Finding Gems in the Tedious Work
This photo‑tagging project can be tedious, but every so often it hands me a little miracle. That special shot I thought I’d missed.
I’ve been digging through older folders — the ones full of “not bad, but not good enough” pictures I skipped over during my first sort — and I’m finding gems I never appreciated at the time.
Why I Take So Many Photos
When I’m out on a photography excursion, I take tons of pictures. Way more than anyone needs. Birds and animals don’t pose on purpose, and sometimes I’ll see “The Money Shot”… only for the lighting to shift or the subject to wiggle out of frame. It’s hard work, but it’s also exciting. My adrenaline spikes, my heart races, and I’m basically running on pure wildlife‑photographer joy.
The Not‑So‑Fun Part: Sorting
Then I come home, load 200+ images into Lightroom, and the real work begins. I do a quick pass to eliminate the truly blah or out‑of‑focus ones, narrowing it down to the handful worth polishing. This part isn’t fun, but I do get lost in the art of “imaging.”
Why I Keep the “Almost” Photos
The good news? I rarely delete those second‑tier pictures. Time changes my perspective, and sometimes one of those “almost” shots ends up being exactly what I need for a post.
And that’s how I found him — my little puffin with a beakful of fish.
Award Winning Photo from the Internet
The Inspiration Behind the Shot
This photo earned an international award years ago and was one of the inspirations behind my puffin photography trips. If you do a Google search for puffins with fish, the web is full of these photos. On Machias Seal Island, I saw puffins returning with their catch, but the best I managed was a mouthful of shrimp. That was my last puffin trip.
Shrimp, Its what’s for dinner
A Foggy Day, a Rocking Boat, and a Forgotten Puffin
But while reviewing older shots from the Egg Island tour — yes, the foggy day on the rocking boat — I found a picture I’d kept only because it showed how tiny puffins look in the vast open ocean. This time, though, something caught my eye. A tiny detail. A shape.
It wasn’t so much “How did I miss that?” as “How did I see it now?” Sheer luck, maybe. Or just the magic of looking at a photo years later with fresh eyes.
Zoom… Zoom… Zoom
I zoomed in. And zoomed. And zoomed.
There they were. Fish.
My little puffin had a mouthful of fish after all.
Polishing the Shot That Waited for Me
I sharpened, cleaned up the color, and cropped the heck out of it. It will never be a gallery‑sized 16×20, but a small 5×7 will work beautifully. And sure, it would never pass even the first round of a photo contest — I had to zoom in way too far — but I don’t care.
I love my little puffin. I thought this was going to be “the one that got away.” Turns out he was waiting for me all along.
