NaturesLens

09/10/2026

A guest arrived on Grímsey Island last summer with a 600mm prime, certain it was the only lens that could do puffins justice. By day two, a puffin stood 1.2 metres away on the cliff edge, close enough to see every ruffle of feather. And the 600mm couldn't focus that close.

That's the trouble with "longer is always better." It leads to over-packing, over-spending, and missing the shots a 100–400mm would have nailed.

Wildlife photography comes down to position, not reach. On a boat at Lake Kerkini, when a Dalmatian Pelican glides past at arm's length, a 600mm is dead weight. On Grímsey, where puffins nest within walking distance of your accommodation, a wide-angle tells the whole environmental story in a way no telephoto can.

The right focal length depends on the species, the location, and how close your guide can get you. That's why our recommended kit lists cover a range, from 70–200mm through to super-telephoto. Every situation asks for something different.

So before you pack the biggest glass you own, think about what you'll actually be standing next to. 📷

07/10/2026

On Grímsey Island, the midnight sun stays above the horizon for close to 22 hours. That sounds like a photographer's dream. It also changes everything about how you shoot puffins.

Two kinds of Arctic light dominate the days out here, and each one rewards a different way of working. Knowing which you're chasing before you arrive shapes how you set up.

Golden, low-angle midnight sun. Warm, directional light that skims across the cliffs and rims every feather. This is the light for portraits with atmosphere, for backlit birds coming in from the sea, and for those long golden hours that stretch on and on. Watch your histogram and hold back on exposure to keep that warmth from blowing out. Puffins tend to loaf and preen in the softer late-night glow, giving you time to work a composition.

Soft, diffused overcast light. Even, shadowless, and forgiving. This is the light for detail and for flight. There's no harsh contrast to fight, so you can lift shutter speed and track puffins whipping past the clifftop with wings full of motion. Grímsey delivers those in-flight frames time and again, and flat light is often when they come together best.

Each suits different shots, and on a summer trip here you'll likely get both across a single long day.

Which light suits your style?

Puffins of Iceland, 28th Jun to 5th Jul 2027, guided by Robin Lowry. Single occupancy included.

05/10/2026

Twenty-two hours of daylight on Grímsey Island. The puffins don't stop. Neither does the light.

For six years now, we've built our Grímsey trips around a single, non-negotiable window: the Atlantic Puffin nesting cycle, timed to the Arctic midnight sun. Miss that window and you get birds without light, or light without birds. Hit it, and everything aligns.

The magic isn't just the length of the day. It's the quality of it. Golden hour stretches for hours here, not minutes. That low, raking Arctic light wraps around a puffin's beak, catches the sand eels dangling from its bill, and turns every backdrop into a warm, painterly wash. You can shoot at what would be midnight back home and still have side-light most photographers would kill for.

Our advice on the cliffs: slow down. With this much light, there's no rush to fire off frames the moment a bird lands. Wait for the head turn. Wait for the wing stretch. Wait for two birds to touch beaks. The light isn't going anywhere.

Six years of returning to the same island, the same colony, the same guides who know exactly where the birds land. That's not a coincidence in the calendar. That's seasonal patience, and it's the whole point.

The light rewards those who wait.

02/10/2026

A puffin lands six inches from your boot, beak crammed with silver sandeels, completely unbothered by the 600mm lens pointed at its face.

This is what 22 hours of Arctic daylight buys you on Grímsey Island.

The birds are working. All day, all night, ferrying sandeels back to burrows tucked into the cliff edge. Because the midnight sun never really sets in June, there is no "wrong" hour to shoot. Landing shots at 2am in warm, low-angle light are not just possible here, they are routine.

Robin Lowry has been guiding this location for six years, and the reason we keep coming back is simple. Grímsey is probably the best place in the world for puffins in flight. The cliff geometry, the wind lines the birds ride in on, the density of active burrows, it all lines up. Track a bird against the sky, wait for the wings to flare, and you have your frame.

A few things worth knowing before you go:

Shoot at 1/2000s or faster if you want frozen wingtips. Slower if you want a hint of motion in the flap.

Face into the wind. Puffins land into it, which means they come toward you, slow, and hover for a beat before touching down. That beat is your shot.

Do not chase. Sit low, stay still, and let them choose you. On Grímsey, they usually do.

Our next Puffins of Grímsey trip runs in the heart of the breeding season, with single occupancy included as standard. Drop us a message if you would like the full itinerary.

30/09/2026

The puffin lands two feet from your hand. Beak stuffed with silver sandeels, completely unbothered by the human sharing its cliff.

This is Grímsey. The only piece of Iceland that sits inside the Arctic Circle, and in late June the sun barely dips. You get 22 hours of usable light, most of it that low, raking gold that photographers chase their whole careers.

A quick tip from the cliff edge: get low. Puffins read standing humans as threats, but drop to your elbows on the grass tufts and they carry on with their day. Shoot at their eye level, keep your shutter above 1/2000 for the flight shots, and let the midnight sun do the work on the sandeels — that silver catches the light like nothing else.

Days here run long and slow. You shoot the golden burn at 1am, sleep when the birds do, and wake up to do it again. Twenty-two hour shooting days sound brutal until a puffin lands within arm's reach and you remember why you came.

Our small-group Puffins of Iceland holiday runs during the peak sandeel window on Grímsey. Single occupancy is standard, so solo photographers travel without the surcharge or the awkwardness. Drop us a message if you want the full itinerary.

28/09/2026

"I didn't realise I'd leave with people I'd actually stay in touch with."

That's the line we hear most often from first-time solo guests once they're back home. And it makes sense when you look at who actually books these trips. Solo travellers aren't the exception on a NaturesLens holiday. They're the majority.

Single occupancy is included as standard on most of our trips. No random room-share matching, no supplement quietly bolted onto the invoice. You get your own space at the end of the day, and that matters when you've been up before dawn chasing light on Grímsey or waiting out a downpour beside Lake Kerkini.

The days themselves are spent in a small group of photographers who all showed up for the same reason. Conversations start over shutter speed choices, behaviour prediction, whether that dalmatian pelican is going to lift off in the next thirty seconds or settle back down. By day three, the group feels less like strangers on a tour and more like people who genuinely get it.

Shared purpose does most of the work. We just make sure the logistics don't get in the way.

If you've been holding off on a photography trip because you didn't fancy travelling with a partner who doesn't share the obsession, or paying extra to travel by yourself, have a look at what we've got coming up.

25/09/2026

Every pelican came out as a silhouette. That was our first morning on Lake Kerkini, shooting from the shaded side of the boat straight into the glare coming low over the Beles mountains.

Move to the light side and everything changes. The orange-red gullets glow. The mountain backdrop lifts. The birds stop being dark blobs and start being photographs.

Three mistakes we watched a guest work through last January, and how each one got fixed on the water:

→ Wrong side of the boat for the light
→ Single-shot instead of burst through the takeoff sequence
→ Missing the breeding plumage window when that pouch colour is at its most intense

Our boatman on Kerkini has been reading these birds with us since 2014. When he repositions without being asked, trust it. He has already seen where the light is going.

23/09/2026

In 2023, a Golden Eagle and a White-tailed Eagle clashed mid-air directly in front of one of our hides in Northern Sweden. The guests inside walked away with sensational frames of the encounter.

That moment wasn't luck. The hide had been positioned months earlier for exactly that angle of light, that approach path, that clean forest backdrop.

Swipe through for three things a photography hide actually does long before you ever unzip your camera bag:

→ The angle is chosen months ahead, calculated against the low winter sun on snow
→ The background is a deliberate choice, scouted to keep the frame clean
→ The wildlife arrives on its own terms, habituated over years at the same feeding sites

The best wildlife images are set up long before the shutter fires. That's the quiet work our guides do so you can focus on the moment the eagles arrive.

22/09/2026

One of Pui Hang’s sea otter images is the field note this time around

WP Issue 81 Demian Knobel - The European Bison Returns is live!

Inside Issue 81 (Sep-Oct 2026)

Enjoy 190 pages of quality wildlife photography as we journey from Arctic ice to African wilderness with sea otters, bison, reindeer, snow monkeys and more. Discover expert fieldcraft, inspiring reader images, pro photo critiques, and how to transform your best wildlife photographs into stunning fine art prints.

Field Notes: Sea Otter on Drifting Ice by Pui Hang and David Miles

A chance encounter with a sea otter on drifting ice led to one of David and Pui Hang Miles' favourite images. They explain the camera settings, composition, and fieldcraft behind the photograph.

https://natureslens.co.uk/

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21/09/2026

You can have beautiful light, a perfect background, wonderful detail & everything technically right — but sometimes it is simply the moment an animal turns its head & looks towards you that turns a good photograph into something far more memorable.

Eye contact changes the relationship between the animal, the photographer & the person viewing the finished image. Suddenly, we are no longer simply observing a Lion, Bear, Leopard, Fox or bird. For that brief moment, it feels as though the animal is looking back at us.

In our latest article, Pui Hang explores why eye contact in wildlife photography can be so powerful, how tiny changes in gaze & head position alter the atmosphere of an image, & why the eyes so often become the emotional centre of a wildlife photograph.

📷 Read the full article here:

https://natureslens.co.uk/2026/09/21/why-is-eye-contact-in-wildlife-photography-so-powerful/

What about you — do you find yourself choosing the frame where the animal makes eye contact, even when another image might technically be more perfect?

Discover why eye contact in wildlife photography creates such powerful images, how to use gaze, focus, composition & eye level to strengthen your wildlife photographs.