Atlantic puffin with bill full of fish

Here is an Atlantic puffin bringing a bill full of fish (Capelin) to its baby. The background is out of focus seaweed covered rocks. It was a dark and stormy morning and I opted to start to lower my shutter speed (to 3,200/second) once I got to ISO 12,800.

Deluxe Atlantic Puffin Workshop August 7 to 10 Just Announced

Atlantic Puffin with SAND EELS (Fratercula arctica, Macareux moine, ATPU) From my DELUXE PUFFIN WORLKSHOP in Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve of Canada, Réserve de parc national du Canada de l'Archipel-de-Mingan, Quebec, Canada. Image Copyright ©Christopher Dodds. Sony Alpha a9 Mirrorless Camera & Sony FE100-400 F4.5-5.6 G Master OSS @ 400mm @ minimum focusing distance. Full frame image (top to bottom; left and right cropped to square aspect ratio). ISO 640, f/5.6 @ 1/640s Manual exposure mode.

Puffins Galore Deluxe Edition just announced August 7-10!

Well, it looks like I get to spend another two weeks living the dream in Puffin Paradise again this year. By popular demand, I have just announced another back-to-back Deluxe Puffin Workshop from August 7 to 10. If you like Puffins and Razorbills, and like the fairytale-like dreamy idea of living on a small island in a newly restored lighthouse eating gourmet food while being surrounded by hundreds of Puffins and Razorbills, then this is the workshop for you.

This truly is a dream location and the Puffins and Razorbills get really close; so close, in fact, that my favourite lens there is the Sony 100-400mm G Master lens.  We get close enough for headshots, portraits and full-frame flight shots with fish in their beaks all at 400mm.

The long days in Eastern Canada ensure plenty of time with these comical seabirds, and we are on the island and on site ready for the golden light and action.

Please CLICK HERE to learn more about my August 7-10 Atlantic Puffin and Razorbill Workshop. This is your invitation to Puffin Paradise!

How to photograph bats with the PhotoTrap

Big Brown Bat Drinking from a pond (Eptesicus fuscus, Grande Chauvre-souris brune) Amado, Arizona, USA. Image Copyright ©Christopher Dodds. Canon EOS Canon EOS 1DX, 600mm F4 L IS II Tripod & Jobu Jr. 3 Photo Trap and four flash set-up. ISO 400, f/16 @ 10 second exposure in Manual mode. PURCHASE A PRINT or LICENSE IMAGE FOR PUBLICATION HERE.

I'm back from hosting a five day private workshop to Amado, Arizona where we set-up to photograph bats drinking from The Pond at Elephant Head with Phototrap inventor Bill Forbes.

Among our projects, we set-up the photo trap's infra-red beam to trigger a four flash array to illuminate the bats as they skimmed the pond to drink at night. We arranged our cameras for the best angle of view, the four flashes to properly light the subjects and adjusted our manual exposure to f/16, ISO 400 at 10 seconds. Once set-up, we installed our intravalometers which engaged the shutter release to continually take ten-second exposures; one after another. The flashes would fire every time a bat broke the beam; relying on the flash duration to freeze the action was the key to successfully producing well exposed and sharp images.

Be sure to learn More about the High-speed Bat Photography Workshop HERE