Author Archive: Reinier Munguia

Traveling Insurance in an increasingly uncertain world.

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For years, I’ve had the privilege of exploring captivating destinations around the world. Some of these trips took me to remote corners, while others were closer to home, yet the risk of flight cancellations, lost luggage, or disruptions due to COVID-19 was always a concern. After leading tours for over 20 years, I’ve encountered many challenging situations that underscore the vital role of travel insurance. In the following, I’ll share scenarios that highlight why spending a bit more on travel insurance can be highly beneficial, even for smaller tour operations. I’ll detail several cases where travel insurance could have significantly improved the outcome for the travelers.

Having health insurance in the US doesn’t automatically extend to coverage while traveling abroad. Some credit cards offer travel insurance, but it’s crucial to review the specifics of their coverage before you leave home. Often, this coverage is quite limited and may not include emergency hospitalization or medical evacuation. Additionally, most insurance policies do not cover cancellations due to a pandemic.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries required travelers to have health insurance that covered COVID-19 as a way to encourage tourism while easing the strain on their healthcare systems. Hospitals were struggling with shortages of beds, supplies, and staff. Nowadays, many travel insurance providers include COVID-19 coverage in their standard policies.

On average, basic travel insurance that covers COVID-19 cancellations, emergency transportation, hospitalization, lost luggage, and flight cancellations costs between 5-7% of the total trip cost. For example, a $500-$700 insurance policy would protect a $10,000 African safari. Given the current travel landscape, I highly recommend considering this type of coverage, especially for trips to remote locations. Be aware that insurance costs can vary depending on the country you’re visiting.

To illustrate the value of travel insurance, consider a recent case involving a disastrous trip to India. The travelers fell ill after a meal and required hospitalization, and their tour leader also spent three days in the hospital. This situation caused major disruptions and resulted in significant medical expenses for everybody in the group.

In another example, a friend traveled to Cuba and broke her femur. Due to the limited medical facilities there, she was given sedatives and had to wait three days before being airlifted to the U.S. in an air ambulance. Although non-profit organizations can assist with such transport for U.S. citizens, the process is complicated and time-consuming.

Even for domestic trips, purchasing basic travel insurance that covers flight and lodging is advisable. With the current unpredictability of airline schedules, flights are frequently canceled, leaving travelers stranded with few options. Many insurance policies cover flight changes and cancellations, along with luggage loss.

As for how tour operators are affected when a participant lacks insurance, it’s straightforward: tour prices are usually based on the number of participants. If someone has to cancel at the last minute due to illness or an accident, it can be challenging for companies to recover expenses for transportation and lodging. Transportation costs remain the same regardless of whether the full group is present, and lodging costs often aren’t refunded if canceled less than 30 days before arrival. This is why many tour operators now require participants to purchase travel insurance. Always read the fine print when buying insurance and ask specific questions to ensure it meets your needs.

Here are some companies I have used in the past.

https://www.allianztravelinsurance.com/

https://www.travelinsured.com/

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed insurance provider, so all opinions expressed are my own based on my experience over the years.  Travelers are responsible for reading the Description of Coverage for any travel insurance you wish to purchase and to read the definition of coverages/exclusions.  My examples here do not indicate guarantees of coverage for your specific situation each insurance company have specific coverage for your trip, so make sure to get all the details. 

North Shore Birding Festival

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Thank you for joining my workshop at the North Shore Biding Festival. Below I will be going over some of the items we covered in the program for your reference.

Exposure Basics

One of the most important aspects of successful nature photography is understand how your gear works and performs under different situations. Metering in particular and how your camera deals with extreme highlights and shadows is very  important. I mentioned the use of Auto ISO in Manual exposure mode as the most effective way to ensure within range exposures, not perfect, but close enough that minimal post-processing may be required. Since this is a semi-automatic exposure more, I also mentioned when and how to use exposure compensation.  That little  +/- button on most cameras is there for a reason. Being able to override the metered exposure to protect highlight information or open up shadows is the key to better exposures with more latitude for post-processing. Don’t forget that you should be shooting in RAW format to really take advantage of the exposure latitude provided by your camera’s sensor.

Remember you can always predict how much compensation you’ll need by comparing the subject’s reflectivity to the rest of the frame. In the case of the Great Egret to the right the bird as surrounded by a close to middle tone background. If the background had been darker I would have used more compensation to avoid losing too much highlight information.  Remember is really important to recognize the subject tonal value in respect to the tonal value scale and how it relates to the background tonal value to adjust the metered exposure on the spot. Also don’t forget to remove any exposure compensation before moving to a different subject otherwise you’ll be exposing using the exposure compensation you just dialed in.  As long as the subject continues in the same light you should be able to keep your exposure compensation.  Also the above suggestions apply to metering mode like Matrix in the Nikon or Evaluative in Nikon any other camera systems will use something very similar 

The above shot of the Great Egret was taken using the metered exposure for my settings of 1/1000sec. @ f8, AUTO ISO. The result was a slight overexposure of the highlights as noted by the spike on the right side of the histogram.  The solution was as simple as dialing -2/3 stop compensation. The good thing is that little overexposures like this are easy to fix in your RAW editor by simply adjusting the exposure or the highlight and white values. 

AF Basics

We also discuss how to setup the AF system correctly in your camera to maximize its performance for birds in flight. First point was to setup your AF-Only back- button focus.  This is easily achieve through your camera’s menu.  Doing so allow your camera to continue to focus independently of whether you depress the shutter button. The main advantage is that you can always stop focusing while in continuos AF mode (AF-C) to recompose or when your subject simply stop moving or walks behind obstacles that will otherwise confuse the AF system. 

The AF-ON button allows you to focus when you need it and will help you track your even when the photo is being acquired by the sensor thanks to predictive AF. For this you must use Dynamic-Area AF in AF-C.  In this particular AF mode, you select one of the many AF sensors and the camera utilizes the additional surrounding sensors to track the subject if it leaves the area covered by your selected sensor. Understand that every camera manufacturer have a very similar AF modes as described above, but due to patents they may call it differently.  For example: Nikon AF-C is the same as Canon AI-servo. Dynamic AF-mode in the Nikon is called AF Point Expansion on the Canon. With that said, it’s very important that you read your camera manual to understand all the features your AF system can provide. 

Below are the AF-ON setup screens for Nikon, Canon and Sony respectively.

 

Below is  a chart with all the AF modes available in most Nikon Cameras and the best scenerario for their use.

 
ApplicationPinpoint AFSingle-Point AF(AF-S)Dynamic-Area AF (AF-C)Wide-Area (S)Wide-Area (L)Auto-Area AF
Candid Photography    ●● *5
Portraits ●   ● *5
Weddings/Events ● ● ● *5
Landscapes ●    
Nightscapes ●    
Architectures●●    
Concerts, live events  ●●  
Macro (food / flowers)●●    
Group Photos ●   ●
Trains, vehicles   ●● 
Wildlife / Birds *6  ●   
Sports *6  ●   

The sequence below was done using the Dynamic AF mode with 72 sensors and pressing the AF-ON button through the whole sequence. The sequence contained over 17 frames as I was shooting at 10fps.  Only 5 of them showed a bit of softness. This AF mode in combination with 1/2000 shutters speed improved the number of keepers.

Always remember to start focusing early and how your posture and panning technique has a big influence on your final product.  Always support your lens from the bottom using your open hand while bracing the arm against your body. Another note of caution always use a shutter speed no less than the reciprocal of the focal length being used(adjust for cropped sensors). If using a full frame camera while handholding a 500mm focal length, you should use no less than 1/500 sec. to prevent camera shake. On a cropped body that same lens will require a 1/750 sec. shutter speed. Now, remember this is only to prevent camera shake, but motion blur from your subject can only be fixed with a shutter speed faster than the subject’s motion, therefore I prefer to shoot birds in flight at no less than 1/2000 sec. Slower birds could be photographed at a slower shutter speed, think of a pelican in flight, you may be able to stop it with only 1/1000 sec., but a hummingbird’s wings beat too fast to be stopped with the same shutter speed.

Below are some other pics I captured while leading the field Workshop on Sunday. Again thank you for your participation and feel free to send me an email with any questions your may have.