Puffin #2
Jul, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken during a week long trip to the Isle of Mull, Scotland. This little fella is a resident of Staffa, a small island off Mull.Time
This was taken around mid-morning, one of the first boat trips of the day. (I was very eager to get out there!)Lighting
It was an overcast day which provided a very diffuse light.Equipment
This was taken using my Canon 70D with a 100-400mm telephoto lens. The extra focal length provided a shallow depth of field, helping the subject to stand out from the background.Inspiration
I love photographing wildlife and wanted to travel to Mull after hearing about the incredibly charismatic animals that inhabit the island: gold and white tail eagles, otters and puffins. The week I spent on Mull was without a doubt, the best wildlife photography trip I have taken. I saw so many wonderful things but this photo is by far the best of the trip and my favourite photograph in my library. A short boat trip from Mull, Staffa is home to a number of seabirds. The Puffins usually hunker down in their burrows and only come out a dawn and dusk due to predation by Great Skua (known locally as Bonxies), which also inhabit the island. However, visiting humans will keep the Skuas at bay, something which the Puffins take advantage of. After spending a short time on the island, the Puffins began to emerge from their burrows and head out to fish. This particular Puffin seemed to enjoy the attention from this new group of visitors and waited around outside his burrow, almost posing for photographs. Eventually he too left the clifftop to go fishing and the encounter was over.Editing
I am still fairly new to post-processing so do very little to my photographs. The image is slightly cropped from the original to focus better on the subject and the colour levels have been adjusted to tighten up the histogram.In my camera bag
My telephoto lens is my primary lens and a must for wildlife photography. I also carry a smaller lens which I use to dabble in landscape and portrait photography. I regularly carry a tripod and remote trigger as I like to play around with time-lapse photography. A bag hide is a relatively new and interesting addition to my wildlife photography kit.Feedback
Puffins can be found in a number of places around the UK's coastline, most notably at Bempton Cliffs, North Yorkshire; South Stack, Anglesey; the Farne Islands, Northumberland; and the Shetland and Orkney Islands, Scotland. They form breading colonies in March and April, leaving again in mid-August. For the rest of the year, Puffins remain at sea.
