The wind was strong enough to lean on. I was flat on my stomach at the edge of a cliff on Grímsey, a puffin hovering barely two metres past the drop, hanging in the updraught like someone had pinned it to the sky. Nobody said a word. When the shooting conditions are that good, that unique, everyone goes a bit quiet.
That was this year’s edition of Puffins in the Midnight Sun, my few days out on Grímsey, which is located right on the Arctic Circle. I hosted a very small group last June, and the island handed us everything from flat midnight calm to proper stormy conditions. The stormy weather, as it turned out, was the best thing that happened to us.
Interested in joining the next edition of Puffins in the Midnight Sun? You’ll find the upcoming dates and how to book on the workshop page.
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We had a lot of stormy/windy weather during our stay which meant we had a lot of great opportunities in terms of photography.
A happy group of participants on Grímsey after a great shoot at the tallest cliffs on the island.
A Midnight Sun Start
Our first night on the island was the gentle one. No wind to speak of, flat calm, the midnight sun doing that slow golden thing it does this far north, and puffins pottering back and forth to their burrows, some with beaks stuffed full of sand eels. It was the postcard version of Grímsey, and it was lovely. But, if I’m honest, this postcard version is rarely where my best puffin photographs come from.
We were a very small group this time, which suited Grímsey just fine. Then the forecast turned.
Our first evening on Grímsey was the calm one, with warm, low sun lighting the puffins from behind.
The calm before the storm: a puffin glancing back over its shoulder on that first gentle evening.
Why The Worst Weather Made My Puffin Workshop
Most people get one thing backwards about bird photography: the rough days are the good days.
The next days, a proper storm came in, with some light rain and heavy wind, the sort of forecast that makes people want to sit in the guesthouse with a coffee. However, we went out anyway and the puffins did exactly what I was hoping for. They are not elegant fliers at the best of times, but put them into a strong headwind against a cliff and they stop being little torpedoes and start to hover, wings hammering, more or less parked in mid-air while they line up the landing.
That is the shot. A puffin frozen against a grey sky, feet down, beak full, close enough to fill the frame. On a calm day you almost never get those shots because they are so quick and the backdrop behind it is too “soft”.
The birds that were not flying had tucked into the grass and the rock faces to shelter, which meant we could sit low, keep our distance, and work slow, tight portraits of birds that were completely settled. That is how I like to photograph them anyway, on their terms and never crowding them. Rough seas below us, spray coming off the dark blue water… and the best run of puffin photography I’ve taken a group through in a long while.
I shot most of it on the Canon EOS R6 Mark III and the R5 Mark II. The 100-500mm lived on one body and the 70-200mm, which I tested for the occasion, went on the other.
If you’d like to see the week through someone else’s eyes, one of this year’s participants wrote her own day-by-day account of the workshop, from the handwritten boarding pass on the flight to Grímsey to the summer solstice party in the island’s school. It’s a lovely read, and she doesn’t skip the bird poop either.
My Five Favourite Images Of This Photo Workshop
The pace and subject of this workshop means you shoot a lot, and narrowing it down is always the hardest part. Here are the five that stood out for me, and why. Fair warning: I do love a good puffin portrait.
Every workshop I try to focus on different aspects. When I saw this puffin land right in front of me, I couldn’t resist capturing only its feet to highlight this peculiar detail.
Shot on the Canon EOS R6 Mark III with the Canon RF 100-500mm and the RF 2x Extender.
A dream shot for a long time for me: a puffin cozying up into itself to protect itself from the heavy winds on the cliffs.
Shot on the Canon EOS R6 Mark III with the Canon RF 100-500mm.
This scruffy looking puffin really stole the show for me during the workshop. He looked so rugged, so weathered. And he was also a very skilled fisherman that came back with new catch every 10 minutes or so.
Shot on the Canon EOS R6 Mark III with the Canon RF 100-500mm.
This seemingly sleeping puffin was undisturbed by the stormy weather and our presence.
Shot on the Canon EOS R6 Mark III with the Canon RF 100-500mm and the RF 2x Extender.
Beautiful crystal blue water with a soaring puffin in front. It took hundreds of images to get the waves to line up exactly right with a flying puffin.
Shot on the Canon EOS R6 Mark III with the Canon RF 100-500mm.
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