I worked with the amphibian team today while they took out one set of amphibians traps and then set them up in another spot, with the help of the two drivers and sous-chef. It’s a lot of work, so the team needed the help.  A plastic line is used as a wall to corral the amphibians into buckets in the ground.  It was fun to shoot, and the team is pretty happy-go-lucky, but everyone was exhausted at the end, and hungry.

The spot was a nice one, it looked like primary forest with some huge trees, and a swampy area in the middle. There were tons of juvenile frogs, but we did not see any adults.  There was also signs of hippo, buffalo, and elephants, so it’s a good spot to remember for the future…

There was a beautiful sunrise this morning as a result of the lingering mist that had previously limited our sight to a mere 10 meters.

Today I photographed whatever I could within walking distance around camp.  I wanted to shoot the flowers I had seen in the beginning with Alfonso and Tobi.  Macro work is one of my favorite types of photography.  Whenever you stop and look around there are always small plants and insects to photograph.

Yve and I are going through the live fish photos, identifying the species and putting in the metadata.

The pretty fishing spot we had visited from just a week ago is already drying up.  Antoine and Jean Claude caught a ton of cephalus micro in the spot because it had nowhere to hide.  It was good to find it, as we did not have a live photo of that species. Though Yve said they are hard to keep alive and I see why. They are definitely finicky and did not like the fish tank at all.  I’ve started to accept some of the species are either not photogenic, or uncooperative (which is understandable), and you cannot tell until which kind they are until you throw them into the studio.

We’ve ended up with only 3 species of killifish as far as we know, yet the color variations can be huge, reds, blues, and whites.

Back in camp.

I am getting a reputation for having a bottomless stomach. The joke is that I’m a great addition, as long as you have the food budget.  I’m like a small mammal: I need to eat constantly otherwise I “die” i.e. I become useless.

We had a huge full red moon tonight.  I know it is old hat at this point, but I think its so cool to see the moon up close and all the craters on it.

I have been photographing all of our live and dead fish in the lab.  I mostly love fish.  It’s fun now that I have the hang of it.  Some fish still pose a problem, as they just want to sit on the bottom of the tank, or they are still overly stressed, even with the lights out.  Most of them react negatively to the flash, which is understandable since I’m sure it’s blinding. One of the first things I learned about being in the forest was to not use a flash when elephants are around, because it pisses them off to no end.

I am seeing all the subtle differences in the killifish, now  I see why aquarium aficionados like to collect them. I’m also learning a lot about them. They’re the easiest mosquito control you can have, it’s a shame there isn’t more money for projects that would bring fish like these in areas for mosquito control.  They can survive in tiny pools of water, they eat mosquitoes, and the eggs they lay can survive even if they get dry!  People ship their eggs around the world like seeds.  Usually when we have checked a pool of water in the study area, it has killifish.

I have been dealing with a wicked stomach problem, I think I picked up some bacteria or amoebas or something somewhere.  Thankfully there is a clinic here so I got meds, but it took a few days for it to calm down.  I cannot believe how much better I feel, still not a 100% but so much better then before.