Mastering Bird Photography

Chapter 6

EXPOSURE

As I crest the hill at Cape Saint Mary’s, a vista such as fills a bird photographer’s dreams opens up before me: towering cliffs alive with tens of thousands of gannets, murres, and kittiwakes, all busily performing the tasks of nesting. Still more birds fill the sky and the ocean beyond with their noisy comings and goings.

Many human visitors to this Newfoundland gem—the most accessible Northern Gannet colony in North America—never see the full extent of the colony because it is usually shrouded in fog that is sometimes thick enough to obscure the waves pounding the rocks below. But I am in luck: This is a rare, clear day. Why then, as I approach the colony, does a feeling of apprehension creep into my excitement? Ever aware ...