Photographer Spots Penguin Widows Enjoying the Melbourne Skyline

Photographer Tobias Baumgaertner was at the St Kilda pier in Melbourne last year when he captured this tender moment showing two penguins enjoying the city’s skyline together.

“These two Fairy penguins poised upon a rock overlooking the Melbourne skyline were standing there for hours, flipper in flipper, watching the sparkling lights of the skyline and ocean,” Baumgaertner writes. “A volunteer approached me and told me that the white one was an elderly lady who had lost her partner and apparently so did the younger male to the left.

“Since then they meet regularly comforting each other and standing together for hours watching the dancing lights of the nearby city.”

“The way that these two lovebirds were caring for one another stood out from the entire colony,” Baumgaertner says. “While all the other penguins were sleeping or running around, those two seemed to just stand there and enjoy every second they had together, holding each other in their flippers and talking about penguin stuff.”

Baumgaertner spent three nights photographing the penguin colony before he managed to capture these photos.

“Between not being able or allowed to use any lights and the tiny penguins continuously moving, rubbing their flippers on each other’s backs and cleaning one another, it was really hard to get a shot but I got lucky during one beautiful moment,” the photographer writes.

The photos were shot with a Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera and the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4. You can find more of Baumgaertner’s work on his Instagram and Facebook.

“During times like [the ongoing coronavirus pandemic], the truly lucky ones are those that can be with the person/people they love most,” Baumgaertner says.

(via @tobiasvisuals via LADbible)

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