On behalf of the BirdLife Photography Committee it gives me great pleasure to announce the second phase of the restructure of our digital library, the launch of the Premier Bird Images Gallery (PBIG). This gallery showcases the highest quality images published in our Main Library. You can view the gallery at birdlifephotography.org.au/photogallery/galleries/premier-bird-images.
The gallery currently contains images from a subset of bird families - you can view the families that have been appraised to date from the link in the gallery description; more images will be added as existing images for other families are reviewed, and as new images are reviewed.
Digital images selected for the PBIG by the two judging panels adhere to an agreed set of criteria developed by the Working Groups and the BirdLife Photography Committee in respect to the clear depiction of each species in combination with the highest quality photographic/technical elements (as detailed by National and International standards). The details of the process for selecting images can be accessed by following the links on the website. In brief, the number of images for each species by an individual photographer is restricted to three images, except in exceptional circumstances. High quality images which exceeded the photographer/species limit or did not meet the PBIG size criteria have been flagged as high quality images and these images will be searchable in all galleries in our new website, when launched in 2016.
As I indicated in the October Newsletter, the overall process for this gallery has been demanding and extremely time consuming (by both the Working groups and the BLP Committee) to arrive at the launch today; however we now have an effective, efficient and fair process, which enables the Committee to focus on the third phase of the project, which will be engaging with the Bird Identification Gallery (BIG) Working Group for the launch of that gallery in 2016.
I encourage you to review the new PBIG and take the time to look for the photographic elements that make each image worthy of display in the PBIG and apply the same rigorous analysis to your own photography. It will become evident as you work through the BPIG that from the thousands of images appraised to date there are few images that have been selected. Further, there are many species for which no images were selected. This should not be viewed as a negative nor rejection, but rather a positive ? it should stimulate each and every member to strive for that ?ultimate? high quality image, which may take months sometimes even years to achieve. If you read the biographies of dedicated wildlife photographers, including those who produce the BBC documentaries, you will be aware that it often takes a lifetime to capture an image of a rare animal or not commonly observed behaviour. Take this opportunity to review the species where there are no premier images or those species where premier photos of a particular sex or age cohort are missing and apply your photographic skills to capturing such images that are worthy of inclusion in the PBIG. These photos are absolutely key to making the BirdLife Photography Digital Image Library (BPDIL) the ?go to? photographic resource in Australia.
Should you feel that you have a high quality image that has been overlooked please contact me directly with the image ID, whereupon I will arrange for a reappraisal of the image. If the judges consider that a re-worked image might score a 14 we will assign a mentor to work with you.
We hope you enjoy our new Premier Bird Images Gallery and that you find viewing the gallery an informative process for improving your photography.
Graham Cam on behalf of the BLP Committee
