Making Amends. Again.

Many of you will remember my 2013 photo "Making Amends" of an Atlantic Puffin holding an Iris in his beak. It won the Grand Prize for the Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice Awards in 2015 and also graced the pages and covers of magazines around the world. It was an authentic moment and I was lucky to be there when it happened. (That is why I spend so many hours waiting for the puffins each year in Newfoundland, I don't want to miss any of these amazing moments.) The Puffin plucked the Iris from the ground and took it to the side of the mainland and dropped it. His mate was waiting at the entrance to their burrow below. She picked it up and took it inside the burrow to use for nesting material.

Here is "Making Amends Again". I took this image on my recent trip but it was not a natural occurrence and wasn't the result of waiting patiently for a memorable moment. This was a result of a photographer telling everybody present that "we should all watch because he was going to put on a show". He mentioned he had seen a photo of a Puffin with an Iris and proceeded to throw one on the ground that he had picked from the hill. A short while later a Puffin obliged. While I understand the desire to recreate a well known image....I urge photographers to care more about the environment they claim to love. Especially workshop leaders who are teaching others not only photography skills but hopefully how to be a patient and respectful photographer! The difference in the amount of Iris growing in that area from 2013 when I took the image to now is staggering. What used to blanket the hill is now dotted here and there in low numbers and I find that very sad.