The lens behind Ingo Arndt's award-winning puma shots

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.

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."

High-octane hunting sequences

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."

Capturing family behaviour through a telephoto lens

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."