I'm going there at the end of May, any specific advices for photography? Things that you would have liked to know in advance? Mistakes not to make?
Your images are pretty good. Though the overcast weather didn't seem to favor landscape photography too much, the wildlife imagery more than makes up for it!
I hope that you have a wonderful visit. It is a remarkable and rewarding place to visit and photograph.
Technically, my main recommendation is to take along LOTS of storage. There are so many photo opportunities that you will want to take thousands of shots and fill dozens of Gigabytes of storage.
My kit consisted of a Canon 50D body, EF 70-200 f/4, EF 17-40 f/4 and 50 mm f/1.8 lenses, a 1.4/f tele-extender and a monopod. Since I was particularly interested in the wildlife, most of my shooting was done with the tele. In many cases you can get quite close to many of the creatures you are photographing (most are amazingly calm about people), so that the extender was mainly useful for the shy birds (penguins, finches, shore birds) or for 'portrait' shots. Conditions were mainly sunny, so the relatively slow apertures were not a serious problem. My 70-200 is not image stabilized, which made the monopod very important.
One point that you may of may not be aware of is that you will likely have to do your land excursions as part of a group, led by a licensed guide (there are a number of rules controlling access to the islands, which is reasonable considering the damage that unrestricted tourism could do!) The consequence of this is that you may not have all the freedom you would like to stop, change lenses, adjust a tripod, wait for the clouds to clear or the sun to change direction etc. This can be frustrating, but I frequently found that even if I was forced to move on before I had made exactly the shot that I wanted, an even better opportunity was right around the corner. It's best to keep an open mind and be prepared to work quickly. To help with this, it would be nice to have two bodies, one for the long lens and one for the wide angle, which would reduce lens changes and the risk on dust on the sensor.
Another point is that you will likely be taken to most landings on a Zodiac or other small boat. Sometimes this will involve wading through surf. I had no problems with this, but you might want to have some 'dry bags' to carry your equipment during landings. May should be quite dry, so rain shouldn't be a problem. Even with lots of lens changes, I had no problems with dust and didn't need my cleaning kit, but in the dry season you may face different challenges.
I carried my equipment in a back pack, which left my hands free. This arrangement worked well for me.
And one final thing. There is some very good snorkling and diving around the Galapagos, so and underwater camera would be fun to have along.
Best of luck. I hope you have a wonderful time!
Jim
