A Passion For Puffins

Reader Eric Esterle is passionate about wildlife photography and talks about his experiences with snapping Atlantic puffins

While I may be an all-round nature and landscape photographer, my main passion is wildlife photography. I completely adore photographing the intricacies of each species’ behaviour while in the calming solitude of nature. However, puffins compete for the top spot of my favourite wildlife subjects to photograph – the others being whales, eagles and bears.

Puffins are simply a pleasure to photograph because of their exaggerated mannerisms and dazzling colours. I have photographed many species of puffin, including: tufted (Fratercula cirrhata), horned

(Fratercula corniculata) puffins in Alaska, and Atlantic puffins (Fratercula arctica) in Maine and Svalbard, Norway, before heading up to the 80th parallel (a circle of latitude 80 degrees above the equator) above the High Arctic.