Seal and puffins

[billtils]

These were shot yesterday on a trip to the Isle of May.


1: A grey seal basking ...






2: ... then slipping into the water





3: Puffin gossip






4: Ready for take-off






5: Airborne ...





6: ... and off to the feeding grounds

[Manfred M]

Nice action shot on #2. Puffin images are always great, although the last one almost looks like a composite.

I've never quite figured out puffins vs evolution. They have obviously survived and spread to many places around the world, but, I still having figured out how they managed to pull this off.

1. Watching a puffin taking off - walk to edge of cliff. Flap wings really fast and step off the edge.

2. In flight; flap wings like crazy to stay aloft.

3. Landing - stick out feet and stop flapping. Usually this works but I'm surprised how often the landing involves the bird tumbling head over heels...

[billtils]

Thanks Manfred. They can be a bit "circus clown" like, great fun watching them take off from the water. And I can assure you that the last shot is NOT a composite!

[lovelife65]

really love all of these. Wonderful images. Still deciding on a fav, if there is one.
Thanks for sharing.

[pschlute]

Lovely set.

[Astro]

Bill, really nice set, There is something about puffins...have photographed them a number of times (further south than the Isle of May.. Farnes and Skomer)
Getting a good shot is tricksy indeed. #5 in particular suggests that rather 'helter skelter' approach they have to 'pranging'. I have never seen a graceful landing!
The second image of the seal is wonderful, I assume it was heading back into the water....
With lockdown ending I am hoping to get up to Edinburgh at least before the year is out.

[billtils]

Thanks James. The seal shots were a bit of "better to be lucky than good". There aren't too many seals at this location and I had just locked on to the only one I saw out of the water when it decided to slip in for a dip so all that was needed was a wee bit of panning and press the shutter again .

[billtils]

Thanks Peter and Sharon.

[rpcrowe]

Very nice imagery - I'd love to have the opportunity to see and photograph puffins...

[billtils]

Richard

Thank you so much for taking time to comment at a time when the loss of your best friend must be at the forefront of your thoughts. People have to have been there to fully inderstand the impact - when we emigrated to Australia many years ago we took our yellow Labrador with us (she cost more to ship than the household goods but it was never an issue in our minds). We had 10 wonderful years with her there.

[Wavelength]

Very nice images; enjoyed them

[purplehaze]

Delightful set, Bill.

[billtils]

Thanks Janis and Nandakumar.

Janis: this is my third trip to the island, the first with a D7100, the second with the D810, and this time with the D500. I can assure you that the D500 won hands down for fast focus lock, burst speed (I would almost certainly have missed those in-flight shots with the others) and image quality. To be fair to the 810 in regard to the IQ, it was used in DX mode, but it was with the same lens as this outing with the 500.

The D500 is 5 years old and I had toyed with going for the Z50 but based on how it works for me, I'm glad I went with the D500. Personal preferences come in to play of course: some people prefer the Z50 because it's smaller and lighter - that's a bit of a no-no for me, as I've used my son's Sony mirrorless and miss the stabilisation that comes from the heavier (but not heavy) D500 body. I'm also wedded (or welded) to the Nikkor 300mm PF and 70-200 lenses and don't see the point in buying the Z-mount adapter so that I can use them on a body that offers me no advantages over what I have.