Perfect puffins
QThis summer, my ambition is to get a good, sharp shot of a puffin in flight. I’ve been once before and not a single shot was perfect, so can you give me some tips?
Vincent Hopkins
AYour experience will tell you that puffins are not the easiest birds to photograph in flight, as they come in quickly, erratically and sometimes from all directions! If you look at my example shot taken in the Farne Islands in Northumberland (pictured, right), I tipped the scales in my favour by doing a number of things.
Firstly, I watched and identified where the majority of birds were arriving – this will be wind-dependent and can change, but it meant that for a while I had lots of subjects to practise on. Secondly, I positioned myself so that I could use the ground as a focus aid. I pre-focused on the plants so my lens (a 400mm) didn’t have to work so hard when the puffin was in range. With Continuous AF set, and a group of central AF points active, I only attempted to lock focus when the puffin was reasonably big in the frame so that I could maintain that focus as it got closer. Lastly, you’ll notice that the wings of the puffin are slightly turned. This is because it is applying the brakes and slowing down as it prepares to land – they’ll turn even more just before it drops down towards its burrow. This is a good point to fire off a burst of shots.
On top of this, I used a shutter speed of 1/2000 sec to help freeze its movement and an aperture of f/8, so I had a little leeway on the depth of field if the focus point that locked wasn’t directly on the front of its head. As the background was just open sea, there wasn’t anything present that could cause a distraction.