This is a selection of photos taken during a bird-watching trip to Costa Rica in January 2005. The bird photos show only a very small percentage of the many species our ten person group saw. All photos were taken as extra-fine JPEGs using a Minolta A2 digital camera and processed in PhotoShop 8.0. Bird photos are best viewed as Large images (scroll down below the first image viewed and select "Large"). Those with dialup internet connections may wish to view all images at Medium size to minimize download time. Images other than the bird pictures show up best in Original size, but Large size also shows them reasonably well. I'll be grateful for any feedback, either posted to this site or by private e-mail.

Bird photos were taken by adding an Olympus TCON 17 tele-converter to the camera, taking the camera's native lens to a focal length of 340mm. Even so, the images posted here have been severely cropped (only 40% to 60% of the original image is shown) to emphasize the birds themselves, which were often 40 to 60 feet from the camera. As you will see, ISOs of 200 were often necessary, and and sometimes ISO 400 was needed.

Further details on the images can be obtained by e-mailing me.

Bill Hansen
Ithaca NY Jan 31, 2005