The Isle of May sits off the eastern Scottish coast and is the breeding ground for tens of thousands of birds including this mated pair of razorbills. It was wonderful watching the courtship take place, and I was able to take this intimate portrait with a 500mm telephoto. The settings were 1/3200, f/7.1, and 1600 ISO. I was hoping for a flight shot, and while I did get a few that are not bad, I wasn't entirely happy. What I liked, though, was the slight downward angle I was shooting from. Note that the top of the rock is visible. Had I been shooting at eye-level or even from an angle looking up toward the razorbills, you wouldn't see the top of the rock. Interestingly, these birds are the closest living relative of the extinct great auk, a bird that was hunted to extinction by 1844.
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