HORNED PUFFINS - BERING SEA

These Horned Puffins are extremely cute and endearing. To get the pair like this is a treat. I like how they're at different levels on the ledge, and both looking out over the sea. Where exactly on the island was this (which cliffs)? Just curious.

I don't think it's quite as flawed as you say, it's got a lot of good qualities to it. The only major thing for me is the really light section in the background - just a touch too bright and a little distracting for me.

Hope you had a great trip!

Looks like a familiar spot Inner Reef wall right? I like the shot but what is the bright stuff in the background? If it's waves I would have tried to wait until they went back out. Otherwise I would have tried to change my position slightly in order to hide the bright area, but this is just a minor nit as it does provide a sense of environment (just many ways to look at it). The contrast is a bit high but, as you know, less flash could have helped a bit. Tough to get detail in those blacks! Nice job

Hi,
I like composition and coloures. Picture is divide into two parts. Light and dark. Birds are exactly between these parts and that makes the pics stronger. Rocks are full of srangh and "white" birds compose very well with rocks.
I'm not sure if I can express all what I want to say but besides the great composition I can see some blur on pics...? Is this the scanning efect...?

congratulation and good light

Good composition.

I like the comp a lot but wish for the background to be a little cleaner like Greg said. A little more USM would improve this one a lot I think.

Great shot James. Looks a little contrasty to me.

Several good suggestions have already been made. Still.....I love Puffin shots and know how hard they are to get. You've done a fine job with this one.

This is one of the nicer Puffin on a Cliff photos I have seen. I love the composition.

Lots of comments to answer here, so I'll just try to respond in order:

HF & GD:
I think the location was Outer Reef Point in the evening. That would explain the angle and the sea I think. But my notes say Zapadni from the next morning - perhaps a carryover roll. I don't remember using flash up there. Can't be sure 3 years later.

The whites in the background are certainly waves breaking on the shore below. I'm sure I was focusing on the birds' 'cute posture' when I shot this, not timing waves.

I had to really work hard in PS to bring up any details at all from the very dark background - multiple screen layers. I thought the waves added 'habitat atmosphere'. It would certainly be easy to tone 'em down a bit. Well see how the picture prints.

Sometimes hard to get a good shooting spot at Outer Reef with a large group. If I remember correctly, I was at the very edge of the cliff!

PB:
Welcome from Poland, Piotr!. This picture was cropped quite a bit and I was amazed the detail and sharpness held up as well as it did in the scan. The blur on the foreground rocks is certainly a depth-of-field problem. At the time, all this equipment was brand new and I had been brainwashed into shooting at or very near maximum aperture.

EJ:
I sharpened this picture with Nik Sharpener Pro, with which I'm sure you're familiar. I ended up using the Large Poster setting (Sharpening rad ~4.9 pxls), which is usually way too much. We'll see how the sharpness holds up in a large print. After comparing with Greg's CLIFF EDGE pic, I really popped the saturation - again unusual for me. I may also have overdone the contrast here, after having been severely taken to task for my recent 'blah' Sage-grouse picture.

WE, AM, LH & BW:
Thanks also for your comments. I think your points are already answered in my reponse above.

James,
Some of the technicals may need work but the image itself is wonderful. I like the comp and the waves don't bother me at all. Nice shot.

I agree with Jim, Not perfect but a lot better than any Puffin I have, I can account for ZERO perched puffins and a couple of lousy swimming ones, I can only wish I had something this nice!!! Congrats!!

I thought this was kinda nice. The breasts have plenty of detail to me so I don't consider them too bright. And I agree with Alex, better than anything I have. Cute shot.