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During our cruise to Iceland and back on board the P&O liner Azura, my wife Liz and I spent many hours walking around outside on the promenade deck, watching the various moods of the ocean and feeling the clean Atlantic breeze in our faces.
Apart from watching the ever changing patterns of the waves, one of the things that most engaged our attention was the amazing flying abilities of the fulmars, which accompanied our ship miles out from the neareast land.
These birds, shaped like a small albatross, would glide seeming effortlessly just a couple of inches above the turbulent surface of the Atlantic, zooming up every now and then to avoid a particularly large wave.
Now I'm no wildlife photographer, I prefer my subjects to be relatively slow moving, but I couldn't resist having a go at photographing these birds in the hope of conveying something of the excitement and danger that marked their low level flying tactics.
This image is the best of several dozen attempts, featuring a reasonable sharp and in focus bird, set against the crest of a wave.
Filename - atlantic seabird fulmar 01
Camera - Canon 6D
Lens - 100-400mm zoom @ 400mm
Exposure - 1/640 sec @ f5.6, ISO200
Filters - None
Location - P&O liner Azura, North Atlantic
This image - 800x533px JPEG
Conversion - Adobe Lightroom
Comments - Fast shutter speed used to freeze motion
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