This article features a selection of images of puffins flying in fog, which were captured handheld during our recent trip to Newfoundland. We were hoping for decent weather but unfortunately Mother Nature did not cooperate. Eleven of our fourteen days spent touring Newfoundland were dominated by fog and rain. This included our three days at Bonavista and our short duration, daily visits to the nearby Elliston puffin colony.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

My wife captured the photograph above to help give readers an idea of the conditions that we faced during our visits to the puffin colony. Obviously trying to photograph birds in flight under foggy conditions is far from ideal. Since this was very likely our only trip to Newfoundland we did the best we could given the conditions faced.

As you can see with the out-of-camera jpeg image above, the fog was a challenge. This was especially true with birds-in-flight as they were difficult to pick out in the fog as they approached in-flight or flew past. Working with RAW files in post can improve results to a reasonable degree.

While some photographers only post images captured under favourable conditions, I’ve always believed that it is important to not shy away from using my camera gear under challenging conditions. This helps me learn what I can expect from my equipment in a range of situations. It also gives me the opportunity to share results under less-than-optimal conditions with readers.

Here are two more examples of out-of-camera jpegs along with the same images processed from RAW files.

While these images are not great from a quality standpoint, at the very least I captured some memories of our puffin colony visit. While at Elliston we met a number of other photographers and learned that the many of them didn’t even bother to try to photograph the puffins because of the fog.

Most of my images of puffins flying in fog were captured with the birds up against a monochromatic background of thick, grey fog. This made processing the RAW files easier, but the resulting images have a starkness about them.

Another potential issue is that there is no environmental context to the photographs as none of the physical surroundings are incorporated in the images.

Each day at the puffin colony I would watch the birds for a while to establish the most commonly used flight paths, given wind direction and velocity.

The vast majority of birds flew back to the nesting areas using a right to left flight path. When taking flight they usually took sharply angled, left to right downward flight paths that put the dark backs of the puffins up against dark, wet rocks. Given the fog it made the birds taking flight almost invisible. As a result, I had very few opportunities to capture left to right flight patterns.

The few photographs that I did capture were of birds returning to the nesting area from a completely different direction.

I wanted to capture some images with more environmental context in them. So, I continued to look for specific flight paths and shooting angles that would allow me to better incorporate rock formations and some of the vegetation. In many cases this meant photographing puffins flying in fog that were more distant.

I found the most difficult images to capture were of puffins flying in fog up against the rocks and vegetation, and coming in at a low altitude to land at the nesting area.  Given the fog, it was very difficult to visually differentiate the birds from the rocky environment.

I used my standard birds-in-flight Custom Mode C2 settings for all of the free flying puffins (i.e. Pro Capture L in combination with Bird Detection AI Subject Tracking with a single auto-focusing point engaged). As long as my reflexes were fast enough to get a puffin in flight in my viewfinder quickly, my E-M1X would acquire focus and provide an audible ‘beep’ confirmation.

In some cases I simply could not see the puffins well enough to use visual cues to time my shutter release. Instead, I relied on my E-M1X’s audible auto-focusing acquisition beep to help me time my shutter release.

It’s taken me a few years to start to really understand the nuances of my E-M1X bodies and how to use them in a variety of situations. Learning to trust the audible auto-focusing beep of my E-M1X has helped expand my photographic opportunities.

My favourite images from our series of short duration visits to the Elliston puffin colony were of a puffin banking in the wind and exposing its underside.

In a few of these banking photographs a faint outline of the distant cliffs is visible. The slightly darker background also helps to add some visual contrast

Photographing puffins flying in fog was not my initial objective… but it turned out to be a challenging and rewarding experience. Mother Nature seems to always give us what we need… whether we realize it at the time or not.

Technical Note

Photographs were captured handheld using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data.  My standard Pro Capture L settings were used with Pre-Shutter Frames set to 10, and Frame Limiter turned off. I shot at 18 frames-per-second with C-AF +TR, using Bird Detection AI Subject Tracking with a single, small AF point engaged. Most images were produced from RAW files using my standard process. This is the 1,284 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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