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Inspiring and Supporting Photographers of Australian Birds

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  • Sooty Oystercatcher (Image ID 23570)

    Sooty Oystercatcher.   Photographer: Dick Jenkin

  • White-faced Heron (Image ID 20074)

    White-faced Heron.   Photographer: Chris Dubar

  • Australian Pelican (Image ID 18897)

    Australian Pelican.   Photographer: Mal Carnegie

  • Pacific Black Duck (Image ID 43564)

    Pacific Black Duck.   Photographer: Rob Solic

  • Western Spinebill (Image ID 42562)

    Western Spinebill.   Photographer: Woody Woodhouse

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The next BirdLife Photography Biennial Conference will be held in Hahndorf, SA, at the Adelaide Hills Convention Centre, on 23rd & 24th March 2024.

Visit the dedicated BirdLife Photography Biennial Conference website for details.  Ticket sales are now open.

The final cut-off dates for conference attendance and conference dinner bookings are Saturday 9th of March for the dinner and Saturday 16th of March for the conference itself. No bookings can be accepted after the cut-off dates

BirdLife Photography would like to acknowledge Adelaide Optical Centre and Twin City Cameras for their generous sponsorship of our conference.

This Search facility will search all website content, uploaded documents, and images.  Some content on this site is restricted to BLP members; visitors may not be able to access all the items found.  The search options button on the All Photos page (on the Photo Gallery drop-down menu), and on individual gallery pages, provides more options for searching images only.

Latest Images

Welcome Swallow (Image ID 62201)
Welcome Swallow
Glenn Pure
Viewed: 37
Australasian Grebe (Image ID 62200)
Australasian Grebe
Glenn Pure
Viewed: 31
Welcome Swallow (Image ID 62199)
Welcome Swallow
Rob Solic
Viewed: 23
Grey Butcherbird, Noisy Miner (Image ID 62198)
Grey Butcherbird, Noisy Miner
Angela Farnsworth
Viewed: 14
Grey Butcherbird, Noisy Miner (Image ID 62197)
Grey Butcherbird, Noisy Miner
Angela Farnsworth
Viewed: 11
Far Eastern Curlew (Image ID 62196)
Far Eastern Curlew
Tony Willis
Viewed: 16
Australian Brush-turkey (Image ID 62195)
Australian Brush-turkey
Angela Farnsworth
Viewed: 12
Striated Heron (Image ID 62194)
Striated Heron
Angela Farnsworth
Viewed: 16
Crested Pigeon (Image ID 62193)
Crested Pigeon
Diana Womersley
Viewed: 28
White-winged Chough (Image ID 62192)
White-winged Chough
Diana Womersley
Viewed: 25
Black Swan (Image ID 62191)
Black Swan
Ian Wilson
Viewed: 29
Grey Plover (Image ID 62190)
Grey Plover
Glenda Gore
Viewed: 17
Masked Lapwing (Image ID 62189)
Masked Lapwing
Glenda Gore
Viewed: 11
Fairy Tern (Image ID 62188)
Fairy Tern
Glenda Gore
Viewed: 15
Western Spinebill (Image ID 62187)
Western Spinebill
Glenda Gore
Viewed: 16
Pacific Black Duck (Image ID 62145)
Pacific Black Duck
John Gitsham
Viewed: 16

The theme for this competition was clearly defined: "Finches include all the birds within the family Weaver Finches (Estrildidae), detailed in the BWL taxonomy currently used on the Birdlife Photography website, plus the European Goldfinch and the European Greenfinch.  Chats include the four species of Chat plus the Gibberbird."

This definition left ample scope to search for those images in which the photographer had infused additional elements into the image, ones which would capture the judge’s attention and compel me to take a second and then third viewing.  A competition affords the opportunity to display your photographic skills and there are many elements to consider.  I’m looking for those images which incorporate the ‘art of photography’ rather than simply being technically excellent.  An advanced level photographer is expected to be technically excellent.  There is a plethora of photographic information on the internet and drilling through this vast resource to find the thoughts of our most creative wildlife and nature photographers takes time and patience.  Is it worth the effort?  Yes it is!

For this review I choose to quote one of our very own awarded photographers, Georgina Steytler: “… my aim (in producing this booklet) is to inspire bird photographers to be creative.  As the quote suggests, you do not need to be creative to be creative.  You just need to be willing to bend a few 'rules'.  Creativity, by definition, doesn't come from doing the same things as everyone else, in the same way.  To be creative is to be different.  So, does this mean you can skip all that boring technical stuff and do anything you want?  No.  Not at all.  The best creativity comes from learning the rules carefully, so you can break them properly”

If you haven’t spent time reading and thinking about the art in your bird photography, the ebooks on our website from Georgina Steytler and Con Boekel are a good place to start.

This competition proved to be far more demanding than I initially envisaged with the overall quality of entries requiring several days to compile a shortlist from which to choose the awarded images.  The photographers who entered this competition are to be commended for the high quality of their images.  With such a quality field there was little choice but to bestow a larger number of awards overall.  Those images which have received an award have been selected on the smallest of margins as compared to those images which were not included in the shortlist.  Let’s examine the awarded images and the reasons why these images were the competition highlights for me.

For this competition I could not separate two images and as such I have awarded dual winners.

Winner: Star Finch, by Bill Harding (Image ID 39769)

This is a simple and yet wonderful image, encapsulating a dramatic storyline.  I didn’t need to read the photographers comstralians in 2019 & 2020 and these two finches sitting on a burnt log stimulated my imagination.  The additional text accompanying the image provides a perfect analysis of the other reasons why I love this image.  The juxtaposition of the two birds, the morning light, the detail in the burnt log and the overall colour palette in the image.  The background bokeh complements the colours in both the plumage of the birds and the burnt log, and the coments, my first thought related to the burned log on which the birds were sitting.  The storyline of ‘fire’ has been ‘burnt’ into the memories of all Aulours throughout the image are true to life.  A beautifully simple image and thoroughly deserving of the top award.

Star Finch

Winner: Zebra Finch, by Stephen Garth (Image ID 39852)

This image equally deserves the top award.  All too often a bird small in the landscape escapes the praise it deserves.  Both the bird, the tree and the light in this image combine to make this a spectacular image.  The detail in the timber of the tree, the lichen on the branches and the overall form of the tree are sensational.  The male Zebra Finch adds that extra element of context and interest – what is he looking at?  The storyline is also extended with the dung on the branch; which species of bird was responsible for this deposit and which seeded plant was the bird feeding on?  The background bokeh is tied to the colour of the foreground lichen, and the grey of the finch combines with the grey of the timber.  There is so much to like in this image.

Zebra Finch

Highly Commended: Doubled-barred Finch, by Sandy Castle (Image ID 39815)

The composition and colour palette immediately attracted my attention.  First and foremost, it is not a bird on a single stick.  No matter how beautiful such a portrait might be, in this image the finch is beautifully framed by a crazy rusty wire fence – delightful!  There is also a secondary frame provided by the two seeded grass stems which form an arch above the bird.  The soft pink tones in the grasses and the subtle green of the plant stem work perfectly as complementary secondary colours.  As in the previous two images, the background bokeh is perfect and the colours compliment the rusty fence and highlight the back and white tones in the bird’s plumage.  Some judges might argue that there is too much head-space in this image but the grasses on the right-hand side validate this crop and the bird’s location in the bottom third of the image is the ideal position for the main subject.

Doubled-barred Finch

Commended: White-fronted Chat, by Scott Rolph (Image ID 40490)

Perfectly exposed and sharp, this image has been chosen because of its storyline; the dragonfly in the bill of the bird.  Was this catch intended to be eaten or was it to feed a hungry chick?  The technical aspects such as framing the bird, sharpness, contrast, exposure in the blacks and whites are all well controlled in this image.  The background bokeh ideally compliments the foreground vegetation and the blue tones in the top left-hand corner add that element of variety to the background.

White-fronted Chat

Commended: White-fronted Chat, by Gary King (Image ID 39975)

This is an image I have awarded a commendation to in a previous competition and my comments remain the same: “This is a truly delightful portrait of a male White-fronted Chat.  The pose of the bird, including the head angle and direct eye contact, and the colour palette create a visually arousing image.  The white and black plumage of the bird against a green background clearly delineates the outline of the bird.  In terms of the foreground vegetation, the orange and green tones are ideal complementary partners that bring a brightness to the image.  I particularly like the way the photographer has positioned himself so as to capture an image that differentiates the head and bill of the male against an even blue-grey background.”

White-fronted Chat

Commended: Chestnut-breasted Mannikin, by Bill Harding (Image ID 39736)

The photographer picked this image due to the head angles and body positions of the three mannikins.  This is appealing, and equally appealing are the structural elements in the background.  Without this background I would have been less inclined to select this image.  The background is nicely out of focus and yet there is sufficient detail to add a series of green and yellow stripes on the left-hand side with paler green and grey stripes on the right-hand side.  In the foreground there are curly leaves adding yet another dimension to this image.  It is not often that the background is a key component in an image, but this is one such occasion.  One reason why the background works so well in this composition is the fact that the tones are largely complementary – greens, grey greens and yellows.  As stated by the photographer, the details in the blacks and whites in the plumage of the birds are well controlled, which adds to the technical excellence of this image..

Chestnutpher picked this image due to the head angles and body positions of the three mannikins.  This is appealing, and equally appealing are the structural elements in the background.  Without this background I would have been less inclined to select this image.  The background is nicely out of focus and yet there is sufficient detail to add a series of green and yellow stripes on the left-hand side with paler green and grey stripes on the right-hand side.  In the foreground there are curly leaves adding yet another dimension to this image.  It is not often that the background is a key component in an image, but this is one such occasion.  One reason why the background works so well in this composition is the fact that the tones are largely complementary – greens,-breasted Mannikin

Commended: Red-browed Firetail, by John Cooper (Image ID 39899)

This is a technically excellent portrait.  The eye contact with the bird is perfect and I particularly like the highlight in the eye.  This is a more difficult capture given the lighting conditions and the photographer has a achieved a true to life colour reproduction, notably in the reds.  The lichen on the branch is perfectly exposed and the yellow lichen compliments the yellow tones in the finch’s wing and back.

Red-browed Firetail

Now to two more technically excellent images, both being Diamond Firetails.  When I first started exhibiting my bird photos at ‘club level’ I was fortunate to be asked to share a critique spot with an internationally accredited judge.  The person will remain unnamed, but let’s call him Judge R.  With a down-to-earth personality, Judge R shared his wisdom with me.  The advice he gave me was that my photography was technically excellent but essentially the majority of my photos were simply ‘birds on sticks’ (which is why I have used this terminology from time to time) and that such beautiful images would not do well in competitions without a ‘wow’ factor.  Does this mean I never take such images?  Certainly not; if you have been following my Costa Rica birds on Instagram you would know that they are either ‘birds on sticks’ or hummers in flight.  The difference is that most of my Instagram photos would not make the final cut in a competition.  If I were compiling a Photographic ID book of Australian birds, the two Diamond Firetail images would be my first choices for this species.  For a competition they don’t quite manage the ‘wow’ factor, which is why they didn’t score the top spots.  I will also lay a wager that both images will score highly in the membership voting, perhaps the top scores, as six years in BLP has shown that members almost always vote on technical excellence, the brightest or favoured species and not on the art of photography.  In May 2020, researchers made fake animals to see which would attract the most support for preservation; the key trait: lots of multiple bright colours; cool tones such as blue and purple rated highly, as did a large size. Food for thought!

Commended: Diamond Firetail, by John Cooper (Image ID 39894)

A superbly composed portrait, sharp with the right amount of contrast and colour reproduction; this firetail is depicted in all its glory.  There are two elements which distinguish this image from the classic photo ID portrait that is the main-stay of the New Images gallery.  The first is the grass stem in the bird’s mouth, which poses the question ’Is this part of a pair-bond display?’ and which is reinforced by the photographer’s accompanying description.  The second element is the lichen encrusted perch, which is attractive and less common.

Red-browed Firetail

Commended: Diamond Firetail, by Brian O’Leary (Image ID 39846)

As with the previous image of a firetail, this is a technically excellent portrait.  One element that makes this image appealing is the lichen hanging from the branch.

Red-browed Firetail

Special Mentions

Gouldian Finch, Masked Finch, by Gary King (Image ID 39892).  This is an image which has broken the mould of the classic portrait.  I would call this image ‘Christmas Lights’.  The intent is clear, the impact may have been greater if the light had been brighter.

Chestnut-breasted Mannikin, by Terence Alexander (Image ID 40543).  This image evokes a creative style and I like the what the photographer has tried to achieve with the bird highlighted against a dark background.  The subtle spider web running across the image is a bonus.

Orange Chat, by Wilson Lennard (Image ID 40355).  The lighting and the pose in this image are nothing short of superb.  The background is gorgeous.  Less negative space would have raised this image to commended.

Red-eared Firetail, by Stephen Garth (Image ID 40149).  This is an image I have awarded a special mention in a previous competition and my comments then were “The bird is beautifully depicted against a high-key background …” In this respect this image is more artistic than the classic ID portraits and I like what the photographer has attempted to achieve.

 

There are other aspects of photography which I take this opportunity now comment on.

The first is ‘close cropping’.  My preference would be to give more room around the birds in the following images; in some of these images, only by the smallest of margins.  These images are 40155, 40551, 39851, 40547, 40549, 39895, 39896, 40548, 40070, and 40553.

The second relates to ‘too much negative space’,  This becomes more of an issue where the image has a beautifully smooth bokeh with little or no complexity in the background. Whilst this is often desired by photographers, there can be ‘too much of a good thing’. The images impacted by this are 40515*, 40509, 39788, 40507, 39814, 39812*, 40354, 39813, 40508* and 40353.  Images with an asterisk would benefit from minimal reduction.

Next is ‘too much overall contrast or clarity’, which diminishes the image quality. This is a difficult call especially not being in possession of the original files and so I have to make the most of what I see on my screen, which is a colour corrected Eizo monitor.  The images affected are 40469, 40461, and 39931.

I’m tempted to make a comment on the rendering of the ‘reds’ in some of the images, but this needs more than a sentence or two and so this can wait for a follow-up article.

Recent Picks

Grey-backed Storm-Petrel (Image ID 62071)
Grey-backed Storm-Petrel
Chris Young
Viewed: 110
Pink Robin (Image ID 61955)
Pink Robin
Rob Solic
Viewed: 107
Australasian Gannet (Image ID 61793)
Australasian Gannet
Valerie Misa
Viewed: 103
Superb Fairy-wren (Image ID 61802)
Superb Fairy-wren
Shane Little
Viewed: 88
Galah (Image ID 61731)
Galah
Rob Solic
Viewed: 115
Australasian Darter (Image ID 61648)
Australasian Darter
Stephen Garth
Viewed: 119
Plumed Whistling-Duck (Image ID 61612)
Plumed Whistling-Duck
Shane Little
Viewed: 153
Pied Stilt (Image ID 61516)
Pied Stilt
Patrick Kavanagh
Viewed: 138
Australasian Gannet (Image ID 61497)
Australasian Gannet
Stephen Garth
Viewed: 212
Australian White Ibis (Image ID 61471)
Australian White Ibis
Angela Farnsworth
Viewed: 165

CONTACT US

The easiest way to contact us is by emailing us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Our People page, in the About Us section, contains email links to each of the committee members.