We first visited Iceland in 2015 on landscape photography workshop Two things happened – we saw enough waterfalls to last us a lifetime and we saw just enough puffins to wet our thirst for more. So we started to chase them, first in Newfoundland in 2017 and then a puffin extravagance in 2019 when we went to puffins hotspots in the UK and Grimsey Island in Iceland. We liked Grimsey so much we decided to return and photograph the puffins we missed the first time.
Iceland is a small country, population 350 thousand, and had a good COVID record. So it was off to Iceland. We started our adventure in Iceland’s capital city of Reykjavik. One of our favorite spots to shot in the city is the ‘Solfar’ or ‘Sun Voyager.’ We go there for the speculator location and sculpture but also as sun omen . It is an ode to the sun, symbolizing light and hopeHowever this year it didn’t work as the cloudy day forbore the weather for the rest of our trip, as we saw far more clouds than sun.
Grimsey Island is a small (2 square miles) about 25 miles off Iceland’s north coast right on the Arctic Circle. It takes about 3 hours by boat to get there. With less than 100 residents it had a small town feel and lots of puffins
It was feeding time for the puffins’ families, and they would bring sandeels (the local small fish) back to their burrows
The puffins nest are in the cliffs of the island
in burrows like these, and where the puffins would bring their catch to their family
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Occasionally they will leave in mass, it is quite a sight. Not up to a Bosque blast off, but still impressive
In photography a key learning is always watch your background. A bad background can ruin an otherwise good shot. Well, here it wasn’t and the background overwhelmed a nice puffins shot.
And yes that is our van in the background. Not your usual color, but the color of the rental company that owned it and easy to spot in a parking lot.
While the focus of the trip was puffins, we had opportunities to photograph other birds, such as this Arctic Tern (report here)
and these Arctic Foxes (report here)
One last puffin shot before heading elsewhere
