Skomer 2025 - Part 1
When I go out to create images, it’s usually at a time of day and/or at a place with only a few people or often no one else around. This is by choice and to be expected, as the type of photography I enjoy takes me out at a time of day when most are still in bed. I like it this way; I enjoy the peace and solitude, and with fewer people around, it is easier to lose myself in the creative process.
This is not an option on Skomer.
Only a certain number of people are allowed on Skomer at a time, which is great for the wildlife and the visitors. This means the visitors are generally spread widely across the island and its many places of interest, but some are more attractive than others. These will naturally attract more people, and groups will develop. These groups will inevitably contain a lot of photographers with big lenses and tripods. I’m not complaining about this, I am one of them, I was there for the same reason, but I was faced with a dilemma. With so many photographers on a small island, and most, if not all of them, there to take pictures of puffins, and many of them in the same few places taking photos of the same puffins, how do you get something unique?
My tactic in these situations is to take my time, to walk and look around. I have to think about my style of image creation, what I want to achieve, and what is possible. Once this is done, I can decide how to proceed.
I planned to shoot with a long lens from low to the ground to take full advantage of the blooming sea campions and to concentrate on individuals. I needed more space than I could get on the narrow paths, and I didn’t need a large group of birds. With these parameters, my best option was to find a place with a little more space, fewer people and just a few puffins.
After some searching and a lot of walking, I found a place that suited my criteria, where I could get low down and wasn’t in the way of people passing by, and I sat down and waited.
From this spot, I felt that I had enough opportunities for various concepts. An undulating meadow cased by the many burrows covered in blossoming sea campion with a scattering of bluebells, a distant cliff face as an alternate backdrop, and enough puffins around. Puffins kept appearing from distant burrows and then, over time, from burrows closer to where I was located.
I chose to take the GF500mm and the GF250mm as I already knew that I wouldn’t be spending time doing any landscape photography, but just in case, I had my compact Fujifilm X-30 too.
By using the sea campion and the undulations, I was able to use the sea campion as both a foreground and background encircling the rather cheerful looking puffins
To get this portrait, I had to get very close to the ground so that I was able to shoot through the grasses and the sea campion flowers. By doing this, I was able to maximise the bokeh in the foreground and get it to match the background, pale sky. This is similar to the method that I use for photographing wild orchids.
Continuing with this method, I was able to capture this moment with what can be just about recognised as a puffin flying away in the background.
This final image is a little bit different, still from the same location as the others.
The puffin is in this imge is further away, so I was able to use more of the surrounding. Imade use of the cliff face as the background and was lucky enough to be able to include the flying puffin to enhance the story.
I’ve been told there will be more wildflowers in bloom later in the year, so I’ll try to make at least one more trip to Skomer this year.
