Dad and I went out with Albatross Encounter Kaikoura recently, and joked about maybe seeing an Antarctic fulmar. It wasn’t that long of a shot – they’re seen most often during winter in the coastal waters of Aotearoa, making their way up from a dark, frozen Antarctic winter. I have seen at least one before, crossing the Drake Passage to Antarctica from Ushuaia in 2015. A bit of a motley specimen, moulting primary feathers and all! Here’s that photo:

Not bad, but a hefty crop! I’d wanted to see one in Aotearoa, and improve my photograph, for quite a long time.

And see one we did. A fleeting fly-by. Beautiful soft light over an oily sea, rising and falling in long slow swells. Same lens, different camera body – and a photographer with a few more years experience photographing seabirds at sea (the Antartica trip was my first foray offshore!). These are my two favourites – aside from the more classic ID style images. I even managed a ‘Fulmar on white’ to add to that part of my portfolio. What a beautiful bird. What a magical moment.

Sometimes photography is more about the experiences than the images you get. Sometimes something beautiful happens and you get images that perfectly encapsulate the experience you had. These are so precious, because they’re a direct route straight back to that memory. Little snippets of joy to keep by for when things are less joyful.