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Inspiring and Supporting Photographers of Australian Birds

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  • Chestnut Teal, Pacific Black Duck (Image ID 53156)

    Chestnut Teal, Pacific Black Duck.   Photographer: Philip Moors

  • Australian Ringneck (Image ID 33192)

    Australian Ringneck.   Photographer: Bill Harding

  • Yellow-throated Miner (Image ID 37616)

    Yellow-throated Miner.   Photographer: Emmy Silvius

  • Red Wattlebird (Image ID 30433)

    Red Wattlebird.   Photographer: Emmy Silvius

  • Australian Wood Duck (Image ID 61483)

    Australian Wood Duck.   Photographer: Rob Parker

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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: 17
Australasian Grebe (Image ID 62200)
Australasian Grebe
Glenn Pure
Viewed: 13
Welcome Swallow (Image ID 62199)
Welcome Swallow
Rob Solic
Viewed: 8
Grey Butcherbird, Noisy Miner (Image ID 62198)
Grey Butcherbird, Noisy Miner
Angela Farnsworth
Viewed: 4
Grey Butcherbird, Noisy Miner (Image ID 62197)
Grey Butcherbird, Noisy Miner
Angela Farnsworth
Viewed: 4
Far Eastern Curlew (Image ID 62196)
Far Eastern Curlew
Tony Willis
Viewed: 5
Australian Brush-turkey (Image ID 62195)
Australian Brush-turkey
Angela Farnsworth
Viewed: 7
Striated Heron (Image ID 62194)
Striated Heron
Angela Farnsworth
Viewed: 7
Crested Pigeon (Image ID 62193)
Crested Pigeon
Diana Womersley
Viewed: 15
White-winged Chough (Image ID 62192)
White-winged Chough
Diana Womersley
Viewed: 18
Black Swan (Image ID 62191)
Black Swan
Ian Wilson
Viewed: 19
Grey Plover (Image ID 62190)
Grey Plover
Glenda Gore
Viewed: 11
Masked Lapwing (Image ID 62189)
Masked Lapwing
Glenda Gore
Viewed: 7
Fairy Tern (Image ID 62188)
Fairy Tern
Glenda Gore
Viewed: 10
Western Spinebill (Image ID 62187)
Western Spinebill
Glenda Gore
Viewed: 10
Pacific Black Duck (Image ID 62145)
Pacific Black Duck
John Gitsham
Viewed: 3

The minimum requirement for an acceptable image at this Level is that the bird must be in focus and reasonably well exposed. I am pleased to see that most of the images passed this hurdle although some images were a bit ‘soft’. The problematic performance of the Sigma 150–500 mm zoom at 500 mm was to blame in some cases and I saw little evidence that photographers understood the need for output sharpening.

When an image is downsized for the BLP gallery, a mild blur is introduced which needs to be removed using output sharpening as explained by Glenn Pure in the April 2016 Newsletter.

From an aesthetic point of view, nearly half the images showed the bird in the centre of the frame which is not a pleasing composition. It is usually better to offset the bird from the centre to give it some ‘space’ to look into, walk into or fly into. Another serious problem arises from making the bird too big in the frame; three images were compromised in this way. Despite these shortcomings, I found plenty of reasons to be optimistic as in most cases the photographer only needed to take a few small steps to achieve a noticeable improvement. My top selections for the Entry Level competition are as follows:

Winner: Double-banded Plover - Daniel Lees (Image #20636).

The Double-banded Plover is a striking image with the bird highlighted in a shaft of beautiful soft light. The image has a lot of potential and could be improved with a few simple adjustments. For example, one could crop out the vertical twigs of vegetation on the left and add a similar amount to the right if available. The dark out of focus sea-weed piles in the background are distracting and could be lightened to make them less obvious. One might also consider taking a bit off the top and bottom. Little changes like these can make a big difference to a viewer’s first impression and invite a closer look. A little output sharpening of the bird using the Remove Gaussian Blur option in Photoshop would also be beneficial. Despite these minor issues, I am pleased to select this image as the winner of the Entry Level competition.

Double-banded Plover (Daniel Lees)

Highly Commended: Forest Kingfisher - Anne Burgess (Image #20896).

The Forest Kingfisher is highly commended. The bird is nicely framed and technically competent with the image quality about as good as one can expect from a JPEG only super-zoom at full stretch. The presentation could be improved with a little output sharpening of the bird.

Forest Kingfisher (Anne Burges)

Commended: Plumed Whistling Duck - Anne Burgess (Image #20843).

The group of three Plumed Whistling Ducks is technically and aesthetically pleasing but as the photographer notes, these birds are alert and to my mind this introduces undesirable tension into the photographic narrative. A lower shooting angle, if possible, would have been helpful and as with the previous images, a little output sharpening would be beneficial.

Plumed Whistling Duck (Anne Burgess)

Commended: Bar-tailed Godwit - Jeni Mackenzie (Image #20542).

The thumbnail of the flying Bar-tailed Godwit promised much but I was disappointed on opening the image to find it was ‘flat’ and washed out. It is otherwise a splendid capture with the rolling surf in the background and the bird nicely positioned in the frame. It looks like the contrast was somehow ‘flattened’ and the photographer should seek expert advice on the cause of this and on ways to recover the image. It would be helpful to know the camera settings used to capture this image.

Bar-tailed Godwit (Jeni Mackenzie)

Commended: Black-tailed Native-hen - Daniel Lees (Image #20641)

The Sharp-tailed Sandpiper and Black-tailed Native Hen shows that the Sigma 150–500 mm can produce a reasonable image in good light if the aperture is closed down far enough (f/13!). The Sandpiper image is too compromised by the distraction caused by the rock in the foreground, central position of the bird and the high point of view but the Native Hen has reasonable image quality for the gear used and the walking bird is nicely positioned in the frame..

Black-tailed Native-hen (Daniel Lees)

Recent Picks

Grey-backed Storm-Petrel (Image ID 62071)
Grey-backed Storm-Petrel
Chris Young
Viewed: 105
Pink Robin (Image ID 61955)
Pink Robin
Rob Solic
Viewed: 104
Australasian Gannet (Image ID 61793)
Australasian Gannet
Valerie Misa
Viewed: 102
Superb Fairy-wren (Image ID 61802)
Superb Fairy-wren
Shane Little
Viewed: 87
Galah (Image ID 61731)
Galah
Rob Solic
Viewed: 114
Australasian Darter (Image ID 61648)
Australasian Darter
Stephen Garth
Viewed: 118
Plumed Whistling-Duck (Image ID 61612)
Plumed Whistling-Duck
Shane Little
Viewed: 152
Pied Stilt (Image ID 61516)
Pied Stilt
Patrick Kavanagh
Viewed: 135
Australasian Gannet (Image ID 61497)
Australasian Gannet
Stephen Garth
Viewed: 211
Australian White Ibis (Image ID 61471)
Australian White Ibis
Angela Farnsworth
Viewed: 164

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.