Photographing Puffins With Phoblographer 📷

Puffin Island:

I've spent the past few days photographing seabirds off the Pembrokeshire coast in South Wales. It's been scorching hot in the UK recently so it was nice to enjoy a fresh sea breeze and an ice cream or two. Never one to miss a good wildlife opportunity, I took the chance to sail across to Skomer Island, home to around 6000 breeding pairs of Atlantic Puffins. The island itself is reminiscent of Conan Doyle's The Lost World, and the native wildlife is simply awe inspiring.

Atlantic Puffin. Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm @ f/6.3, 230mm, 1/640sec, ISO 400

Puffins really are nature's comedians. They're bashful, timid, and playful, sometimes all at once. Prior to visiting the island I wasn't really familiar with their nesting habits or hunting techniques. I was therefore more than a little surprised to learn that they live in burrows under the ground. There's something quite surreal in watching a bird pop up from the earth and run across your path.

Puffin Leaving Burrow. Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm @ f/6.3, 270mm, 1/2000sec, ISO 1000

Puffins feed primarily on sand eels. They dive from their clifftop burrows into the sea below, collecting eels from the shallows. They then race back to their homes, dodging thieving seagulls all the way.

Puffin Returning to Burrow. Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm @ f/6.3, 230mm, 1/2000sec, ISO 640

Slowing themselves mid-air, they desperately dive back into their burrows to horde their well earned catch. They seemingly repeat this behaviour for hours on end, taking brief breaks to walk clumsily around or to sit on the rocky cliff edge.

Slowing Mid-Air. Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm @ f/6.3, 390mm, 1/2000sec, ISO 800

This shot was especially difficult to capture as the puffins returning to their burrows move exceptionally fast. I've spoken about the importance of understanding your subject before, and this shot is another example of this in action. To enable me to get this shot I had to determine when a puffin would be returning to a specific burrow. I noticed that the bird's neighbours left and came back at approximately the same time as one another; this puffin would usually arrive a few minutes later. With this in mind, I knew roughly where the bird's flight path would be, and the picture above was the end result.

Sand Eels Anyone? Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm @ f/5.6, 320mm, 1/1000sec, ISO 800

One of the most surprising aspects of the puffin's behaviour was how docile they seemed. I was initially very cautious, moving slowly and quietly so as not to disturb them. I quickly realised that this was unnecessary when a puffin ran within a few inches of me, stopped briefly for a quick hello and scurried merrily on his way.

Perspective & Metering:

I've mentioned in previous posts the effectiveness of eye contact in wildlife photography; an animal looking into the lens creates a visual connection with the viewer. Getting down on eye level with your subject is also very important. When stood upright, puffins are about a foot high. A lot of these images were therefore shot with me kneeling or almost lying down on the floor. Getting on your subjects "level" should be remembered as a powerful compositional tool in both macro and wildlife photography.

Looking Concerned. Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm @ f/6.3, 230mm, 1/640sec, ISO 400

This poor guy seemed to have forgotten where his burrow was, and was walking around looking concerned for quite a while. Puffins really are expressive animals, and getting down on eye level was helpful in capturing this.

Another important aspect of bird photography is using the correct metering settings to ensure all aspects of the shot are properly exposed. All of these images were taken with "spot metering". This tells the camera to expose for a single point within the shot. As puffins have white breasts, I first took an exposure reading from this point to ensure the detail in the highlights would not be lost through overexposure. This is achieved by using the camera's light meter which can be seen when looking through the viewfinder. All models are slightly different, but they work on the same principle.

In the image above you'll notice a centre point with notches to the left and to the right. The leftmost image represents an underexposure, the right an overexposure, the middle a perfectly exposed shot. Remember that in post processing it is often easier to recover shadows than blown highlights. Correctly exposing your images like this is only relevant if you're using one of your camera's manual or semi-auto exposure modes.

Puffin Pair. Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm @ f/7.1, 500mm, 1/1600sec, ISO 800

Ensuring that the white in their feathers was correctly exposed required a faster shutter speed than would otherwise have been necessary.

Knowing Your Gear:

The more you practice with your camera and lens(es), the more capable you'll become at getting the most out of them. Zoom lenses, like the one used to take these shots, have something of a sweet spot in their focal range. Depending on your gear you may find that your 70-300mm lens or 18-55mm lens yields sharper results at specific focal lengths and apertures.

Experimenting with different settings and getting to know your gear will result in you improving your skill set. When using your camera becomes second nature to you, and you are able to make critical adjustments on the fly, the quality of your final images will reflect your proficiency as a photographer.

Puffin on Water. Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm @ f/8, 200mm, 1/2500sec, ISO 320

This shot was taken from a moving boat. The sea was fairly rough and I was being thrown around quite a bit, but familiarity with my equipment and proper technique allowed me to capture the image above.

Flying High. Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm @ f/5.3, 390mm, 1/2500sec, ISO 800

As always, thank you for taking the time to read my article. I hope that you've found the information useful and that you're all flying high like this guy here.

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All images present in this article are © Alexander White