Jack Perks Photography: Puffins Filmed Underwater

Friday, 4 July 2014

Puffins Filmed Underwater

Well i certainly live a varied life it was sea lamprey this time last week in Hampshire (see previous blog) and puffins underwater in the Farnes this week! I've been planning this shoot for a while as I'm interested in all things wild not just the scaly variety and rather then getting images and footage of puffins on the Farnes like thousands before me have i wanted to do something a little different.

To do this i went with fellow underwater photographer Rob Cuss and underwater Film Maker Ben Burville and we set out on a ribb to find the best spots to get up close to these amazing birds. The Farnes are about 4 miles of Seahouses and home to a large seabird colony puffins being one of the main attractions to visitors.

I'll freely admit I'm not a confident diver so i was slightly nervous about getting in the water but i soon got into it and saw my first puffin swim by. They are incredibly graceful underwater and inquisitive coming quite close to see what i was rather then catching sandeels though plenty of little pollock soon swam away!

As well as puffins plenty of guillemots were swimming around and it being the Farnes we got some grey seal action in also. Guillemots are also members of the auk family and slightly larger they seemed a bit more bold getting much closer then the puffins.

This seal pup came up to me in less then a metre of water while i snorkeled up to it and kept swimming away and coming back almost playing a game with me.