Please note: dates are planned, and may be changed.  Dates will be announced on our homepage, and in email messages to members; these announcements will also contain details of the theme, and any special competition rules.  Closing times will be at 6 PM AEST/AEDT.

The first competition for 2024 will be “Best of 2023”; images must have been taken during 2023.

The following table shows the number of entries by competition for 2021.

This table shows the number of entries by level over the last 3 years.

While the number of entries in 2020 and 2021 is fairly similar in broad terms, there has been a 70% increase over the number of entries since 2019. The number of entries will always be influenced by the popularity of the competition theme and whether images are easy to obtain for that theme. The least popular theme during the last 3 years was “Introduced Species”. During the last 2 years competition entry numbers have been confounded by COVID lockdowns and border closures. There has been more time to process and submit images but restrictions have prevented many members from going out and getting new images. In the circumstances I consider the number of entries received during the last 2 years very satisfying.

How have we responded to issues relating to competitions from the 2020 Member Survey?

• We have maintained 4 competitions per year as requested by 80% of members
• We are varying the mystery reviewers to ensure members receive a range of expert views. This has included using female mystery reviewers at all levels and the same process is already in place for 2022.
• Keeping in mind the need to ensure that members need to be able to access the theme requirements across Australia we continue to look for new and interesting themes. Artistic, creative and monochrome were raised by members and these areas are being addressed in one of the themes for 2022.
• A number of members expressed difficulty with both submitting images and preparing images for submission. This clearly applies to both New Images and Competition Entries. This has to a large extent been addressed through video tutorials, zoom presentations and resource articles on our website and remains an ongoing process.

Gary King

Competition Coordinator, 13 November 2021

The following table shows the number of entries by competition for 2021.

This table shows the number of entries by level over the last 4 years.

It is clear from the above tables that 2022 has been another successful year for our internal competitions.

After the Creating Artistic Images competition I expressed concern at the relatively low entry numbers for two competitions in a row at the Entry Level.  In hindsight this may have been an over-reaction, given the return to higher entry levels in the final competition for the year.  Drops in entry numbers can be due to a number of reasons including:

• Some Competition Themes being less interesting to some members
• Some Competition Themes being more challenging for some members
• Members feeling they cannot compete against one or more of early submitted entries

The biggest challenge going forward is not specific to competitions, nor is it new.  It is encouraging new and less experienced bird photographers to submit images for the first time, so they become actively involved.  Once they gain the confidence and satisfaction from seeing their first photo on the website it is likely they will do it again.  It does not matter whether it is to New Images or to Competitions.

I would like to thank Doug Castle for his moderating assistance during the year and especially for his backup while I have been travelling.  I would also like to acknowledge the time and thoughtful consideration given by the mystery reviewers for 2022.  They were, in no particular order, Sandy Castle, Rodney Appleby, Georgina Steytler, Graham Cam, Con Duyvestyn, Rob Solic, Con Boekel, Rodger Scott, Nathan Watson, Cherilyn Corker, Bill Harding and Mark Lethlean.

The competition themes for 2023 are available here, and members have been aware of them since July.  I hope everyone enjoys them as much as they have enjoyed this year's competitions.

Gary King

Competition Coordinator, December 2022

Please note: dates are approximate, and may be changed.  Dates will be announced on our homepage, and in email messages to members; these announcements will also contain details of the theme, and any special competition rules.

The first competition for 2023 will be “Best of 2022”; images must have been taken during 2022.

Please note: dates are approximate, and may be changed.  Dates will be announced on our homepage, and in email messages to members; these announcements will also contain details of the theme, and any special competition rules.

The first competition for 2020 will be “Best of 2019”; images must have been taken during 2019.

Please note: dates are approximate, and may be changed.  Dates will be announced on our homepage, and in email messages to members; these announcements will also contain details of the theme, and any special competition rules.

You might notice that there is no "Best of 2018" theme for this year.  We have decided to move this theme into the following year, which will allow photos taken at any time during the entire 2018 year to be entered for this theme.

This plan was revised in April to take account of our Photo Competition Coordinators being away for much of June/July.  The final theme, "Conflict", will be moved to 2019.

Please note: dates are approximate, and may be changed.  Dates will be announced on our homepage, and in email messages to members; these announcements will also contain details of the theme, and any special competition rules.

We had planned to use “Birds Feeding” as the theme for our September competition, but have decided to change that to “City Slickers” following a recent suggestion from Monica Awasthy, Program Manager of Birds In Backyards, which will lead to cross-promotion of the two organisations.  She wrote:

I call the challenge “City Slickers” because I was interested in seeing what people could come up with to capture the birds sharing our spaces – so whether it was a behaviour of a typical “urban” bird, maybe the beauty of a bird we might detest or ignore in a city, or people interacting with birds, or even a bird using a non-natural space.  I thought it might be interesting to challenge people to pay attention to what’s happening right outside their door.  I know a lot of people aren’t interested in the common birds around them, but with over 90% of Australians in cities, it’s where most people see birds.  And as an urban ecologist who is keen in engaging people with the birds they live with, I am often amazed by what I see out my window.  It’s the essence of the Birds in Backyards program!

In order not to disadvantage our country members, we’re not being strict on the “city” definition; we’ll consider anywhere there are buildings (small towns, even a group of farm buildings) to meet the criterion – but you don’t have to include structures in your images.  This competition will open for entries on 4^th September.

When a competition is closed for submissions, it will be opened for members to vote for their choice of the best images in each competition level.  Members will be sent an email advising them of this; it will also be announced on the Home page.  Voting is open to all members; you do not have to have entered a competition to vote for the entries in each of the competition levels.

You may vote for up to 5 images in each competition level, awarding 5 points to the image you select as best, down to 1 point for your fifth choice; you may choose to award points to fewer than five images.  Before voting, you should review all the images in the gallery for the competition level to select your choices; you can do this at any time before voting closes, and you do not have to be logged in to the website to review images.  You do have to be logged in to enter your votes; the Vote section on each image page will only be visible if your are logged in.

Reviewing Images

When you commence the review of the submitted images, we would encourage you to consider the criteria that our Mystery Reviewer employs when selecting his/her top five images.  Look for the essential elements in the image that enables it stand out from the rest:

• Technical criteria:  Sharpness; exposure; depth of field; colour and/or tonal rendition; contrast; lighting.
• Visual and aesthetic criteria:  Framing and choice of viewpoint; background, design elements and principles; appropriate application of post processing techniques; overall visual impact.
• Content:  Competition theme relevance; emotion; mood; subject impact.
• Viewer’s response:  Intellectual; emotional; excitement; wow factor.
• General characteristics:  Originality; style; context; photographic vision; empathy; insight.

You should review the images at as large a size as possible; you should certainly not review them in the thumbnail page(s) for each gallery, as much detail is missing there.  When you open a single image from the thumbnail page, you will have two methods of viewing other images in the same gallery without having to return to the thumbnail page for every image in the gallery.  The easiest way is to use the Previous/Next buttons on the left/right sections of each image when your mouse is over the image; you can also use the small previous/next buttons for the gallery to move through the images in the gallery.  This will display each image at full size - if your browser window is wide enough to do so (1800 pixels for the maximum width images we accept); they will be resized if your browser window is narrower.  Alternatively, you can choose to review the images in a slide show (maximum 800 x 600 pixels) by clicking the blue slide show link for the gallery.

The slide show will display each image for 5 seconds (default - you can change this in your My Account page on the Home menu when you are logged in).  During the slide show, both the image ID number and the number in the gallery are displayed below the image; you can note these down for reference so you can later return to the image to examine it more closely, and/or record your vote for it.  Clicking the Close button (at bottom-right of the slide show window) will return you to the full size image view for the image in the slideshow at the time; you can return to the slide show which will resume from the image you stopped at.  This is a convenient way to review images quickly at near full-size in the slide show, and at full size in the image page.

Voting

The voting section, at the bottom of the image view page (see screenshot above), is only visible when you are logged in.  It is also not visible if the image you are viewing is yours - you are not allowed to vote for your own images.  To record your vote for an image, simply select the number of points you wish to award to the image from the dropdown box, and then click the "Vote" button; this button will become active when you make a selection in the dropdown box.  The dropdown box will initially display the points you have awarded to the image; until you vote for an image, it will say "No vote".

The entries in the dropdown box are the point values that you have not already awarded to an image (so you cannot, for example, award 5 points to two images).  If you wish to cancel a vote for an image, just select "No Vote" and click the "Vote" button; if you wish to change the number of points you've awarded, select the new value and vote; if the new value you want to award is not available, you will need to remove it from the image that you've already awarded it to.

And that's it!  It's really simple and straight-forward, and it enforces the voting rules which we have established.  We encourage all our members to participate in voting for competition images, even if you haven't entered any images in them.

These guidelines are based on the assumptions that, generally speaking:

• a good quality DSLR and lens combination, should produce better quality images; and
• post-processing can improve the appearance of an image.

What Level Should I Enter?

BLP Members are free to choose the level to enter a Photo competition. The appropriate level is based on the general standard of the photographer. In other words, you may not change levels based on the quality of a particular photo. The guidelines are designed to assist a member in making his or her decision, but are not definitive or compulsory.

Entry Level

Member has:

• an entry-level camera
• nil to basic post-processing software/skills
• less than two years experience as a photographer

Intermediate Level

Member has:

• some post-processing software and skills (but can be improved)
• two or more years experience as a photographer

Advanced Level

Member has:

• two or more years experience as a photographer
• two or more years experience as a bird photographer
• intermediate to advanced post-processing skills
• sufficient experience to act as a Mystery Reviewer for this category

If a member is still unsure which level to enter, they can send a small portfolio of images (no more than 4 images), together with details of their camera equipment, photographic experience and photo-editing software, to the Photo Competition Co-ordinator who will then suggest which level is most appropriate.

Can I Change Between Levels, and If So, When?

Moving Up

Generally, moving between levels will only be considered at the end of a calendar year, which takes into account the yearly Awards process.  Gold medal winners from the yearly Awards must move up a level (except for those already at Advanced level), commencing with the first competition after the announcement of the awards.

Moving Down

We anticipate that there may be times when a photographer feels that they can no longer compete at a higher level, for a variety of reasons. From the commencement of photo competition # 4 for 2016, (planned commencement date 11 July), members may only go down a level with the approval of the Photo Competition Co-ordinator, following a request from the member.