Knowledge is power. Using that knowledge to expand the thoughts of others, to bring a conflict that you are passionate about to the eyes of strangers, is to me one of the most important aspects of photography.

This is a photo of an Atlantic Puffin, taken on a research island off the coast of Maine. Machias Seal Island is home to breeding colonies of Atlantic Puffin, Razorbill, Common Murre, Arctic Tern, and some sea ducks. I've always wanted to photograph these birds, and my trip to the island was meant to capture the puffin in a different way than the photographs I had researched before going. So I decided to photograph them like I would people, and waited for similar cues. I was amazed and enthralled with the photographs, and to date they are some of my favorite work. Sadly, there is a lot more to this story.

After speaking with Captain Andy of Bold Coast Tours, the only American tour company allowed to land on the island, the light house keeper on the island, and the researchers, I learned that the Atlantic Puffin colony in that region had been experiencing serious breeding issues in the past years. Last year, only twelve percent of the Pufflings (baby Atlantic Puffins) fledged. Of that twelve percent none were expected to reach breeding age. To avoid turning this into a novel, the short reason is due to climate change. Freshwater ice melt from Greenland was diluting the water and forcing the puffin's main source of food to go too deep for the puffins to reach, or abandon the waters altogether.

I've since spread the word of this along with my photos to anyone that would listen. Being able to sit and observe these amazing birds at length was life changing for me.

In this particular photograph, I wanted to impart motion by show a regular movement for the bird. Puffins regularly stretch and flap their wings while on land, and the resulting motion blur really captivated me.

I made this image with my Canon 7D Mark ii and Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 OS lens.