Puffins – a seeming cross between a toucan and a penguin – have always appealed to me. Unfortunately, they cluster far north of me and I wasn’t sure if I would ever get to see one in person. But on a roadtrip down from Nova Scotia, I bit the bullet and signed up for the Norton of Jonesport Puffin trip. They promised to drop me down right in the midst of puffin mayhem on the internationally disputed Machias Island, and they delivered.
The weather was cloudy, which turns out to be ideal for puffin viewing. When the sun is out, I was told that they prefer to sit on the ocean and cool off. We alit on the island and eventually (after waiting for a group of Canadians) were lead to blinds – 4×6 foot boxes with sliding windows – where we were given about an hour to take in the awkward majesty that is the puffin.
I stuck mostly with my Sigma 150-500 mm, which is slow and often a little soft, but I wanted to zoom in close to the puffin faces. As is my norm now, I shot -1/3 EV to avoid blowing out the highlights (I now go -2/3 to -1 EV on pure white birds). The puffins didn’t seem to mind the camera lenses poking out at them, and there was never a moment when there were not puffins just a few feet away.
I normally find some flaw with my photo ‘shoots’ – depth of field problems, blown out highlights, etc. – but in this case, I’m quite happy with how many of the photos came out. I have placed my favorites on the first page. Overall, spending an hour with the puffins is one of my favorite moments, not soon forgotten.
Click for full Puffin gallery.
