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Little Brother Puffin


Little Brother Puffin
Photo Information
Copyright: Adrian Hutton (aido) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1097 W: 168 N: 1218] (4046)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2006-06-23
Categories: Birds
Camera: Nikon D2X, Sigma EX 50-500mm f/4-6.3 APO HSM DG, DxRAW ISO 400
Exposure: f/10.0, 1/1500 seconds
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version, Workshop
Theme(s): Puffins, The Farne Islands [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2006-08-21 8:03
Viewed: 1764
Favorites: 4 [view]
Points: 88
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
This is Fratercula arctica, the Atlantic Puffin. I had a great weekend in the Farne Islands with Mark (MojoUK) and I have some good memories of a manic weekend, including Mark sleeping in the sand dunes while I was taking pictures on the beach at 3:30 in the morning :-) The title comes from the genus name, Fratercula, which means little brother, and of course this delightul bird’s more common English name.

I’ve posted a few shot’s of Puffins previously and a few people asked what size they are. To answer that I’ve posted a workshop picture showing some some Puffins with a Kittywake in a rather unusual setting :-) which should give some scale, and give an idea of their size.

Puffins nest colonially in burrows on similar cliffs to Guillemots and Razorbills. However, the Puffin is not as numerous as either of them, and is seen less commonly from the coast in winter, as Puffins will winter at sea. Guiilemots look very similar to Puffins when you see them in flight (I only got one very poor shot of a flying Gilly), the same body shape and feet. In summer, the colourful bill, white face and red feet make them easy to separate from the Guillemots and Razorbills. By winter the bill has shed its outer, more colourful layer so it appears smaller and duller and the face too becomes a duller smoky grey. However, the shape of the black outline to the face, is still clearly visible. In flight the lack of white both in the sides of the tail and on the trailing edge of the wing are further useful features, as is the grey underwing.

They breed around the coasts of Britain, Ireland, Norway, Iceland and Brittany. Some colonies are spectacularly large, for example over 200,000 pairs on St Kilda, Scotland. I didn’t know there were that many there so I intend on planning a trip up there at some point. The Farne Islands where I took this picture host about 70,000 breeding pairs each year.

There are in the region of 900,000 Puffins in Britain with most breeding in the north and west. In Ireland a further 41,000 birds breed. The largest populations are in Iceland and Norway with an estimated 2,000,000 birds in each location.


Shutter 1/1500
Aperture f/10
Exposure Bias -1
Focal length 500mm
Time: 23/06/2006 17:33:04
Conditions: rapidly changing light with patchy cloud cover.

Post Processing:
Crop / Noise Removal / Selective Levels / Sharpen.

blakitan, jmp, Fisher, kedavis, marhowie, Alex99, carper, scottevers7, liquidsunshine, MojoUK, coasties, RAP, jeanpaul, horia, thor68, dew77, vhemmati, thistle has marked this note useful
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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To oscarromulus: Framingaido 1 09-12 20:13
To horia: Hi Horiaaido 4 08-24 20:20
To MojoUK: Secretaido 1 08-21 20:09
To liquidsunshine: Hi Alanaido 1 08-21 19:58
To jmp: Thanks Joseaido 1 08-21 10:56
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Critiques [Translate]

  • Great 
  • SkyF Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2390 W: 194 N: 1991] (8113)
  • [2006-08-21 8:14]

Hello Adrian,
ahh another beautiful portrait of my favorite bird. Great close up, the details around the beak are amazing. Superp sharpness; down to the smallest water dropplet. Colors, POV and the crop are beautiful.
Incredible shot.
TFS..Sky

Hi Adrian,
Superb close up picture. Very sharp, neat, and great details. Excellent shot.

Ben Lakitan

  • Great 
  • jmp Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1836 W: 94 N: 2338] (8400)
  • [2006-08-21 8:17]
  • [+]

Hi Adrian,
What a good portrait. Details, color, POSTURE, pov, crop, background, WS to scale,... Great post!
TFS, José M.

Hi Adrian,

Beautiful portrait, details, exposure, color, lighting. Super work.

Mike

Hi Adrian,
Great picture. Very good DOF, amazing sharpness and good composition

TFS Greetz Kristy

Adrian
Sounds like you had a great weekend. This picture is wonderful. So well defined even down to the droplet of water. It looks to be asleep. Well Done.
Kathy

  • Great 
  • pac Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 84 W: 14 N: 158] (1729)
  • [2006-08-21 10:27]

EXTREMELY well-composed portrait. Great to the n'th power!

/Dan

  • Great 
  • Zeno Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 475 W: 0 N: 926] (7973)
  • [2006-08-21 11:00]

Hi Adrian,

This is a fabulous photo of one of my favourite birds. I like the pose and the natural colors. Sharpness is super!
TFS.

regards,
Zeno.

Hello Adrian,
Lovely dose of little brother here..
Everything looks very nice. I think the blue-grey of the BG almost perfectly matches the eye color..or is that an eyelid? I'm unfamilar with this bird..Up close and personel such as it is ;) Outstanding!
Very nice work!

  • Great 
  • manyee Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3073 W: 232 N: 5866] (19730)
  • [2006-08-21 12:27]

Excellent close-up of this puffin, Adrian.
Sharp details, beads of water and all.
I like his pose with his head on his chest.
Beautiful colors and light.
TFS. : )

  • Great 
  • carper Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2165 W: 124 N: 2567] (8208)
  • [2006-08-21 13:05]

ah Great Adrian,
they are fantastic those puffins, a fantastic composition, great point of view and very good details, very goode job.
gr. jaap

  • Great 
  • Alex99 Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3046 W: 148 N: 4553] (14701)
  • [2006-08-21 13:12]

Hi Adrian.
This is fantastic.
Your portrait reminds a portrait of a very serious and a little bit sad mister. Quality of the picture is equivalently to quality first class photo studio shooting. To add more nothing. Outstanding portrait.
My best regards,
Alexei.

  • Great 
  • hester Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1474 W: 18 N: 2990] (10972)
  • [2006-08-21 13:21]

This is just beautiful. Wonderful POV, colours and sharpness. A lovely bird well captured

TFS

Karan

Hello Adrein, excllent colors, BG, POv DOF perfect details, very crisp, nice exposed and good lighting, nice work, TFS Kyle

Hi Adrian,
Superb portrait on this Atlantic Puffin. Perfectly composed and framed. The colors and detail look great! I guess I am gonna have to add them to my list of things to go pohotograph.
This looks awesome!
Scott

  • Great 
  • Hil Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 744 W: 11 N: 1412] (4849)
  • [2006-08-21 14:20]

Hi Adrian,

Superb close up shot of a beautiful Puffin, the pose is great and the detail is amazing especially the water droplets. The colours and lighting are perfect too, TFS

Regards Hilary

Superb portrait Adrian,
The details are nice, clear and sharp.
Good colours, lighting and exposure. Well composed, well framed and good notes. I really like the WS post, I never realised that Puffins were so small, I always thought they were a lot larger.
Thanks for posting, have a great week.

Hi Adrian,
wow, that's close - what wonderful details and colours, an excellent shot, thanks and bye
Sabine - wishnugaruda

Hi Adrian,

Excellent close up shot, it's not often you see the Puffin in so much detail. I can't decide wether or not this one is sleeping or keeping a careful eye on you. The tight composition is very nice and the tricky exposure spot on.

I can't believe you have spilled the beans about our little secret! In my defence let me explain. I drove nearly 400 miles through the night, then without sleep photographed the birds on the Farne Islands all day, finaly got to sleep at about 10pm and then got woken up by Adrian at 2:30am to go and try for some sunrise shots. No wonder I fell asleep!!

It's a fabulous shot my friend and well worth the punishing schedule.

Mark.

Hello Adrian!
Beautiful shot. Excellent pose of the bird caught with great sharpness. Well balanced exposure never easy to achieve when you want to show both dark and bright areas with acceptable clarity. Congratulations,
Mark

  • Great 
  • jossim Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1676 W: 5 N: 2144] (11878)
  • [2006-08-21 23:11]

Bonjour Adrian!

Bravo pour cette magnifique prise,la pose de l'oiseau est superbe et les détails excellents.

Merci.

joseph

  • Great 
  • Janice Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3453 W: 144 N: 5902] (17490)
  • [2006-08-22 6:09]

Adrian, what a sweetie. Goods composition showing us this cute fellow. Well seen and captured, TFS
Janice

  • Great 
  • RAP Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2524 W: 345 N: 2373] (7405)
  • [2006-08-22 6:58]

Conmovedora imagen Adrian... siempre estas aves motivan sensaciones especiales y mucho más al disfrutar de un retrato como este.
Excelente encuadre con gran definición y nitidez, con aceptable control de los blancos.
Saludos... Ricardo.

Stirring image Adrian... these birds always motivate special sensations and much more when enjoying a portrait as this.
Excellent framing with great definition and clarity, with
acceptable control of the whites.
Regards.... Ricardo.

  • Great 
  • osse Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1029 W: 0 N: 90] (7745)
  • [2006-08-22 11:57]

Hi Adrian
Good portrait shot of puffin. Great clours, sharpnes, light, details and POV. Also good note
Well done mf

osse

Excellent portrait of this puffin. Very sharp details and very nice colors. This is well framed. Nice job Adrian. :)

Hi Adrian

I love the close crop you have chosen here. Excellent visual impact. Exposure is spot on. 11 out of 10. Congrats!

  • Great 
  • Aramok Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 922 W: 99 N: 1396] (4799)
  • [2006-08-23 10:02]

Adrian

Anohter wonderful portrait of a puffin...

lovely and sharp adn clear and all the other technical bits we expect from you nowadays!

excelletn shot

Emma

  • Great 
  • horia Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2084 W: 216 N: 3767] (12502)
  • [2006-08-23 11:39]
  • [+]

Hi Adrian

I have no idea how i didn't see this post? It must have been in the sometime in the morning...only when i'm really sleepy i'm "able" to jump over such shots :))
Splendid portrait of this cute little puffin. What happened to him? Is he camera shy? :)
Great light, very beautiful colors and very nice sharp details. Also the image is very nicely framed and has a funny and interestin story. (BTW, don'y you have any shots of Mark sleeping in the sand? :))
Very good job, anyway!

Bravo, my friend, and TFS
Horia

Hi Adrian,
What a very stunning close up. The colors and details are just amazing, I can even see the water drops on the feathers. Great composition and in such a beautiful pose. You know, we call the Puffins, papegaaiduiker, literally translated to parrot diver.
TFS,
Niek

puffin, puffin, puffin! *g* i love it!
another beautiful puffin-portrait, adrian! :-)
perfectly exposed, totally sharp, with superb details and colors
and with an awesome cleaning-pose.
thanks & take care, thorsten.

  • Great 
  • arfer Gold Star Critiquer [C: 2731 W: 0 N: 0] (0)
  • [2006-08-24 21:06]

Hello Adrian

Amazing puffin portrait.Wonderful POV and DOF ,the colours are superb.A quality I hope to one day achieve.TFS

Rob

  • Great 
  • dew77 Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 5171 W: 297 N: 4050] (13069)
  • [2006-08-25 2:28]

Hello Adrian,
Excellent portrait of puffin.Colors,details,framing are wonderful.
TFS...:-)

This is a stunning photograph, Adrian. The lines in the pose of the bird are so elegant. I love these birds and your presentation is wonderful.

TFS

Evelynn : )

  • Great 
  • mbasil Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 348 W: 146 N: 706] (3067)
  • [2006-08-26 17:21]

Wow, Adrian. There is incredible detail here. I like the tight crop, too. But I keep getting drawn in by the detail -- so much to see.
Mike

  • Great 
  • sAner Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1654 W: 79 N: 1456] (4742)
  • [2006-08-27 11:52]

Hello Adrian,

This is a nice portrait. Well exposed, well composed and great colors. These birds are so photogenic! Well done & TFS!

Regards,
Pieter

Hi Adrian,

What a nice portrait. I really like the pose and also the details in this shot. Perfect exposure also.

TFS

-V

Excellent, maybe I wouldve pushed the whites a little more, but that like pulling God's leg...

THE CRITIQUE SCALE
Composition & POV : 9
Sharpness & DOF : 10
Light & color: 8/10
Creativity & Originality: 10

Dear Adrian,
Your work is simply "FACSINATING"
In fact, it is perfect.
By the way, PLEASE teach me how you "FRAME" your photos.
Best regards,
Mario.

  • Great 
  • HELO Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 106 W: 10 N: 58] (352)
  • [2006-10-15 13:58]

bonsoir
trčs belle photo
les détails sont magnifiques
ainssi que les couleurs
bravo
heloise

Hello again,
This looks great! The details on the beak and eye are extraordinary. Perfect sharpness and exposure. The tight portrait framing works superb too. The WS is very interesting too.
Overall, lovely post!

great close up, TFS Ori

I had a look through your work great stuff Adrian I DO THINK THIS IS GORGEOUS! almost looks alien though nice work awsome close detail TFS best rgds Necip - respect to you!

bonjour adrian
ce portrait est remarquable par votre travail mais aussi parce que l'oiseau est tres beau,beaucoup de couleurs et de details.
fantastique.
laurent

  • Great 
  • reina Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 263 W: 1 N: 321] (1990)
  • [2008-05-19 13:16]

Hi Adrian,
very high WOW factor, what a sparkling colours, great sharpness and very nice expression of the Puffin. Great to see such a result with the D2X.
Regards Reina

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