Tag: puffin

Working toward a portfolio

Portfolio struggles are real (at least for me)

I’m sure that I’m not unique in the struggle to really define what might constitute my portfolio of photography. Over the years, I have captured tons and tons of images, the subject of which has varied tremendously; it ranges from lots of dog sport images from agility competitions, portraiture and human events, food photography, abstract images and lots of nature images.

As I’m starting to renew my effort to define what my portfolio might be, I’m taking a stab at my nature images first. These have great variation in them as well, as I tend to love landscapes, but also have a mix of animal images, some of which I still enjoy reviewing.

A Pensive Puffin

The image above is one of these. This headshot provides a sense of gravitas to this lovely puffin, as he appears to be considering the next discussion to have with one of his closest friends, many of whom are nearby.

There are still some technical issues with this image, as the pose and sunlight didn’t line up perfectly in the way I would have preferred (these puffins didn’t pay much attention to my requests); so I still see some future editing to improve the overall look, but in the mean time, I still like this little fella.

I’m curious what struggles other photographers have in defining their profile and how they tend to tackle these demons.

A Lazy Sunday Afternoon (all Day)

It’s been a busy week, and still a bunch of things to do around the house before a short work-trip this coming week, so nothing like the present time to play around a bit editing some more puffins to share with you.

Which Direction?

After leaving the island in the afternoon, we toured a bit around the shoreline for several different views, which provided the opportunity to see these lovely birds floating on the calm sea. I’m still not sure, if they were just passing each other or they couldn’t agree on the direction to the next tasty morsel of fish.

My beak is shinier!

Part of the fun was observing all the interactions among the puffins; these two atop the rock stood there for quite a while, as if to decide who was getting the best spot in the neighborhood; of course, the referee might be the only winner in this contest!

Have a wonderful week!

Puffins are magical!

As 2021 enabled us to slowly, carefully head back toward travel and exploration of our world, I did manage to take a photography trip to Acadia National Park in the wonderful state of Maine.

Acadia is an exciting park to visit, as it presents a wealth of photography opportunities with excellent variety. During this trip, we photographed the sunrise at Cadillac Mountain, sunsets in Bar Harbor, lighthouses and nature in its many manifestations. It was a great way to unwind!

A side trip took us to Machias-Seal Island, which territory is disputed between Canada and the United States. The benefit of this dispute is that small groups are allowed to visit the island’s puffin colony, weather permitting. As our guide had reserved our tour’s spot well in advance (spots sell out in early January), and the weather cooperated, we had the pleasure of spending several hours photographing from blinds, as we were surrounded by puffins everywhere. Here’s one shot from that magical time.

Puffin Discussion

There were hundreds, if not thousands of puffins around us. From time to time, some of them would even run across the top of our blind, giving us a pitter patter of little puffin feet as a sound track.

This image was shot using a Canon EOS R5 using the amazing Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM lens. This lens absolutely blew me away with the image quality that it was able to produce.

There will be more posts coming from this trip!

Three Line Tales – the one that got away

Fish story

Many thanks to Sonya for Week One Hundred and Eleven of Three Line Tales, part of her awesome blog Only 100 Words!

three line tales week 111: two puffins ; ireland st patrick's day
photo by Wynand van Poortvliet via Unsplash

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I thought I had it,
Would have fed me for the day!
Sand eel’s slippery!

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Thank you to Sonya of Only 100 Words for coming up with Three Line Tales.

You’ll find full guidelines on her TLT page, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Write three lines inspired by the photo prompt (& give them a title if possible).
  • Link back to this post.
  • Tag your post with 3LineTales (so everyone can find you in the Reader).
  • Read and comment on other TLT participants’ lines.
  • NEW: If you want your post to be included in the round-up, you have until Sunday evening to publish it.
  • Have fun.

Happy three-lining!