26 Mar Storm Petrels, San Benitos Islands, Brown Cannon III

Zip down the Baja Penninsula to where the Norte meets the Sur and you will be roughly in Guerrero Negro. Then head due West across Bahia Sebastian Vizcaino and into the Pacific and you are likely to hit the San Benitos Islands. Should you come ashore on Benito del Oeste, and if you arrive at any time other than during Abalone season you will be in the company of a single lighthouse keeper and a lot of birds. One of my subjects on this assignment was the pelagic storm petrel. Lucky for me it was breeding season and so they were on land, but they were only active at night. I found a spot with a high concentration of burrows and set my camera on a tripod facing straight up to the sky towards the small dark shadows that flew overhead. The shutter remained open for 30-40 minutes while I laid horizontal and watched the show, attempting to pop my flash each time birds entered a section of my frame. In the following weeks many stories would spread about the strange lights that appeared one crystal clear night out on Benito del Oeste.