Shooting in the Rain Forest

SLR Rain Covers

If you can afford it, get one of the purpose-made SLR rain covers for about $40. It's going to rain, and you shouldn't feel forced to hide your camera every time there's a little sprinkle. Note that these covers will protect against most rain, but they won't save your camera from immersion accidents like a canoe tipping over. For that, you'll need a dry bag.

Dry Bags & Dessicants

Generally used by kayakers and other small boaters in the states to keep their camping gear dry while traveling downriver, dry bags provide a moderately-priced, and more importantly easily packable, waterproofing option for your expensive camera equipment. Obviously, you won't be able to shoot when your camera is in the dry bag. They don't provide any cushioning and they're inconvenient to carry a long distance without another bag to put them in. But when things just get way too hairy (like suddenly learning that the hike you're on will end with a short traverse in a tiny, very unstable traditional canoe), having an 8 liter or 13 liter dry bag tucked into the bottom of your regular camera bag will pay huge dividends against the $20 or so you spent on it.

Dry bags also provide one of the best solutions to a problem some may encounter if staying in a lodge or hotel that has air-conditioning: massive condensation. Taking a 3-4 pound SLR that's been sitting in your cold room all night and walking out into tropical air with 85% relative humidity is a recipe for disaster -- not only will moisture condense on the outside of the camera, but if air is getting into the lens during zooming, etc, it will result in drops of moisture right inside the camera and lens. This can be solved by leaving the camera in the sealed (and airtight) drybag until it's warmed up to the ambient outdoor temperature. You can speed the process by minimizing the excess air trapped in the dry bag. If you are really worried, buy some dessicant bags (a drying agent, like silica gel) and toss them into the dry bag. Having a pack of dessicant in your dry bag is also good if you find yourself having to put in gear that's gotten damp from spray or rain, so you're not sealing it in with the moisture.

Deet

Unless you like melting your fingerprints into your camera body, avoid Deet-based insect repellants. There are good alternatives in the form of [Picardin] and natural solutions based on Eucalyptus Oil and other formulas. Just to be extra careful, you may want to test a touch of the repellant on an inconspicuous spot of your camera (the bottom) before your trip to see if it does anything. Once you're in the middle of the forest, you won't have much choice.

Off-camera flash and extra batteries

If you're shooting under the canopy, and particularly if you want to shoot wildlife up in the trees (often with patches of bright sky behind them, and effectively backlit), you'll want a more powerful strobe then then one built into your SLR. For Nikon shooters, that means the SB-800 or SB-900 strobe. If you're using a 200mm or larger lens, you may want to look at some of the fresnel-lens based attachments that will focus the beam of your flash more and extend its reach. Also, bring a full extra set of batteries (maybe high-capacity lithium ion) if you're not bringing a charger with you. I carried an SB-800 thousands of miles on my trip only to discover that my freshly-recharged NiMH batters were totally dead.

Small flashlight

Bring one, even if's just one of those tiny LED squeezelights. The first time you drop some tiny part of your camera (port cover, anyone?) in a dim setting, you'll be happy about it. I generally carry one of two SureFire flashlights I bought years ago. They're small, indestructable and blindingly bright - I've used them in lieu of flash a few times when it was dark but the flash of a strobe wasn't appropriate. The only drawback is a relatively short total run time - you want to use these for momentary illumination or emergencies, not for walking back to your tent at night.

Business cards

Consider getting some Moo Cards with the URL of your photoblog or Flickr stream and email address printed on the back, and maybe a variety of your own photos on the reverse. They're really handy when someone's been kind enough to let you take their photo, or you're traveling with a larger group and they'd like to look at the shots from the trip.

Backup Compact Camera

Unless you're carrying a second dSLR body (and even maybe if you are), you'll want to invest in small, compact camera of good quality as a backup. I'm a huge fan of Canon's SD960. For $300, it has a nice wide-angle lens (28mm), takes really beautiful ambient-light photos in anything other than low-light conditions, has relatively little shutter lag for a compact, and takes beautiful HD videos. Not only does having a compact camera with you mean you don't risk losing all photos for the trip if your SLR has a problem, but it will also free you of always having to lug around an SLR if you're walking the town, going to dinner or hanging around the hotel. Your family will thank you.

Netbook or iPhone

I carried a 6 lb MacBook on my last trip and it was a bear... but I also don't know how I'd travel without any computer at all, because I like to review the shots from each day in the evening (how did we ever live with film?), and I like to be able to communicate with home via email and Skype. My cousin Mike travels with a Dell Mini 9 netbook, and it's obviously a much better solution - less than 3 lbs,. compact, and only $250 from their factory outlet so if it's stolen or lost it's not a tragedy. Add some storage, and you can even use it on the plane to watch some movies or play some simple video games to pass the time. (And on the way home, you can sort/tag/edit photos on the plane.)

If you're not carrying a computer, an iPhone is the next best thing. Although it can't read your photos (at present), even if you're in a country where you don't get phone service, you can use the wifi capabilities to check your email and, if you download the free Skype app, make international calls cheaply. If you don't have a computer, you should have a good amount of memory cards with you, but these days you can also take a memory card to a photo store in most tourist destinations and have all of the images transferred to a CD or DVD for a small fee.

Think Small

If you're only going to the jungle for a few days, the reality is you're probably not going to get close to larger wildlife (unless someone in the village has been feeding it.) Even fauna you see up in the trees will be relatively far away, and backlit. Insects, flowers and other smaller things will be much closer, much easier to shoot from multiple angles, and often more novel. Make sure your gear has sufficient macro capabilities to take decent close-up shots of subjects from 1/2 to 2 inches in size.

Take the Unexpected Shot

(At the time I shot this, I saw the chainsaw - but it wasn't until I was in post-processing that I noticed the passenger was also texting at the same time.)

This is a more subjective tip, but really try to not just take the "standard" trip photos. A year after the trip, my favorite shots are always the ones you won't find in the tourist book - me or my companion, little offbeat places we went, food we ate, etc. They may not be National Geographic material but in the end you're documenting your own experiences, not some archetype of what a trip to that destination "should be". As we used to say in photojournalism, shoot first, edit later. If you end up with 2-3 pictures per day that you're really happy with at the end, you're doing better than most - if you're planning to show the set to others, or upload the online, you'll have a much better impact with a dozen great shot than two dozen mediocre picks.