Canon EOS-1D X Mark III
The successor to the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II that Ingo favours offers the ultimate creative toolkit, with superb low-light performance, deep learning AF and 5.5K RAW video.
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When Ingo Arndt looked at the photo of a puma he'd just taken during a dramatic hunt in the mountains of Chile's Patagonia region, he told his trackers he thought it was a prizewinner. A year later he was proved right, when the shot earned him a prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year award.
After enduring seven months of extreme cold and biting winds while tracking wild pumas in Torres del Paine National Park, the German wildlife photographer was rewarded with not one, but two prizes in the 2019 competition: joint winner in the Mammals Behaviour category for the hunting shot and highly commended in the Animal Portraits category for a delicate portrayal of puma family life. He also won the People's Choice Award for a third puma shot – and all three images were captured on a Canon EOS-1D X Mark II (now succeeded by the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III) paired with a Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens (now succeeded by the Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS III USM).
While the notoriously private animals had been photographed in the wild before, many of the images had been taken with camera traps. "My plan was to photograph the first complete puma story, behind the camera," Ingo says. "Complete means as much behaviour as you can show, so that includes mothers raising their cubs and hunting."
Ingo, who has photographed wildlife across the globe for publications including GEO and National Geographic, had to be careful with his kit choice for the challenge. He needed a lightweight and versatile lens that would be able to deliver in the difficult conditions. Here, he explains why the high-performance but lightweight Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens was the perfect choice for photographing these elusive big cats at the end of the earth.
Photographing the Patagonian predators proved to be both time-consuming and expensive – Ingo took seven trips, ranging from two weeks to three months in duration – with remote accommodation, vehicles, permits and expert trackers to pay for. Initially self-funded, he gained support from sports brand PUMA and was commissioned by National Geographic, which allowed him to dedicate time in the field, working alongside his wife Silke, who shoots video.
"It's hard to find pumas, so you need a lot of experience or very good trackers," says Ingo. "The problem is, you never find pumas in the same place. In this region, there are a lot of caves, rocks and vegetation where they can hide. When you leave at night, they go hunting, so they move, and the next day you have to start from the beginning."
With a minimum home range of 25km², pumas can cover some ground – meaning Ingo had to as well. "It was hard work. On some days, we had to walk 20km up and down the hills without trails," he says. "Then I only carried the Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens with a Canon EOS-1D X Mark II – and maybe the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens. Everything else was left in the car to save weight." While some lenses were simply too heavy to carry all day, the Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens' lightweight design and weather-resistant build meant Ingo could carry it for hours across the rugged terrain.
While Ingo primarily used a tripod, he was also able to lean on fences and logs for shake-free shots, due to the Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens' 4-stop Image Stabilizer technology. This, coupled with its fast aperture, also gave him particular flexibility covering action in low light. "The Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens is very fast for action photography and absolutely sharp," he says. "The quality is stunning even with an open aperture, which was important for shooting the pumas early in the morning or in the evening, when there was little light."
To compile a full profile of the pumas' behaviour in the wild, Ingo needed to photograph them hunting. The big cats' favoured prey is guanaco, a large South American mammal closely related to the llama, but capturing a kill proved to be a challenge. "I spent five months trying to get a photograph of a puma hunting a guanaco," he laughs. "For my story, it was the most important picture. Many times, I was close, but something always went wrong. Sometimes you have waited for hours, and the puma is 20m away from the guanaco, and on the final jump another guanaco sounds a warning call… We had a lot of frustrating days."
One day, Ingo's trackers spotted a female puma called Sarmiento resting alone on a hillside. They knew if she had left her cubs there was a good chance she was going to hunt. After watching her for about an hour, they saw her stalking a large male guanaco. Ingo's trackers got into position while he moved closer to the guanaco. Unable to see the well-camouflaged puma, he followed her prey and listened to his radio as the trackers observed her getting closer and closer.
"I focused on the guanaco's neck, he says. "Maybe 10 seconds later, I saw the puma jump, and I took as many pictures as I could – the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II shoots 14fps in Burst mode, 16fps in Live View. I was concentrating so hard I didn't really see what was happening. I took about 60 pictures in four and a half seconds.
"I used the AF tracking to follow the action and change the focusing points, which was very helpful. With the Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, I was shooting at f/4 and 1/3000 sec, so you don't have much depth of field. All the pictures I shot during that hunt were sharp – it was amazing."
Ingo immediately knew he'd got the shot. "I said to my trackers, 'This picture will win an award, I'm pretty sure'. I've been doing this for 30 years and sometimes you can see that something has a big chance. It really was a special moment. We celebrated into the night."
Over seven months Ingo photographed 18 different pumas, but he focused on documenting two mothers – Sarmiento and Colmillo – and their cubs. The cats became used to Ingo's presence, allowing him to capture intimate images – although it was always important to shoot from a distance with the telephoto lens.
"Most of the time I used a Canon Extender EF 1.4x III with the Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, because you have to stay back a little to see natural behaviour," says Ingo. "Sometimes it's possible to get closer, but then the mother will not show you the cubs or the animals look nervous. I wanted to show natural-looking pumas – not scared ones. Without the Canon Extender EF 1.4x III, the cubs would never be seen so exposed on a rock. If you go too close, even if they know you, they will hide in the vegetation. To see them in the open is like winning the lottery."
It was these moments, when Ingo felt a connection with the wild pumas and captured never-before-seen behaviour, that made it his favourite story to date. "To me, the puma is the most elegant of all the big cats," he says. "They are so beautiful. I was standing right in front of them, which gives you a little kick. And then I had this dramatic, wild, beautiful landscape in southern Chile – I've never seen a landscape like it before. When you're shooting a beautiful cat like a puma in that landscape, you cannot beat it."
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The key kit pros use to take their photographs
The successor to the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II that Ingo favours offers the ultimate creative toolkit, with superb low-light performance, deep learning AF and 5.5K RAW video.
The successor to the Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens that Ingo loves is super lightweight and perfect for professional wildlife, sports and news photographers. "All the pictures I shot during that hunt were sharp – it was amazing," says Ingo.
A professional L-series sports and wildlife zoom with Image Stabilizer and ASC coating for superb sharpness.
Ideal for press, sports and nature photography, this compact extender increases the focal length of Canon L-series telephoto or telephoto zoom lenses by a factor of 1.4x, with higher AF accuracy and improved communication between camera and lens. "You have to stay back a little to see natural behaviour," says Ingo.
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