PUFFINS
This is my second title in the Wildlife Monograph Series – my first was Giant Pandas.
Puffins are my favourite seabirds and the most productive place to work is Iceland - the Atlantic puffin capital of the world. It was here I got some fun shots of puffins plucked from the cliff top in a gale and hovering like a hawk. Their feet, wings and tail are clearly all askew from the powerful wind.
My favourite image: Puffin head-on in the rain
Selecting the cover picture of a book always causes great debate and anguish (we had at least 10 mock-ups for my latest panda book – PANDA), if the editor and I agree, then the sales team or US publisher chucks it out. My publisher wanted to use a puffin with sand eels in its bill, but I was not keen as this had been done before. It was only on my last shoot sitting on a rain sodden island off Mull that the shot appeared. After a puffin came ashore and stood outside its burrow, silver jewel-like raindrops accumulated on its black head. The only snag was – like all puffins – it constantly moved its head from one side to the other failing to look straight at the camera. As I couldn’t go anywhere until the boatman came to pick me up, I sat down and 3GB later I had the shot which everyone loved - fortunately!
Price £12 (includes postage UK only)
Click here to buy an autographed copy
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