On Tuesday, a fan of my site asked if I ever photographed wildlife – especially birds. I admitted that I had never been interested in shooting birds – it is an incredibly challenging (and expensive) branch of photography that requires inordinate patience. Then he mentioned that he had seen a puffin in Little Harbor and I quickly changed my tune. A puffin? In Marblehead?!?! This was too good to be true I thought. I was told that he seemed to appear with some regularity at mid-tide. The fan had been doubtful as well but noted that he definitely moved as he watched him one recent morning.
With very little hesitation, I drove out to the location to scout out this puffin but had gotten there at low tide and there was little water and no puffin to be seen. On Wednesday morning, after dropping my son off at school, I noted the tide was high and coming out and thought I had the perfect opportunity. Especially with the small dusting of snow, it seemed to be perfect conditions for a puffin. I arrived at Little Harbor and spotted him almost immediately. I couldn’t believe my eyes and quickly switched to my longest lens. Even at 200mm as in the above image, I was still too far. The puffin was definitely rotating in the still waters but wasn’t moving any closer to me or the distant shore for a closer look. He was also significantly backlit making it hard to see anything but his profile.
I decided to walk around to the stairs descending toward the water to see if I could get a better angle. I took the shot below and zoomed in on the back of the camera to 100% magnification. I nearly burst out laughing at that point. What had appeared to be a puffin was no more than part of a submerged boat or other object. I still came away with a decent image and a great story so thank you to the fan (I’ll keep him nameless and blameless) who got me out and shooting this morning ; )
