{"id":1567,"date":"2014-04-29T21:00:23","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T02:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/?p=1567"},"modified":"2015-07-09T11:02:48","modified_gmt":"2015-07-09T16:02:48","slug":"adventure-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2014\/04\/29\/adventure-photography\/","title":{"rendered":"ADVENTURE PHOTOGRAPHY"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local Photographer Euric Fuselier’s Journey To The Amazon Rain Forest And Cotopaxi<\/strong><\/p>\n

Story By Karla Wall \u2022 Photos By Euric Fuselier<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"euric\"<\/a>When Euric Fuselier decided, about seven years ago, that he\u2019d rather have a career in photography, working with his wife, Emily, than remain in a \u201cboring desk job,\u201d he was imagining, probably, the usual local photographer\u2019s life \u2014 weddings, children\u2019s portraits, senior portraits.<\/p>\n

But, during the last week of last December and the first week of this January, Fuselier discovered that photography can also be an extreme adventure, as he spent two weeks in an Amazon River rainforest in Ecuador, shooting photos of amazing wildlife and getting to know a bit about the indigenous people of the area.<\/p>\n

Fuselier says his adventure began when a friend, Charles Talen, who Fuselier describes as a \u201cserious world traveler,\u201d invited him along on a two-week trip to the Amazon.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gave me short notice,\u201d Fuselier says. \u201cJust three weeks, which isn\u2019t long when you\u2019re talking about a trip to South America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ef2\"<\/a>Fuselier and Talen flew from Houston to Quito, Ecuador. Then came a flight to a small town called Coca, a flight during which Fuselier says he marveled at the unspoiled wilderness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were no roads, no villages, just miles and miles of jungle,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

And the journey was far from complete. From Coca, the travelers took a three-hour motorized canoe trip further into the jungle. And what Fuselier says he remembers most about traveling by water along the Amazon was the traffic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe river was like a highway,\u201d he says. \u201cThere were big boats with tractors on them, and barges carrying supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The river, Fuselier explains, is the only way to bring supplies in to the jungle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever is brought in has to be brought in by boat,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The canoe took them along the Napo river, the largest tributary of the amazon, and then down a 1-ft wide blackwater creek, Fuselier says, which opened up into a \u201cgorgeous lake,\u201d Lake Anangucocha, on the shores of which sat, in a small clearing, their destination: the Napo Wildlife Center, a private reserve in Northeast Ecuador owned by the Anangu Quichua village.<\/p>\n

The lodge, built with natural materials, had cabanas with bedrooms and showers (with water, Fuselier says, directly from the lake), and communal facilities such as a dining hall.<\/p>\n

The area, Fuselier says, actually reminded him of the marshes of Southwest Louisiana in the summer. As it wasn\u2019t quite yet the beginning of the Amazon\u2019s rainy season, the heat and humidity were similar.\u00a0\"ef3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe smells, the lily pads on the creek and lake \u2014 it was all like the marshes here at home,\u201d he says. \u201cOf course, the jungle there hadn\u2019t been touched for thousands of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

That similarity, he says, made working with his equipment similar to working at home, although, he says, he did find a bit of moisture in his lens on his last day of shooting, which he says he was able to take care of without too much trouble.<\/p>\n

What was different, on a huge scale, was the wildlife, of course. The wildlife preserve boasts 500-plus species of birds, 11 species of monkeys, otters, reptiles and much more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were tarantulas the size of a human hand, and snakes everywhere,\u201d he says. \u201cThere were beautiful macaws, parakeets \u2014 every jungle animal you could think of, we saw.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what stood out for him, he says, was the insect life.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the sun went down, there were amazing insects everywhere \u2014 they covered everything. The funny thing was that I knew if I\u2019d seen any of these insects in my home here, I\u2019d have panicked. But there in the jungle, they were just part of the system.\u201d\"EF4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In fact, Fuselier says, the insect population is so healthy that the one drilling company allowed to drill for natural gas just outside the preserve has to \u201cgo out every morning and wipe the bugs off of the equipment. They just cover everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

His favorite photo opportunities, he says, though there were many, were shots of the lake, smooth and calm one morning, with the surrounding trees a mirror image in the water.<\/p>\n

There was another special moment as well, he says, when he was photographing a large flock of parakeets eating in a mud pit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a large macaw perched above the pit,\u201d he says. \u201cAs I was photographing the parakeets, the macaw swooped down into the pit, scattering the parakeets. There was just brilliant color everywhere. It was just unbelievable timing.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the jungle certainly provided plenty of photo ops, it also provided some unique challenges, Fuselier says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest problems was taking photos that would make sense of the jungle. There was so much chaos, it was difficult to balance the framing just right, to find just the right light and angle so that the photo made sense,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I enjoyed the challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fuselier also got to spend a day in the Anangu Quichua village itself, and that, he says, was an adventure in itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved learning, seeing what they did and how they did it,\u201d he says. \u201cThey showed us how they make rope using strands of young fern plants, how they make medicine from the roots of different plants, how they burn termite nests, with termites in them, for insect repellent. They don\u2019t have one percent of what we have here in the U.S. They use everything \u2014 nothing is wasted. I realized that we in the U.S. couldn\u2019t survive out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The villagers performed traditional dances for the visitors, and also sang traditional songs for them, Fuselier says.<\/p>\n

And the adventure wasn\u2019t over. Leaving the reserve, Fuselier and Talen returned to Quito for three days, where they enjoyed touring some of the \u201cbeautiful old Spanish homes.\u201d They did set aside one day to hike up Cotopaxi, an active volcano in Quito. The volcano stands 19,000-plus feet above sea level, Fuselier says, and hiking the \u201cimpressive\u201d mountain was \u201cone of the most physically demanding things I\u2019ve ever done.\u201d\"EF6\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From sea level, Fuselier says, they drove to a parking spot at 14,000 feet, and \u201cparked our cars in the clouds.\u201d They hiked nearly to the summit, some five thousand feet in altitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was funny was that, at 16,000 feet, when we were trying to catch our breath, there were nine- to 10-year-old (native) kids running around like it was nothing,\u201d he says. \u201cA little girl, no more than 3, hiked up with us like it was no big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fuselier came away with stunning photos and lifelong memories, but the trip was, to say the least, a bit more difficult than the normal vacation. Did the challenges of the jungle dissuade Fuselier from furthering his resume as an adventure photographer?<\/p>\n

Far from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharles and I are planning a trip to Costa Rica in three months,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"EF7\"<\/a>\"EF9\"<\/a>\"EF10\"<\/a>\"EF11\"<\/a>\"EF12\"<\/a>\"EF8\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local Photographer Euric Fuselier’s Journey To The Amazon Rain Forest And Cotopaxi Story By Karla Wall \u2022 Photos By Euric Fuselier   When Euric Fuselier decided, about seven years ago, that he\u2019d rather have a career in photography, working with his wife, Emily, than remain in a \u201cboring desk job,\u201d he was imagining, probably, the [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":1585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[318,319,316,4],"yoast_head":"\nADVENTURE PHOTOGRAPHY - BestOfSwla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2014\/04\/29\/adventure-photography\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ADVENTURE PHOTOGRAPHY - 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