During my road trip to Newfoundland, I planned two photo shoots for birds...the northern gannets of Cape St Mary's and the puffins of Elliston. I didn't have much luck with the gannets due to thick fog over my three day stay near the Cape. And for the majority of my stay, it looked like the puffins were going to be a no go as well.

Just a little background on Elliston...a colony of puffins nests on the rock just off the coast. There's a short trail (about 1/3 of a mile) from the road to the edge of the cliff. From there, you can see the puffin nesting site. It's relatively close, but too far in my opinion to capture quality images of these rather small birds. They stand at just 8 inches tall.

Here's an iPhone photo of the area:

The hope is that a puffin (or several) will fly over to our side of the water. Between us and the nesting rock is a steep drop...and yes, people have died here.

So, I arrived one morning to photograph the puffins. I had visions of puffins everywhere...and all on my side of the water. But, after a couple of hours of waiting, there wasn't any indication that the puffins would land near me...or I should say, us. I gathered that part of the problem was that there were 30 or more people standing near me and that the crowd might be keeping the puffins away.

I returned the next morning at 5:45 AM...and was pleased that I was the only person there. But, by 9:30 AM the crowds were building and the light was getting very harsh...and not a single puffin made a move to my side of the water!

That night, I decided to go back for a third try. I arrived at 5:00 PM and found about 12 people there...no puffins. By 6:30 PM or so, everyone left except for one man. He was visiting from Switzerland...and was just finishing up some landscape photographs. I told him that people told me that on occasion puffins would fly over to our side...so he waited with me. We waited for about an hour when he told me that he reluctantly would have to leave because he was freezing...and that his jacket was back at his campsite about a mile away. I told him he could use my jacket...and he was very appreciative.

About 30 minutes later a single puffin fluttered over to our side and landed briefly on a rock. I captured a quick shot with my 300 2.8 VR...and it flew off. I was so happy to get a shot! He looked at the image and joked about how jealous he was that I got that shot...and that he only had a wide angle lens with him. So, I removed the 300 2.8 from my Nikon D850 and handed it to him. I told him he could use it for the rest of the shoot as it worked perfectly with his Niion D4. I then attached the 500 f4 to my camera--which was sitting in my bag. Yes, I carried a lot of weight!

A few minutes later, another puffin landed. Then another...and finally more than a dozen. We had a great time capturing portraits of these birds. At one point, he mentioned that he should have brought a teleconverter with him...so I reached into my bag and handed him a 1.4x teleconverter. He couldn't believe his good fortune...a jacket, a 300 2.8 VR and a TC...all saved his photo shoot! And, it was an amazing photo shoot for both of us.

Here are some of my images. To view more, CLICK HERE.

Atlantic puffinFull body portrait of an Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) in Elliston, Newfoundland and Labrador on July 28, 2018 Atlantic puffinCloseup portrait of an Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) in Elliston, Newfoundland and Labrador on July 28, 2018 Atlantic puffinAtlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) spreading its wings in Elliston, Newfoundland and Labrador on July 28, 2018 Atlantic puffinAtlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) in Elliston, Newfoundland and Labrador on July 28, 2018