The problem with puffins

Puffin - Bempton

Puffin - Inner Farne Island

Puffin - Skomer island

First off some house keeping.   I took 2485 images this morning out of which I kept 418 which is a 17% hit rate - about right for the type of photography I was doing today.  I think I have got some very interesting images that I think I can make into first class photographs.  It is noticeable that my standards have risen markedly over the past few visits to Bempton.   Images that may well have been kept on my first visit only get the most cursory examination before being deleted.  This is especially true of Gannet images.   After a while one image of a Gannet flying overhead tends to look like the next.  This is progress and I have to say I am happy with the situation.

This brings me nicely to the question of Puffins.   The RSPB makes a big thing about the puffins at Bempton and yes there are a relatively large number of them.  However, the views are to say the least restricted.  They spend most of their day sitting on the chalk cliffs which on a very bright day posses some real problems.  Also even with a very powerful lens the resultant image is not that impactive.   To show this compare the the three photographs. I think the the Bempton is a distant third of the three.  

So what does this mean?  Well, first I have try harder to make the photographs more interesting.  One idea may well be to try High Dynamic Range (HDR)- the Bempton photograph has a shutter speed of 1/8000 th so this give plenty of scope to implement a HDR experiment.   This, however, is incidental to the main problem.  Puffins are just not as accessible at Bempton than at the Farnes or Skomer.  Can't wait to visit both site in the next month.

Reflection on Bempton...so far

I have just finished working on the photographs from my last session at Bempton.  I have to say overall I am very pleased with what I have captured.  I have created a new collection in Lightroom called Bempton and this allows me to review all of my photographs taken over the last two years.   This was created for two reasons:  firstly, to review the work to date, what trends have I got in the photographs?  What have I missed? What do I need to improve on?   

The second is perhaps more important.  I have just received my first copy of 'The Iris'.  This is the magazine of the RPS Nature Group.   It is a really interesting read, not for its editorial style but rather for the information it contains about RPS distinctions.  This is where the Bempton collection comes in.  I am going to submit a portfolio for my ARPS next year and I need a working title.  To date I have come up with two working titles:  'Birds of the British Coast' and 'Birds of Bempton Cliffs'.   Now these are just working titles but they do allow me to start to structure any submission I might make.

With this in mind it is clear that the Bempton collection falls into both title headings.  What I need to do now is be very dispassionate about the photographs of Bempton, not at all easy but a worth while exercise and try and answer the three questions set above.   So what are the trends?  To date I have captured a large number of Gannet photographs, perhaps I might consider 'Gannets of Bempton cliffs'?  Maybe, but this is not what I am doing at the moment.  One noticeable trend is that the I have very few photographs of Kittiwakes, Guillemots and Razorbills flying.  I also have a total lack of Puffins.  This starts to give me a shooting list for my next visit.  Also I have no chick or young bird photographs - again another add to the list.

So the process has started.  I won't really commit to this until after the BWPA photographs are submitted, again these two work hand in hand so that is a bonus.   Lets see what the months bring.  One final thing.  The photograph of the two Gannets above is unlikely to succeed in any submission to the nature group for an ARPS as it is too interpretive rather than factual - well that is what I think at the moment.  Hopefully I will find that this is not the case but we have to wait and see.

Some Early Bempton Photographs

So far I have uploaded over 1700 images - I have still got 3 4Gb cards to go.  This has been one of the most productive days I have ever had.  I really am looking forward to making some fantastic photographs.  Lets just hope my early optimism is well founded.

Just back from Bempton

Just got back from another fantastic day at Bempton Cliffs.   The wind blew and it blew!   The reserve is really special first thing in the morning when you are the only one there.   I have started to upload the files to Lightroom - 9 x 4GB cards and a 2GB card - quite a few images to process - this is the first of many photographs.  God I'm tired.

Seabird City

Staple Neuk - Bempton Cliffs

Visiting a sea bird colony is always an attack on all of your senses.  Usually, first there is an attack on your sense of vision.  Where to look?  How do you capture such a complex and magnificent vision?  What was that?  Which birds are where?   It takes a few minutes just to overcome the sense awe you feel.   Whilst you are doing this the next attack on your senses sinks in.   The smell and taste of the colony.   Once experienced never forgotten.  An intoxicating mix of fish and bird droppings.  The air becomes thick with this acrid atmosphere.  It imbues your mind so much that whenever you see a photograph of a bird colony suddenly you can taste and smell the colony all over again.

Gannet over Bempton Cliffs

As this sensory overload takes hold another layer is added.  The noise.  Usually it is the painful wailing of the Kittiwake, birds that seems to be in constant pain.  Of course they are not it is just the impression that their cry has on you saturated senses.  As your hearing settlers down you start to strain for different cries in the wind.   You identify a cry and make an identification only to realise that it was a trick of the wind.   If you are near a gannet colony then there is the endless bickering of neighbours who are protecting their few centimetres of barren cliff.   You stand and wonder how on earth are they able to cling onto such a precipitous nest site?  Of course to the gannet there is nothing wrong with this.  It is just what gannets do.

Gannet looking for nesting material

Then overhead you feel the wind rush as a Fulmar rushes by.   You look up and the bird gives you an imperious glance as glides effortless on the updrafts.  At that moment you know what it is like to see an angel floating in the clouds.

Gannet

Then at sea you notice more birds.  They bob and heave with the waves.  A small fishing boat slowly makes its way past the colony and you see a flock of screaming gulls following its progress to port.   If you have come to the colony on a boat these are the same gulls that hitch a lift on the captain's cabin, all the time their bright beady eyes scanning the horizon for the next feeding opportunity.

Fulmar

The first time you visit a sea bird colony it is unforgettable.  Something that makes you want come back again and again.  Each time you are never disappointed.  Each time seeing something new.  Then you realise that this an ephemeral experience.  Once the chicks have flown the colony empties until the next summer.   You have to move your attention to the autumn and winter natural spectacles.  All the time waiting for the days to lengthen so that you can experience the assault on the sense once more.

Bempton Cliffs

The first of hopefully many

As I write this I am almost falling asleep at the keyboard.  We have had an extraordinary day at Bempton.  The weather was brilliant, sunny and clear.   The birds, as usual, were superb it was really worth getting up at 3:30 in the morning.   Even the sunrise this morning was exceptional, I just wish i had the time to stop and capture a few photographs, but we were on a time table - we must get to Bempton early to get the best light and views before the crowds arrive.

I will publish more details as I finish processing the photographs, and hopefully after a good night sleep.  For now I have only been able to work on one photograph - not bad seeing that this was only taken this morning and I had to drive 100 miles back home before I could do this.

Off to Bempton in the morning

We're off the the Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve in the morning, and when I say morning I mean it is a 4am start.  Why such an ungodly hour to set off?   Well it takes nearly two hour to get there so we should arrive around about 6am.  The reserve at this time is deserted and you get the pick of the photographic locations.  As the day wears on then you get a lot more people there and you don't have the freedom to roam that you have earlier in the day.   Also the light starts to become too harsh, it is, after all nearly May and so the sun is getting quite high in the sky.

Gannet

So what do we hope to see in the morning.  Well there will be an ever increasing Gannet colony and if we are really lucky we should see the first Puffins of the season. 

Bempton Cliffs

The Bempton reserve is a strange place.   It is about a mile from the village and when you arrive all you can see are fields and the sea, there is no indication of a bird colony at all.   However, as you walk to the sea you start to become aware of noise of the birds, yet very little sign of them. Then wham you are on top of some of the tallest chalk cliffs in the country and below you are all the birds stacked high up the cliff face.  This stretches for miles along the Yorkshire coast and is a fantastic spectacle in its self.   Lets just hope the weather holds.