I've been back from Skomer Island for a couple of weeks now and have taken quite a bit of time to process both the images and my impressions of what I saw.
Skomer is a small island just off the coast of Pembrokeshire, South Wales. It is a wildlife haven known widely for its puffins (the colony supports over 40,000), Manx shearwaters and other seabirds. Visitor numbers are strictly controlled, so I was lucky to get on a two-night trip staying over on the island. Previously, I had gone in July; this time going in May gave a perfect contrast for both the stage of the bird-breeding season and for the wildflowers.
As before, I went with Drew Buckley and Richard Peters. Drew and Richard were fantastic hosts, and organised everything in the most exemplary fashion. Drew is a wildlife photographer and wrote the book on photographing Pembrokeshire, and Richard is a wildlife photographer and Nikon ambassador, so you could not get two better experts to go to Skomer with.
About gear. I used my Sony A1 for the whole trip, supplemented by my iPhone for wider angle shots; the Sony 200-600 lens was on the A1 body nearly all the time.
For years, I have always travelled with two cameras. Nikon D300 and D700, followed by D810 and D500. This time, I only took the Sony A1 and my phone. My phone, these days, is definitely my second camera. On Skomer, you can get close enough to the puffins to take worthwhile pictures at the wider angles that the phone gives. But I was concerned about taking just one main camera body. I know myself well enough to accept that if there is anyone capable of dropping, losing or otherwise breaking their main camera, it is me. However, I only have one Sony body at present, so I went with just that. Fortunately, all was well, and the camera (with firmware version 2.01) worked without incident. I also took my 70-200mm f/4 which I used on the first day, and a 16-35 which stayed in the bag the whole time (the iPhone took its place). No tripod, and nothing for the gap between 35mm and 70mm focal lengths. There is a lot of gear-carrying on the trip, so I wanted to go light.
With a camera such as the A1, capable of shooting 30 RAW images per second, it is very easy to come back with a stupidly excessive number of pictures. I mostly used 15-20fps for puffins in flight: I didn't feel especially limited for wing positions using this setting, although looking at some of the sequences of puffins landing with fish, I might use 30fps more on another occasion.
As with everything in photography, it is always about the light. Last time it was overcast the whole time: this time, there was some glorious sunshine. Dawn and dusk shoots were the most productive. I've put a note in the captions for shots taken close to sunrise or sunset.
Having gone through my pictures, I'm feeling a bit "puffined-out". Nonetheless, I think a June trip, to fill in the gap between May and July wildflowers might have to be on my list sometime.
The pictures I'm posting here are a bunch of simple favourites, that between them illustrate the importance of good light: look at the difference it makes compared to my last blog post.
Back-lit at dawn over High Cliff
Portrait shortly after dawn
Under-wings lit up by low light at dawn
Abstraction: puffin in flight
Back-lit by evening light
The evening stretch
Sparkles from the setting sun
Beak back-lit by sunset