Presentation slides and photos from the 2024 Birdlife Photography Biennial Conference that was held in Hahndorf, SA on the 23rd and 24th of March this year are now available for viewing for Birdlife Photography members. The presentation slides have been changed to pdfs; not all of them have text but we hope you are inspired by the stunning photography. You can find them under Conference -> BLPBC 2024 Presentations. Photos of the conference, including of the speakers, plus a video preview of the 2026 conference are also avaiable under Conference -> BLPBC 2024 Photos and Video.

Please note you must be logged in to view/download these items

Following Graham Cam's Lightroom Processing presentation on 28th February, he decided to produce a set of video tutorials for various tools and masks available in Lightroom Classic.  An eye problem has delayed this, but he advises that they should be completed and available here for members only by the first week of May.  The videos will cover the following topics:

• Part 1: Selecting an Image; Library and Develop Workspaces
• Part 2: The Develop Panel; Tools, Masks and New Modules Revealed
• Part 3: Crop Overlay, Healing Tool, Red Eye Correction
• Part 4: The Detail Module – Enhance Denoise AI
• Part 5: Masking; Subject AI
• Part 6: Masking; Background AI, Lens Blur (Early Access)
• Part 7: Masking; Sky AI
• Part 8: Masking; Object AI
• Part 9: Masking; Brush
• Part 10: Masking; Linear vs Radial Gradient
• Part 11: Colour Range; Luminous Range
• Part 12: Colour Mixer; Point Colour
• Part 13: Lightroom’s Integration with Photoshop, PS Remove Tool

The Best of 2023 competition was held in January-March 2024.  The subject must have have been taken in 2023.

The results of member voting for the top five images in each category are listed here.  This competition received good support from our members, with 189 images entered across the 3 competition levels by 102 photographers.  The Winner is the image which received the most votes; and we also show the next four highest placed images, rating them as Highly Commended if they received at least 90% of the votes for the winning image, and Commended for scores less than that.

Advanced Level – Best of 2023

This category attracted 68 entries, from 35 photographers. 59 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Australian Painted-Snipe, by Graham Gall (Image ID 61520)
• Commended - Buller's Albatross, by Chris Young (Image ID 61964)
• Commended - Australasian Darter, by Ian Wilson (Image ID 61975)
• Commended - Great Crested Grebe, by Chinh Nguyen (Image ID 62026)
• Commended - Royal Penguin, by Mark Lethlean (Image ID 61876)

Intermediate Level – Best of 2023

This category attracted 94 entries, from 52 photographers. 63 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Southern Cassowary, by Cheryl Ponter (Image ID 61645)
• Commended - Welcome Swallow, by Dinah James (Image ID 61705)
• Commended - Nankeen Kestrel, by Gunther Frensch (Image ID 61640)
• Commended - Rufous Bristlebird, by Rob Shepherd (Image ID 61655)
• Commended - Major Mitchell's Cockatoo, by Bruce Hawkins (Image ID 62025)

Entry Level – Best of 2023

This category attracted 27 entries, from 15 photographers. 46 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Banded Stilt, by Robin Spry (Image ID 61569)
• Commended - Crimson Rosella, by Reeni Martinez (Image ID 62048)
• Commended - Chestnut Rail, by Dana Cameron (Image ID 61948)
• Commended - Double-eyed Fig-Parrot, by John William Owen (Image ID 61926)
• Commended - Brown Thornbill, by Greg Wallace (Image ID 61789)

Our Mystery Reviewers have completed their assessments of the images in each level of the Best of 2023 competition; their ratings are as follows:

Advanced Level – Best of 2023

• Winner - Australasian Darter by Kim Wormald (Image ID 62037)
• Highly Commended - Rainbow Lorikeet/Scaly-breasted Lorikeet  by Colin Driscoll (Image ID 61691)
• Highly Commended - Buller’s Albatross  by Chris Young (Image ID 61964)
• Highly Commended - Great Crested Grebe by Chinh Nguyen (Image ID 62026)
• Commended - Spotted Crake by Harry van der Zon (Image ID 61912)
• Commended - Black-shouldered Kite by Patrick Booth (Image ID 62013)
• Commended - Eastern Spinebill  by Rob Solic (Image ID 61561)
• Commended - Australian Painted Snipe by Graham Gall (Image ID 61520)
• Commended - Emu by John Eley (Image ID 61786)
• Commended - Black Swan  by Con Duyvestyn (Image ID 61710)
• Commended - Pied Stilt by Robyn Elliott (Image ID 61898)
• Commended - Buff-banded Rail  by Brian Jones (Image ID 62047)
• Commended - Hoary-headed  Grebe by Sandy Castle (Image ID 61503)
• Commended - Rainbow Bee-eater by Chinh Nguyen (Image ID 61733)
• Commended - Osprey  by Glenn Pure (Image ID 61527)
• Commended - Mulga Parrot  by Kim Wormald (Image ID 62038)

Intermediate Level – Best of 2023

• Winner - Australian Raven And Willie Wagtail by Phil Janson (Image ID 61545)
• Highly Commended - Southern Cassowary by Cheryl Ponter (Image ID 61645)
• Highly Commended - Eastern Osprey by Maggie Roberts Duffy (Image ID 61579)
• Commended - Singing Honeyeater by Indrani Pathirage (Image ID 62042)
• Commended - Commended: Silvereye by Sue Allison (Image ID 61637)
• Commended - Comb-crested Jacana  by Yolande Cozijn (Image ID 61929)
• Commended - Rufous Bristlebird by Rob Shepherd (Image ID 61655)
• Commended - Little Pied Cormorant by Alan Bennett (Image ID 61933)

Entry Level – Best of 2023

• Winner - Crimson Rosella by Reeni Martinez (Image ID 62048)
• Highly Commended - Chestnut Rail by Dana Cameron (Image ID 61948)
• Highly Commended - Emu by Julie Mills (Image ID 61984)
• Highly Commended - Australian Magpie  by Reeni Martinez (Image ID 62049)
• Commended - Red-tailed Black Cockatoo  by Helen Leonard (Image ID 61957)

The Mystery Reviewer Critiques are available in the Resources - Mystery Reviewer Critiques page.

In 2023 we advised members of some forthcoming website gallery changes the committee had proposed and agreed.  Here are the details of these changes, which were made on 12th March 2024.

Landscapes-Habitat-KBAs Gallery.  This gallery and its contents have been removed.

Science & Conservation Gallery.  This gallery has been deleted; some images were moved to the main library, most were deleted.

Slides Gallery.  This gallery will be deleted after our new website becomes operational; the images will then be moved to our main library.

Previous Competition Galleries.  Images from previous years competitions, have been deleted, except for those rated by a Mystery Reviewer or in member voting.  The Mystery Reviewer Critiques will continue to be available on the website, and a new set of pages of Previous Competition Results is now available; articles there contain links to the images that have been retained; these images are now in the main library.

Premier Bird Images Gallery.  This gallery has been deleted, and the images moved to our main library.

Bird ID Challenge Galleries.  These galleries have been deleted.  Images in these galleries were moved from the main library for the ID Challenges they have been returned to the main library.

On Wednesday 28^th February, Graham Cam presented a detailed update for the Masking Tools in the Lightroom Classic Develop panel, as well as other module updates such as the Point Colour in the Colour Mixer module and Enhance AI Denoise in the Detail module.  The new Remove tool in Photoshop was also highlighted.  Rather than provide a lengthy Zoom video recording encompassing all the above, Graham has decided to replace that with a set of 20-minute pre-recorded videos, which will take members through a more detailed and targeted workflow for each individual tool and mask available in Lightroom Classic.  These videos will be uploaded to the Resources section of the website, sequentially, as they are produced over the next few weeks.  These videos will be member-only content; as they appear, a short item will be added here advising members of their availablity.

For those who missed it or would like to view it again, our recent "Members Inspiring Members" Zoom Presentation is now available.

It can be found at Resources -> Our Zoom Presentations

This is members only - you must be logged in to access this video

Jacob Crisp, Ben Harvey, Chinh Nguyen and Stephen Garth discussed various topics such as pelagic photography trips and other general bird photography advice.

For those who missed it or would like to view it again, our recent Zoom Presentation by Jamie Van Leeuwen on "Is AI the Death of Bird Photography?" is now available.

It can be found at Resources -> Our Zoom Presentations

This is members only - you must be logged in to access this video

Jamie discussed subjects such as the origins of AI, what it means for photography, and how it can be harnessed for bird photography.

The site has been upgraded to use Version 4 of Birdlife's Working List. The only significant changes are that Variegated Fairy-wren and Graceful Honeyeater have been split, into Variegated Fairy-wren and Purple-backed Fairy-wren, and Graceful Honeyeater and Cryptic Honeyeater, respectively.  The other changes are the addition of 13 vagrants.  The changes are detailed on the Resources - Taxonomic Changes page.