Photographing the Puffins at Elliston, Newfoundland With OM System Gear

Photographing Atlantic Puffins at Elliston, Newfoundland gave me a good real-world test of my OM System bird photography setup.

There were plenty of puffins to photograph, but the conditions were more challenging than some of the videos I had watched before the trip suggested. Many of the birds stayed on the large nesting area across from the viewing point. The rock also had areas of very different brightness, while the puffins themselves combine bright white feathers with very dark plumage.

Puffins are also fast and difficult to photograph once they take flight.

I photographed Elliston during an evening session and returned again the following morning. In this article, I’ll focus on how I used OM System gear to deal with the challenges of distance, changing light, high-contrast plumage, multiple birds in the frame and fast-moving flight.

For the broader trip—including getting to Elliston from St. John’s, photography stops along the way, lodging, access to the puffin site and why I recommend staying overnight—see Photographing the Elliston Puffins from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Back.

My OM System Puffin Photography Kit

My primary puffin setup was an OM System OM-1 Mark II with the Olympus 300mm f/4 IS PRO and MC-14 1.4x teleconverter.  That combination gives me a 420mm actual focal length, or an 840mm full-frame-equivalent focal length.

Many of the puffins spent most of their time on the large nesting rock across from the viewing area. The 300mm f/4 with the MC-14 gave me the reach I needed for portraits, puffins carrying fish and interactions between birds.

That was probably my biggest gear surprise at Elliston. Videos showing puffins walking within a few feet of visitors can make 840mm equivalent sound excessive. Based on our experience, it wasn’t.

I also carried an OM System OM-1 body with the Olympus 40–150mm f/2.8 PRO.  I expected to use that combination more than I did, but it was useful insurance in case a puffin came close or I wanted a wider environmental composition.

Other OM System Lenses That Could Work at Elliston

You don’t need the exact combination I used.

The Olympus 150–400mm f/4.5 TC1.25x IS PRO would be an excellent option because of its reach and zoom flexibility. I own that lens, but I did not bring it to Newfoundland because of Air Canada’s tighter carry-on size limits. For this trip, the smaller 300mm f/4 with the MC-14 was a much easier lens to pack.

The OM System 100–400mm II would also be a strong choice. It provides a 200–800mm full-frame-equivalent focal-length range, good image quality, and is much smaller and less expensive than the 150–400mm. The Mark II also added Sync IS, making it a more capable handheld wildlife lens than the original version.

The 150–600mm gives you even more reach, although it is a much larger lens to travel with.

The 300mm f/4 with the MC-14 gives up zoom flexibility, but it provides excellent image quality, a lot of reach and Sync IS in a more travel-friendly package.

A 40–150mm with a teleconverter could also work when the birds are closer, although after photographing Elliston I would rather arrive with too much reach than too little.

There isn’t one best lens for the location. The choice comes down to reach, zoom flexibility, size, weight and cost.

Managing Exposure on Puffins

I normally photograph birds and wildlife in Aperture Priority, and that worked well at Elliston.

The difficult part was the wide range of brightness in both the nesting area and the birds themselves. A puffin could move a short distance across the rock and suddenly be in noticeably different light. At the same time, its white face and belly could be much brighter than the surrounding dark feathers and rocks.

That made exposure compensation especially important.

I kept an eye on the bright white feathers and adjusted exposure when necessary rather than relying on one setting for the entire session. Blown white feathers are difficult or impossible to recover, while darker areas can usually be lifted later.

This is also one reason I prefer Aperture Priority for this type of bird photography. I could concentrate on the puffin, composition and behavior while quickly adjusting exposure compensation as the light changed.

My Custom Mode Strategy

I rely heavily on custom modes for wildlife photography with my OM System cameras because they let me move quickly between setups without changing several settings manually.

At Elliston, I had a custom mode set up with Single Point AF and S-AF for situations where Bird Detection was selecting the wrong puffin or I wanted more precise control over exactly where the camera focused.

I also used custom modes with C-AF and Bird Detection but different exposure settings for the brighter and darker areas of the nesting rock. That let me quickly switch settings as a puffin moved into different light or when I shifted to a new subject.

I set Save Settings to Hold for these custom modes so changes I made while shooting stayed active when switching modes instead of immediately reverting to the originally saved settings.

How Well Did OM System Bird Detection Work on Puffins?

Bird Detection worked well most of the time, including when puffins were interacting, flapping their wings, taking off and landing.

The main limitation came when several birds were in the frame. The camera could switch subjects, which wasn’t always the puffin I wanted.

That’s where AF target placement still mattered, and where my Single Point AF / S-AF custom mode gave me a quick way to take more direct control.

Photographing Puffin Takeoffs

Puffin takeoffs became easier to anticipate once I recognized the behavior that tipped it off. A bird would often start walking toward the edge of the nesting area before launching.

Once I saw that, I could position the AF area, start following the bird and be ready before it left the rock.

For these sequences, I used C-AF with Bird Detection and shot at 20 fps. That combination worked well throughout the takeoff sequence and gave me a better chance of capturing the transition from standing to the first few wingbeats.

Recognizing the pre-takeoff behavior was important because it let me get on the bird before the action started.

Puffins already in flight were much harder to photograph because they move so quickly, so I had better success concentrating on takeoffs and landings where I could anticipate the bird’s movement.

The Puffin Photographs I Was Looking For

I didn’t want to come home with hundreds of nearly identical puffin portraits.

The photographs I was looking for included:

• Puffins carrying fish
• Pairs interacting
• Portraits against darker backgrounds
• Takeoffs and landings
• Puffins in flight
• Gulls attempting to steal fish
• Wider environmental photographs showing the nesting area

The fish photographs were particularly high on my list because they show more behavior than a simple portrait.

Interactions between birds were also worth watching. They made more interesting photographs, although several puffins close together could also make autofocus selection more challenging.

Tips for Photographing and Editing Puffins

A few things from Elliston made a significant difference both in the field and later when editing the photographs.

Shoot RAW

Puffins can be challenging to expose because you can have bright white plumage, very dark feathers and shadowed rocks in the same frame. RAW files give you much more latitude to recover shadow detail and control the brighter parts of the image later.

Protect the White Feathers

I frequently used exposure compensation to keep the brightest areas of the puffin from clipping. I would rather slightly underexpose the darker areas and bring them back in post-processing than lose detail in the whites.

Watch the Background

Darker rocks can make the white and orange areas of a puffin stand out, while cluttered areas with several birds can make both composition and autofocus more difficult.

Anticipate Behavior

If a puffin starts walking toward the edge of the nesting rock, get ready. That warning gives you a much better chance at a takeoff sequence than trying to acquire the bird after it is already airborne.

Use Selective Adjustments When Editing

Global exposure, highlight and shadow adjustments don’t always work well with a scene containing such extreme differences in brightness. You may need to lift the shadows on the puffin or surrounding rocks while reducing the bright whites on the bird without darkening every other highlight in the photograph.

Lightroom has become much better at this type of selective editing. Subject and object masks, luminance ranges and other masking tools make it possible to work on the white feathers, dark plumage and surrounding rock separately instead of trying to fix everything with global sliders.

That was particularly useful with these files. I could bring detail out of darker feathers and shadow areas while controlling bright white plumage without flattening the rest of the photograph.

Final Thoughts

Elliston was a good example of why I like using OM System gear for bird photography.

The Olympus 300mm f/4 with the MC-14 gave me an 840mm full-frame-equivalent focal length while still being light enough to handhold and shoot with for hours without needing a tripod or monopod. The second body with the 40–150mm gave me a shorter option if the birds came closer.

For action shots, the best results came from combining field observation with Bird Detection. Recognizing takeoff behavior helped me get on the bird early, while Bird Detection and C-AF helped me keep focus through the movement.

Want to Learn More

How to Use Bird Detection AF With Pro Capture on the OM System OM-1
OM System Bird & Wildlife Photography Settings: How to React Faster in the Field
Should You Upgrade to the Olympus M.Zuiko 150-400mm f/4.5 PRO Lens for Bird and Wildlife Photography?