Kowa

In the previous PROMINAR Report, I described my adventures at an air show in Britain. However, several days before visiting the air show, I went to a small island in the North Sea to take photographs of puffins. The Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica), called the “Nishitsunomedori” in Japanese, is commonly found along the North Atlantic coastline. Although these birds are related to Horned Puffins which can be observed in Northern Japan, horned puffins are found in the Pacific Ocean. Tufted Puffins which are also found in the Pacific are also members of the puffin family.

While there are a number of islands off the coast of Britain with large puffin breeding colonies, the Farne Islands located off the northeastern coast of England are known as the place where it is easy to view puffins and other seabirds. The Farne Islands are made up of approximately 20 small islands, out of which Staple Island and Inner Farne have large seabird colonies. Other than puffins, these islands are also used as a breeding ground by guillemots, razorbills, arctic terns, sandwich terns, black-legged kittiwakes, and shags. By landing on the islands it is possible to view these birds at close range. For crossing over to the Farne Islands, you should join a boat tour leaving from the closest harbor, Seahouses.
So as not to cause stress for the seabirds, the tours are only permitted to land on Staple Island in the mornings and on Inner Farne in the afternoons. While it is possible to choose from several boat tour courses, I recommend that birders try the tour called the All Day Bird Watch, which travels two both islands and takes the whole day. Although the amount of time that one can spend on each island is short at approximately 2 hours, even this limited time should be sufficient to fully enjoy the Farne Island seabirds.

The boat that I sailed on left the port at 10 in the morning. My fellow passengers consisted of around 20 birders and we all became more and more excited as the silhouette of the island grew larger and the numbers of seabirds including puffins and guillemots increased. In anticipation of these types of unexpected bird encounters, one should be prepared to take photographs at all times. Even though it may be difficult to take photographs from a rocking boat, birds sometimes fly alongside the boat in the same direction, offering good shots. Despite the possibility of being covered in sea spray, the PROMINAR 500mm can be used with confidence due to its dustproofing and weatherproofing. However, in the case where the lens becomes wet with salt water, it should be quickly wiped off.

When photographing birds against the background of the sea, in almost all cases the autofocus will not work well because the focus will tend to be attracted by the complex wave patterns so it will be better to take photographs using the manual focus.
Since birds of the auk family including puffins fly at high speeds, it will be virtually impossible to continue to adjust the focus while keeping their image within the viewfinder.
Here, the "preset focus" technique will be effective, in which the focus is set to around 15 to 20 meters by referring to the distance graduations printed on the focusing ring. Then the shutter should be pressed to match the timing when the bird passes through this distance range.

Here I took a hand-held shot of a puffin flying above the sea. Because puffins fly at extremely fast speeds, it is hard to carry out focusing while continuing to follow the bird in the viewfinder. It is best to use the “preset focus” method, in which the focus is set to a distance between 15 to 20m while referring to the distance graduations printed on the focus ring. Then the shutter should be pressed at the time when the puffin flies in this distance range. When taking photographs of birds in flight, the shutter speed should be set to 1/1000 second or faster.

After a 30-minute boat journey, we landed at Staple Island, our first destination.
After climbing up a steep slope while casting sideways glances at the black-legged kittiwakes and guillemots nesting on the cliffs surrounding the island, we came across the puffins.
Although puffins dig holes in the grassy areas on top of the cliffs in which they rear their young, many individual birds rest in the grassy areas or on top of rocks along the shoreline. With their black backs, white chests and undersides, colorful bills, and clown-like features, puffins are overflowing with charm and are understandably very popular birds.
The puffins on this island have surprisingly little fear of humans making it possible to come within 5 meters of them. However, because areas outside the walkways are off-limits, I photographed the birds using the TX10 basic set (500mm). By using a sturdy tripod when taking photographs of individual birds that had landed on the ground to take a rest, the image in the finder was stable, allowing me to precisely focus on their eyes.
The minimum photographing distance of the PROMINAR 500mm is 3 meters. When I wanted to try to capture the expressions of the puffins that came close, I could capture sharp images even using the tele-macro method in which every feather of the bird could be clearly seen. I was so engrossed in photographing the puffins that before I knew it my time on the island had run out. We boarded the boat once again and headed for Inner Farne.

Inner Farne is a grass-covered island that is used as a breeding ground by large numbers of arctic terns.
Arctic terns rear their young as far north as the Arctic Circle, yet spend their non-breeding time in the Antarctic Circle, and are known as the bird that migrates the greatest distance.
Although arctic terns can be seen in Japan on rare occasions, I couldn’t help being excited to be able to see this yearned-for bird, particularly individual birds actively flying in their attractive summer plumage.
Arctic terns nest on the ground, but when I visited in early July there were already young birds that were capable of flying.
The parent birds were catching small fish out at sea, and then feeding the fish to their young.
When the parent birds returned from the sea, they searched for their young, then flew for a short period at low speed in a hovering type of motion while they selected the timing for their landing. This hovering motion provided a chance for photographing the birds.
Since the width of the walkway close to the shooting location was narrow, and the young arctic terns were wandering around at my feet, I refrained from using the tripod and shot hand-held instead.
As to the key points of the shooting method, I basically used the preset focus method as I had done when capturing the flying puffins but while the arctic terns were hovering I could carry out fine focusing by turning the focus ring before taking the photograph.
Although this meant I was actually photographing the birds in the situation where they were flying against a sea background, the lens performance in this case allowed faithful depiction of the image.
The fact that color blur was not apparent at the edges of the birds’ white wings when using the PROMINAR 500mm is a testimony to the high resolution lens.
In addition, since reduction in the peripheral brightness was not noticeable close to the aperture, the lens can also be used with confidence for capturing monotone backgrounds such as the sea and sky.
The two hours spent surrounded by so many arctic terns also passed in a flash, and I left the island with a sense of accomplishment coupled with a feeling of fatigue.

• 
• 
• Here I captured a hovering arctic tern. I took this photograph by applying the preset focusing method, in which the focus is set to an optional distance. Then when the arctic tern begins hovering close to the set distance, point the camera at the bird to capture the image in the finder and carry out fine adjustment by turning the focus ring. Although this technique requires a little getting used to, it would be a good idea to practice this habitually so that you instinctively remember the focus ring turning direction and the amount of change in the focus.

While my travel this time was an overseas birdwatching trip in which I visited an island of puffins, with overseas travel there is a great deal of moving around as well as restrictions on the amount of luggage that one can carry.
At this time, I wish to make my photographic equipment lighter, even if only by a small amount, without compromising on resolution.
This trip gave me a real feeling that the Kowa PROMINAR 500mm provides one answer to these requirements.