Black-naped Monarch

Description

Tropical forests are among the most biodiverse places on earth, but photographing wildlife there brings many challenges. First of all, you have to find the animals in a large, dense forest, which is much harder than it seems. But even if the animal is in front of the camera, you haven’t won yet. You have to deal with low light in the shade of massive tree canopies and with lush undergrowth that either blocks the view or is distracting in the background. It was no different with this photo I took in Sinharaja National Park.

The pair of black-naped monarchs had built the nest relatively close to the trail and low enough to shoot from eye level, but finding the clear view through the vegetation that would allow me to take a photo without disturbing elements was very difficult. I had to adjust the tripod inch by inch so many times to get the perfect result!

When I finally managed to fine-tune the composition, I took a series of pictures, but the vast majority of them were blurry due to the slow shutter speed and the constant swaying of the nest hanging in the branches. In the end, however, there was one good one – the photo you are looking at now.

This image was highly honored in the prestigious 2018 Windland Smith Rice Awards photography competition.