Boulders Beach Colony: Part 2

Much penguin.

We had some time on the morning of departure from Simon’s Town before we headed north to Fish Hoek, so Greg 2 and I took the opportunity with another member of the wedding party to go see the penguins one more time. By this point, I had researched and written my Part 1 blog, so it had really sunk in that there was a chance that this species would be extinct within my lifetime. I was there and I would be damned if I wasn’t going to squeeze every last bit out of it that I could. The other reason we went down there was to swim with the little buggers.

That’s right. On Boulders Beach proper, you can walk down along the sandy beach and have yourself a swim if you fancy one. You may find yourself amongst several penguins if you do. The wind had not abated from the night before and clouds crossed over the bay with little sunlight and occasional light rain. It was chilly, only about 55F. In that sort of weather we three decided this would be a perfect time to go for a swim. We chose to visit the other areas first, purchase souvenirs, and then swim so as not to be cold and frigid the entire time we were there.

Kelp Gull

One of the advantages of backing up and reviewing photos and doing my writeup in the field is that I had the opportunity to think about the shots that I got, which ones I missed, see which ones worked, which ones didn’t, see how I could have better framed or focused a shot, etc. With this in mind, I set about to look for several things on my return trip: nesting or mating pairs preening each other to use for a calendar photo for February, fighting penguins defending their nest or their missus, and penguins swimming in the water either en masse or solo. I had also wanted to get some pictures of the penguins high on the dunes above the boardwalk with the mountains of the Cape in the background across the bay to the north as well as some extreme close-up details.

With that focus, I found it easier to sift through all the chaos and really focus on certain individuals. It forced me to watch the penguins, not just see them and fire off shots. I had to anticipate their movements, their personalities. Some of my shots were more challenging than others. Penguins defending space was completely up to them, and I had to watch closely to see which ones were being particularly territorial. Penguins have sexual dimorphism and females are slightly smaller than the males. At a distance it can be hard to distinguish between the sexes. Some penguins seemed to really have it out for particular individuals, whereas others got a pass. Perhaps the sex of the penguin passersby played a role in their animosity. The hardest thing to shoot for a pair of penguins in the colony is the fact that there are other penguins in the shot that wander in and out of focus. Foreground and background distractions really take away from a photo and finding a pair away from others was almost impossible. Swimming groups were equally difficult. They were a good 200 feet away, in moving surf, with lots of things for the autofocus to find instead of the penguins. This is where I had wished I had rented a D6 and an 800mm lens. The last element that made this shoot particularly difficult was the weather. Clouds are great for keeping harsh light off of everything, but it also means a slower shutter speed and a higher ISO than I would normally prefer when using my long lens. These things tend to make the pictures a little blurry and a little grainy. Without a tripod, the wind made the long lens move around quite a bit. I rested it on railings where I could to stabilize it.

After I had gotten my fill we went down the street to some vendors. I bought a penguin statue and a hat. I could not let them take me at full price either and I haggled down from 200 Rand to 150 Rand, then paid with a 200 Rand note. The vendor attempted to throw me off by “looking” for change in all his pockets. When I would not yield, he relented and found a 50.

We arrived back at the beach but unfortunately there were no penguins in the water. No sense in getting wet and cold for nothing. Ah well, another good reason to come back. We scrambled through the cave and out into a maze of alleys between tall boulders. At the end of an open area, a family was watching a group of penguins as they marched along the beach. I did a quick survey of the scene and anticipated that they would round a boulder into a narrow alley. My best photos would not come from following the group, my best photos would come from heading them off and catching their faces as they rounded the corner.

We followed the penguins to the end of the beach and wound our way back. The family on the beach with us was from New Jersey. It’s a small world after all.