Finally managed to use the R1 in anger and I couldn't be happier, paired with R5mkii it gave me the results I was hoping for.
We made a trip to a little off shore marine nature reserve called Skomer Island off the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales. It is home to 50,000 puffins and Manx Shearwaters during a very brief time over the summer months when they make landfall to breed.
I spent the day on the Island itself and then the evening on a boat to try and capture the Manx Shearwaters rafting before they return to the island after sunset.
The light was quite challenging from bright mid day sunshine to dull and over cast.
We made our way around the island to an area called The Wick where the puffins would land within inches of you. so a great place to try and capture them coming back beaks full of eels or sprats to feed their young.
I was lucky enough to capture a "Puffling" who was brave enough to poke its head out which by all accounts is quite rare.
I
I went with the specifically to capture the iconic Puffin with eels shot and nearly every shot had that.
The below images were taken from a boat again running around the reserve. the sun was still quite high in the sky I'd have loved it to have been couple of hours later but to be honest I was getting knackered after spending all day on the island.
A couple of Manx Shearwaters and another Puffin in flight.
My original plan was to take my 600mm prime but thought the 100-500 paired with the 1.4tc would be a better option just because it would be easier to handle on a rocking boat, and to be fair they came out better than I thought they would.
