Guillemot Pair

While in Shetland in the summer you must go to the Isle of Noss where Thousands of pairs of seabirds nest. They have Guillemots, Shags, Gannets and likely lots that I’m not remembering too. You can get into the island via a boat between Noss and Bressay if you want to walk the island but we took a boat tour that takes you directly to the nesting site. It’s hard in a situation like that yo isolate birds in a frame but I manages this shot of a pair of Guillemots. Amazing how much they resemble small penguins. I like the environmental composition in this. Who says we have to fill the frame?

Traveling

Traveling means different things to different people. Whatever works for you, that’s what you should do. We had a conversation with a friend recently about this. She prefers the idea of photo tours as opposed to solo trip planning. She gets a package of experiences planned by someone who knows the area and knows when to be where to increase your chances of getting best photos possible. I get it, it has it’s perks.

My wife and I have always planned our own trips and at first, we found that we tried to pack in too much and you’re just not devoting enough attention to any one area. Schedules aren’t conducive to creativity in my opinion. The last couple of years, we decided that it was so much more pleasing to pick a home base and plan day activities around that base. We may see fewer places overall, but what we do experience, we experience far deeper I think. Since we adopted the slow down and experience more plan, I think my photography has come up because of not being rushed. Sometimes we even return to a place more than once and that would never happen on an organized trip. Living life in a hurry just isn’t relaxing to me.

The photo below is a perfect example of taking my time. This was made on the second day we went to the island. The light still isn’t what I would like but it is much better than the first day. I wanted the stacks to have at least some light on them to define them a bit. I have one thing that bothers me about this composition, The stack on the right intersects with the far shore and I wish there was some space between them. I’m thinking there may even be a third visit to this beautiful place.

Change Is Good, Right?

In a world where people are gravitating toward ever growing MegaPixel counts, my wife and I have begun a leap into the micro four thirds world. For those who don’t know it, it’s a smaller sensor mirror-less camera system. It has some very positive merits to be sure, size and weight being big ones for us. Anyone who has traveled with a bag of full frame gear can relate. The 4/3 high quality sensors combined with some great and useful features makes them a perfect fit for some.

My camera body arrived yesterday and I’m excited to begin the journey!