The first couple of times I had the opportunity to photograph puffins I concentrated on getting shots with them on the ground. This time around I decided I would see if I could get a reasonable in flight shot or two, ideally of a puffin carrying a mouthful of sand eels back to the nest.
These are my best efforts from a recent day trip to the Farne Islands, these birds are fast flyers and most of my attempts were out of focus and went straight into the trash, so at the end of the day I am relieved to have even managed to get these. None of them are great shots, but I had fun trying!
These are all cropped to one extent or another.
C&C very welcome...
No.1: No sand eels but possibly the cleanest and sharpest shot I managed.
Hey Paul. These are excellent. Yeah, maybe one or two are little soft but overall an excellent effort. I would love to have shots like this in my quiver. A small nit and I hope you don't mind: perhaps a bump in the vibrance and/or saturation would enrich the colours of the bird. Well done!!
Way to go Paul...having never seen these in the wild I am always amused by their beaks full of sand eels...its like a kid who grabs everything is sight because of the fear he/she won't get enough. I guess it saves time and they do have the beaks to hold them.
Eric
Jul 05, 2012 at 03:30 PM
Lars Johnsson Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
Excellent job on these, Paul.Not only you got then in focus, but they also are well exposed
2 and 5 are my favorites, but I enjoyed the whole set
Socrate
Great shots Paul, If you don't mind may I ask what lens you were using? I'm going out to a nearby Island this summer to shoot puffins and my arsenal consist of Nikon 80-400VR, 70-200VR1, 24-70. I was told they come quite close and was hoping the 70-200 would work as it is sharper and easier to handle than the 80-400.
I'd be very happy with any of these Paul. We went on a whale/puffin tour a number of years ago, and did see puffins, but they were just a little larger than specks, but boy were they fast ~ Ron
