Nova Scotia is one of the greatest coastal destinations in the world. People from all over travel to see the beauty of the province's rocky coast and the quaint and charming coastal towns and villages. Nova Scotia is a landscape photographer's dream destination.
But, also located on the US/Canada border is an island where thousands of colorful and adorable puffins congregate for 3 months of the year to breed and raise their chicks. Puffins breed on many coastal islands, but there is only ONE that the photographer can actually land on and photograph these beauties up close and personal.....and we will be visiting that island - weather and seas permitting.
This workshop takes you through some of the natural coast's most ruggedly beautiful landscapes. Photos you will return home with will depict lighthouses perched on top of gorgeous rugged coast lines, colorful boats tied to their docks, foggy mornings on the bays and hopefully more puffin pictures than you know what to do with.
**Cancellation Policy - Please understand that on our longer trips where most people have to make extensive travel plans in order to join us, our cancellation policy is slightly more strict. On this workshop, the last day for you to cancel for a refund is January 10, 2024. If you cancel before this date you will receive your payment back. After this date, there will be no refunds unless we can fill your position with someone from the wait list.
For this reason, we highly recommend travel insurance with a trip interruption feature included.
This workshop starts on July 8th with the first of 2 puffin boat rides. You will need to be in Lubec, Maine on the 7th so we can get started on the 8th.
1st Hotel - Inn on the Wharf
July 7, 8, 9, checking out the 10th
69 Johnson St
Lubec, ME 04652
207-733-4400
2nd Hotel - Best Western
July 10, 11, checking out the 12th
250 St Margarets Bay Rd
Halifax, NS B3N 1J4, Canada
902-477-5611
(rates show in Canadian dollars)
3rd Hotel - Smugglers Cove Inn
July 12, 13, checking out the 14th
139 Montague St
Lunenburg, NS B0J 2C0, Canada
902-634-7500
(rates show in Canadian dollars)
The workshop will start in Cutler, Maine on the 8th. You should fly in and plan to stay at the first hotel on the 7th. We will drive to Halifax on the morning of the 10th and then end the trip in Lunenburg on the 14th.
There are a few options for flying for this workshop:
Flying into Bangor, ME
This is probably the overall least expensive option.
You are 2 hours from the first hotel in Lubec and about 7 hours from where we finish in Lunenburg.
Other Options
You could fly round trip to Halifax, but you would need to drive the 6 hours to the start of the workshop in Maine.
Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ)
747 Bell Blvd
Goffs, NS B2T 1K2, Canada
OR....you could fly into Bangor and out of Halifax (or Moncton). The car rental for one-way international will be somewhat expensive.
Major car rental companies are available at or near all airports. Participants will need to arrange their own transportation to, from, and during the workshop. Participants may wish to share the cost of a rental car. Some locations on the workshop have very limited space for vehicles and we ask participants to carpool to a few of the shooting locations anyway.
If you would like to possibly share the cost of a rental car with another participant, please let us know and we can try to help arrange it.
You will need a valid passport for this trip if you do not live Canada.
Accessories - We do not require that you purchase any specific equipment for this workshop. With that said, however, there are a couple of filters that we feel are very important to possess and whose effects cannot be replicated in Photoshop. A circular polarizer is very commonly used in landscape photography, especially around water. And there may be times you would like to smooth out the water with a neutral density filter.
Weather – This workshop could take you through many shooting environments, so be prepared for whatever the weather may bring. Be sure to have rain gear (tops and bottoms) for you and coverings for your camera/camera bag. Bring layers to dress in as weather conditions can change rapidly in this environment. Temps can range from 55-80 degrees at this time of year.
We have two days reserved on the puffin tour boat. Weather perimitting we will go out both days. Sometimes weather can be rough and or rainy. Prepare for both. Sometimes the weather could prevent the boat from going out and/or the seas could prevent an island landing. That is just the way of nature and weather, although July is the best month for weather and island landings. If the boat company ends up refunding their fee, that portion will be refunded to the participant.
Gear - You will need your usual landscape lenses plus about up to a 400mm length lens. The birds on the island are everywhere and just not that far away....so a zoom lens would be best. I used an Olympus 40-150 with a 1.4 teleconverter (110-420 equivalent) and it was perfect.
Conditions - all walking will be rather flat and short distances. You may choose to scramble on top of rocks here and there, but it is not necessary. The boat landing on the puffin island is the only place where it could get tricky. You must get into a skiff with your gear on moving water and then out of the skiff onto the island where it will be slippery and possibly bumpy due to waves. You will have help doing this, but you need to be able to step up and down into and out of the boat on possibly slippery surfaces.
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