Penguin Photography

December 23, 2008

We have been stuck inside all day, since the wind is sustaining between 20 and 40 mph (not really serious but enough to make it miserable outside). Which gives me a chance to talk a bit about photographing penguins (as some of y’all have been asking about it…).

I use Canon camera gear. I have just two lenses here: the 300mm Image Stabilized f/4, and the 16-35mm f/2.8. I also brought a 1.4x extender which I haven’t used (it’s just not necessary for penguins). At home in Oregon, I own the 600mm Image Stabilized f/4, but no way was that monster going to fit in my pack, or the tripod it requires! It would be too much magnification anyway. I brought two 20D camera bodies (in case one breaks). I feel just fine shoving them in my pack alongside sledgehammers and iceaxes, plopping them down on penguin guano and mud, wiping the front of the filters with a sweaty shirt, etc. My equipment gets used hard. So far, it’s held up pretty well.

Incidentally, I also use Canon bincoculars: the 12×36 Image Stabilizers. They’re great for reading little numbers on penguin bands.

Photographing penguins is at once ridiculously easy and frustrating. My 300mm lens is, often, too much magnification. I keep backing up, and the penguin I’m concentrating on keeps following me, so we chase each other around the colony. Batteries freeze quickly; I always have two spares and charge them every night. Making a clean image, or isolating your subject nicely, is difficult. Most penguins are stained by guano, mud, blood, food regurgitation, or some combination. There’s always something dirty in the frame, wherever you point the camera. Ice may be clean, but penguins are not!