You need a Puffin Pad for wildlife photography, here’s why…

If you are like me, you often like to photograph wildlife out the window of your car. This is a smart approach to photographing birds and animals, as you can shoot without disrupting the wildlife. One of my favorite places to photograph is a nearby wildlife refuge, many beautiful birds are found right outside my window. To try to get a good shot, I used to use a bean bag to stabilize my heavy Nikon 200-400mm lens. However the beans move around, the bag weighs a lot, and the lens was never that stable. Puffin Pad to the rescue!

Two resourceful photographers, Wayne Bennett and Ken Blye came up with a wonderful solution, and created the Puffin Pad. It’s super lightweight and can be used in a variety of ways. In the photo above, the Puffin Pad rests on a half open window. This is where a bean bag would fail every time, as the beans would sag toward the the sides, leaving the lens unstable. The Puffin Pad can be used on a window that is partially open or rolled all the way down, and you can use it on almost any other surface. The Puffin Pad provides a wide base for any lens to rest on. If you want to carry it with you, consider the tether option as shown in the photo below. I’ve been a big fan of the Puffin Pad ever since it was developed. It’s a simple but eloquent solution to a bean bag, and allows the photographer to create tack sharp images without a tripod. Click here for more information on the Puffin Pad. Have fun shooting! ~ Deb

Photos provided by Ken Blye and his lovely wife’s hands for Puffin Pad.