Copyright © Jim Austin
 

 

Puffin Perfection

by Jim Austin

 

There are moments in adventure

photography when it all comes

together. . .
 

Early one morning, on an offshore trip

from Maine to Canada, a flock of six

puffins stopped feeding as they eyed

our boat.  Seas were placid.  The sky was

cloudless.  These were rare weather

conditions for the traditionally fogbound

waters near the island of Grand

Manan.  The boat throttled back to idle.

Lying on the deck of a boat with a

prime 400 mm lens, I was able to get only one tack sharp puffin picture, at 1/1500TH second, f/ 5.6 at

ASA 200.

Luckily, the puffin paddled into the sun and side lighting struck the water drops on it’s feathers.  Its rippled wake made a pleasantly distorted reflection.  The summer sun light, blue water, and colorful

puffin all poised together in a moment that seemed to all come together in harmony.

Canadian biologists painstakingly re-introduced puffins to small islands in this area.  The birds raise only one chick after a 40 day incubation during the summer.  Both parents fish for herring, flying them in to their chicks in oversized serrated bills that have evolved to grip the minnows.  To catch their prey, puffins have learned to “fly’ underwater at 40 mph.

No doubt the puffins also find perfect moments fishing in the open sea.

Copyright © Jim Austin
 

Jim Austin, M.A., A.C.E., is a professional adventure photographer who lives aboard a sailing catamaran full-time. Austin teaches Photoshop classes & a Flickr Photo Marketing class through the Apogee Photo Online Campus and writes for Apogee Photo magazine.  You can visit his Flickr gallery by clicking here...

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