Puffins, Sunshine, and Camera Talk

Vacation week, a wonderful time to realize how many tasks we've reserved for this tiny 1/52 of our year. There are many things I promised myself I would do on this vacation week. Most of them had to do with organizing closets, going through old photos, tagging my music collection, and of course enjoying any sunshine we received. Of course, none of this has to do with real vacation, its just what I tell myself I'll do when I have free time. Vacation has instead been filled with well, SUNSHINE! A rare phenomenon we haven't seen for much of the summer. I have been enjoying my vacation like a real summer vacation should be enjoyed, basking in the sunshine and daylight!

Yesterday, a friend and I went for a ride up to Boothbay Harbor to visit the Puffins. The day was unbelievably gorgeous. A nice seabreeze and sunshine made the boat ride a most enjoyable one to the island of the puffins. The puffins were not the easist of animals to photograph. They are actually quite tiny, about 10" tall. The boat could only get so close to the island, so the zoom lens and I did what we could to capture the little guys.

Technically speaking, it was quite difficult to reduce camera shake when photographing the puffins. I actually brough along my monopod, but realized the vibration from the motor would have caused more shake then hand-holding the shots with my zoom lens. I chose to increase the shutter speed to 4000 (the highest normal level on my Nikon), and because I still wanted a good depth of field, kept the aperture between 2.8 and 4. This may have hindered me, however, focusing on the puffins as they flew around or swam on a rocking boat was a fun challenge! The shutter speed was needed, but I think having the aperture a bit narrower would have saved a few shots where the focus was on the wave in front or behind the bird. My saving grace was putting the shutter on continuous mode. This allowed me to follow the bird as it set flight from the water.

There are actually a series of about eight photos from above. The three above captured it best. I'll try to put up the entire series of swimming to flight if you are interested.

Today is an overcast day with a bit of sunshine peaking out every now and then. Perfect day for getting to a few of those "needed" vacation items like laundry and dishes ;-) And of course, a wonderful day for a run.