Notes from the field :

Puffins are one of my favorite birds, and for the longest time I wanted to go somewhere to photograph them. I love their 'formal' black and white appearance with the addition of the comical colored bill. Until I saw them in person, I didn't realize how comical they are in their movements and flying. They tend to fly like a wobbly nerf football soaring through the air. This combined with their appearance makes them a very entertaining bird to observe.

I finally was able to photograph them on a trip to Machias Seal Island, off the coast of Maine. It is one of the few spots in North America to photograph these birds.

I framed a few images this way, with a lot of open space in front of the bird. To me, this gives a feeling of contemplation in the bird. The sloping rock puts the puffin right on the edge of a decision.

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About the subject :

Atlantic Puffin, for which much more information can be found in the trip report to Machias.

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Technical details :

This image was made using a Nikon F5, 500mm f4 lens, and Fuji Provia 100F slide film. Puffins can be tricky for exposure. The best time to photograph them is under overcast conditions. We were fortunate to have a very heavy fog. This will even out the light, allowing you to capture full detail in the white breast and black back feathers. Overcast light also helps saturate the great colors on the mandibles of these birds.

Metering of these scene was accomplished with the in-camera spot meter. By spot metering the breast of the bird, and opening up 1.7 stops, you are essentially telling the camera you want the breast to be detailed white.

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About the composition :

1] One of my personal preferences in how 'likeable' an image may be is how it is balanced. This balance refers to how much visual weight the image has in certain areas. If it is too strong on one side, the image looks as if it would tip over if placed on a balance point. This particular image was framed to have a lot of open space to the left. For editorial work, this would give an editor some space to play with for text, insets, etc. I also didn't want it to look too 'right-heavy' as an image by itself. This particular scene caught my eye because of the lean of the puffin into the negative space of the image. To me, it helped make the image more balanced vs. if the bird was perfectly vertical and offset to the right side.

2] The non-subject areas of an image are often referred to as negative space, particularly with soft backgrounds. Strong elements in the background that intersect with your subject (branches, twigs, rocks, etc) can be problematic.

3] Call me strange, but one of my personal preferences for bird images is how their feet are positioned. To me, this can really add a subtle characteristic that separates one bird shot from another. (A bird foot fetish?)

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