“SHOOT TO THRILL”
With the help of an expert photographer, Matt Bell takes aim at Mexico’s wildlife, conquering more than just his camera’s manual settings.
by Matt Bell
What the hell am I doing?
As far as I’m concerned, that’s the only thought possible when you’re crouching down to enter a shadowy bats’ nest inside of a 2,000-year-old Mayan ruin. This nest in particular was located at the farthest reach of the Yucatán, in the Mexican marshland of Sian Ka’an, miles from any village and hours away from the plush Banyan Tree Resort where I was staying. From a few feet above, unlit squeaking noises, cold and demonic, like the sound of dial-up Internet, reverberated down my spine until it locked in a huddled position. On the floor of this ancient chamber, a little smaller than a subway car, I clutched my camera for dear life.
What the hell am I doing?
Then, some flashes lit up the scenery and I realized that I was in the middle of a freak-out that my guide, National Geographic photographer of 22 years Steve Winter, did not share. He was casually photographing bats dashing around his head as if shooting something banal, like yearbook photos. “It’s OK,” he said. “They see with sound, so if you stand up, they’ll sense it and not hit you.” Slowly, gumption rose, and so did I.
Winter aimed a light four feet above me, revealing about a hundred of these tiny creatures skittishly hanging from the ceiling, many launching into an unnervingly erratic flight pattern every few seconds. Then I remembered what I was here to do: learn to take pictures worthy ofNational Geographic.
I checked the settings on my DSLR (based on Winter’s advice) and soon the aperture was wide enough to allow crisp, high-resolution images of the bats in their ultra-dark home. A surge of adrenaline confirmed: This is the kind of moment for which the phrase, “Hells yeah!” was invented.
Taking Charge
The bat ordeal was on day two of the three-day Wildlife Photo Masterclass that Steve Winter—winner of the highly coveted awards BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year (2008) and BBC Photojournalist of the Year (2012)—launched in partnership with the Banyan Tree Mayakoba in December 2013, and it was not the first time on this trip that I had nervously questioned things.
That moment came just a few minutes into our first expedition, on a boat ride around the freshwater canals that braid through the private 590-acre wildlife reserve that the Banyan Tree Mayakoba calls its hotel grounds. Winter had asked to see my brand-new Canon EOS 60D: “This is a good camera, but you can’t let it be the brains of the operation. That has to be you,” he challenged, switching the dial from auto to manual before handing it back to me.
Manual?! Cue: What the hell am I doing?
But Winter didn’t leave me—or any of the six other photo enthusiasts on this expedition, each with a different type of camera and level of experience—hanging. The vessel drifted further into the forest. Soon, we spotted birds like the rare Yucatán jay poking out of trees. Crocodiles were camouflaged along the bank. Iguanas sunned themselves on rocks. Turtles rested on driftwood.
As we floated past, Winter quietly called out the manual settings we should be using and explained various focus and composition techniques. A few of the more experienced photographers were surprised by some of Winter’s directions and engaged him with questions, but the instructions were easy enough for the less sophisticated, like myself, to simply follow. For all of Winter’s professionalism, though, he’s not without an endearing sense of humor; when not in teacher mode, he entertained us with anecdotes from his adventures in the field— like the time an African hippo tried to kill him.
Show Time
Each night before dinner, Winter gave a Power-Point seminar in which he unraveled the megapixels of his life’s work to tell the kind of gritty, behind-the-scenes stories proprietary only to a man who has camped out in the Himalayas or in the jungle villages of India for months on end just to get a single shot.
After a few more expeditions both on- and off-property, and a little downtime at the hotel’s beach, the long weekend culminated in a slide show of each group member’s best work, narrated and critiqued by Winter himself. I felt a shot of confidence as he praised some of my images, particularly of the bats flying within ancient ruins. At the time, during my little panic attack, I could have turned back in terror, but, almost like switching from auto to manual, I learned that leaving your safety zone can yield some pretty stunning results—especially with Steve Winter by your side.
About Banyan Tree Mayakoba
A stay at the Banyan Tree Mayakoba is a quick and easy escape from the U.S. that feels more like a luxurious getaway to some far-flung destination. It’s certainly more than worth the trip, photo class or not. The all-villa resort along the Riviera Maya is just a 40-minute drive from Cancún and a few miles north of Playa del Carmen, but—ensconced within nearly 600 acres of jungle and latticed by six miles of freshwater canals (not to mention boasting its own secluded beach)—it feels more like a private island.
The villas are akin to houses, each one landscaped to provide complete privacy—a boon, when you consider the fact that they all come with private swimming pools, outdoor showers and hammocks.
Aside from the jaw-dropping natural vistas, you’ll find seven different restaurants (serving everything from Thai to Mexican), a swim-up bar that overlooks the Caribbean, a golf course that hosts Mexico’s only PGA golf event and a world-class spa with Thai-trained therapists—all in “the neighborhood.” Everything is accessible via paved trail, or you can arrange a golf-cart pickup. banyantree.com/en/mayakoba
More Information:
The Wildlife Photo Masterclass starts at $2,499 for three nights per villa, plus taxes and fees.wildlifephotomasterclass.com
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