missing out on some details. Play around with it, you might like the results. Look at these examples:

I like shooting panoramic because they are relatively easy to do. I don’t use a tripod, and I take around 10 images or more for each panoramic. An advantage of creating these large panoramic is the higher file size and resolution which is good for prints. If you ever what to exhibit your work or if you want to sell high quality images, it’s extremely important to have a trusted print shop. For me I cannot wait to print some of these images at Midwest.

Raja Ampat is a great destination for birders. You can find several species of Birds of Paradise. Yet, finding them is very challenging since they are not present in all islands. In addition, they like to live in tall trees in the interior forests and therefore they are very difficult to spot. I was lucky to be on Waigeo island where you can find the Red-Bird of Paradise, so I hired on local guide to try to photograph them. The conditions were very challenging since the birds seem to be very shy on the day I went out at 5:00am. They were very high in the canopy and the light was not helping. Nonetheless, I saw one and took a photo using the Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 IS USM lens. Even with the long lens I had to crop into the image to better showcase the bird.

Another impressive bird I encountered in Raja Ampat was Blyth’s Hornbill (or Papuan hornbill). This is an impressive large bird that makes a loud flapping sound with its winds as it flies through the forest. The sound is unmistakable. Once again renting the Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 IS USM a great decision to be able to capture images of these birds since the fly very high and perches very tall trees in the forest. 

Luckily there was one beautiful bird that stayed close to the ground. This might be my new favorite bird, the Common Paradise-Kingfisher. In my opinion, there is nothing common about it. The variety of blues along with its orange bill and long tail feathers makes this an attractive bird to photograph. 

Tip: When photographing birds, it is always good to observe them for a while to learn their behavior and territory. Most birds will have a few favorite locations to perch and will fly from one spot to the next in a predictable way. This helps you anticipate where the birds will stop for you to take a photography.

Similarly, because I learned the prefer perching branch of this Sacred Kingfisher, I was able to make this image. 

Even though Raja Ampat is a paradise because of its natural beauty and wildlife, I could not ignore the people that live in this paradise. I am a primarily a photojournalist and I enjoy photographing people and cultures more than anything else. As I travel, I look for opportunities to capture images that showing how people live, little slide of life moments and portraits.

The people of Raja Ampat are ethnically more connected with rest of the people the island New Guinea. They speak their own language in addition to Indonesian and there are several different tribes in the province of West Papua. They are very proud of their Papuan heritage.

While looking for birds early in the morning, I met several local young men. I asked them where I could find birds using a few Indonesian words and gestures. Burung is the word for birds. Luckily for me they walked with me pointing out several different birds. In addition, I was able to make a few portraits.

Before there was tourism in Raja Ampat most people in the villages were fishermen. Many islanders continue to fish to complement their diets and to sell fish to small hostels. As I approach the fishing boat that was coming to shore, I recognized some of the young people I met previously while birding. The fishermen were members of the same village, and some were related which gave me easier way to approach them to photograph them and make a few portraits.

I enjoyed using a wide-angle lens for environmental portraits. I was impressed by the spear fisherman and asked him to move to the side of the boat and hold his speargun for a portrait with the sea and sky in the background. In this case I was using the Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 IS USM.

When I’m not doing environmental portraits with the 15-35mm, I choose the Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 STM. This a common choice to isolate the subject from the background since you can produce a very shallow depth of field.

I find opportunities for portraits all the time everywhere I go. In another village, while I was photographing the outside of a school someone came up to me and asked why I was photographing the school. I mentioned that it was because I am also a teacher. Soon after one of the teachers appeared to talk to me and gave me a tour of the school. She even opened a few of the classrooms for me to go inside of them. It feels good to connect with people and share similar experiences.

Photo tip. Use your camera’s wireless connection app to import photos to your phone and share your photos with the people you photograph. If you have an iPhone use Apple’s Airdrop to quickly share your photos with other iPhone users. Otherwise, use WhatsApp as an instant messaging application (widely used outside of the US) to share photos. Sharing your portraits with the people you photograph is a very nice gesture not only you will make them happy, it is also a great way to reciprocate their hospitality.

Raja Ampat is the one of the most beautiful places in the world. The natural landscapes and biodiversity are known worldwide. If you are whiling to travel the long distances to get there you will be rewarded. As a photographer you will find yourself in a visual paradise.

Equipment used:

Canon R6 Mark II, Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 IS USM, Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 STM, Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 IS USM.

Leonardo Carrizo