Sumatra Part 1 – The Real Wild Orangutans

I was originally going to start my Sumatra series in a diary form like many other blogs are written, but because it’s not coming live I thought this would be a better format. I’d like to share the amazing experience I had in the Sumatran rainforest, and some of the amazing animals that live in it. Photographing animals in this environment was one of the hardest challenges I’ve faced since I first started photographing wildlife. I’ll talk about the difficulties I faced in my following blogs – like the challenges of the terrain, weather, equipment, tracking the animals and much more.

So today’s post is mainly a visual one and for the main reason I travelled to Sumatra – to photograph the really wild and critically endangered Sumatran orangutans. Not the ones around Bukit Lawang that are semi-wild and come down from the trees when humans are spotted, hoping to get some food. I wanted the experience of photographing the orangutans that live in the less visited areas of the rainforest, those who live and behave in a natural way.

I’ve pulled together a quick collection of some of the orangutans I photographed to whet your appetite for the coming posts.

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed a quick taste of what’s to come. If you want to learn more about photographing in the rain forest then don’t forget to sign up for updates using the contact form.