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Inspiring and Supporting Photographers of Australian Birds

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  • Pacific Black Duck (Image ID 27908)

    Pacific Black Duck.   Photographer: Doug Castle

  • Superb Fairy-wren (Image ID 30571)

    Superb Fairy-wren.   Photographer: Emmy Silvius

  • Southern Boobook (Image ID 25534)

    Southern Boobook.   Photographer: Bill Harding

  • Straw-necked Ibis (Image ID 36102)

    Straw-necked Ibis.   Photographer: Rodger Scott

  • Red-capped Plover (Image ID 19448)

    Red-capped Plover.   Photographer: Mark Lethlean

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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: 41
Australasian Grebe (Image ID 62200)
Australasian Grebe
Glenn Pure
Viewed: 34
Welcome Swallow (Image ID 62199)
Welcome Swallow
Rob Solic
Viewed: 24
Grey Butcherbird, Noisy Miner (Image ID 62198)
Grey Butcherbird, Noisy Miner
Angela Farnsworth
Viewed: 15
Grey Butcherbird, Noisy Miner (Image ID 62197)
Grey Butcherbird, Noisy Miner
Angela Farnsworth
Viewed: 13
Far Eastern Curlew (Image ID 62196)
Far Eastern Curlew
Tony Willis
Viewed: 18
Australian Brush-turkey (Image ID 62195)
Australian Brush-turkey
Angela Farnsworth
Viewed: 13
Striated Heron (Image ID 62194)
Striated Heron
Angela Farnsworth
Viewed: 17
Crested Pigeon (Image ID 62193)
Crested Pigeon
Diana Womersley
Viewed: 31
White-winged Chough (Image ID 62192)
White-winged Chough
Diana Womersley
Viewed: 26
Black Swan (Image ID 62191)
Black Swan
Ian Wilson
Viewed: 30
Grey Plover (Image ID 62190)
Grey Plover
Glenda Gore
Viewed: 19
Masked Lapwing (Image ID 62189)
Masked Lapwing
Glenda Gore
Viewed: 12
Fairy Tern (Image ID 62188)
Fairy Tern
Glenda Gore
Viewed: 16
Western Spinebill (Image ID 62187)
Western Spinebill
Glenda Gore
Viewed: 17
Pacific Black Duck (Image ID 62145)
Pacific Black Duck
John Gitsham
Viewed: 16

I want you all to know I tried this, and it was darn hard!  If you live in a city, and wanted to have more than a rare or fleeting glimpse of a “blue” subject in the wild, you were probably restricted to a limited choice of Rainbow Lorikeets, Purple Swamphens, a duck or two or maybe a less likely opportunity with a Crimson Rosella.  Or maybe a Corella if you were lucky.  This meant that one generally had to go further afield in the wild to find an appropriate colour subject, and this I feel is why the number of entrants for this competition was nearly half of previous challenges.  Although, it did occur to me much later that a long overdue trip to the zoo could have achieved a worthwhile result, too.

To have such a specific challenge obviously narrows down the available field of subjects dramatically in the suburban environment.  This then means that we had to spend more time finding birds with blue attributes, and this therefore left potentially less time available to concentrate on creating an interesting, artful or stylish image.  That said, the photographers whose images have been recognized showed us their skill and dogged determination to create something more than just a blue bird picture.

Notwithstanding that this competition topic was very challenging, it was by the same token very exciting.  Birding is always a contest, some may even say conquest when it all goes well.  It gave us the opportunity to dig deeper and to work harder at being better photography exponents.  Because bird photography is not just about the technicalities of the camera and lens. It’s so much more.  We have to find the bird, which can require some understanding of the subject’s habitat/environment, and maybe even require some bush-craft skills in order to get close enough to get that elusive, creative or artistic shot.

I felt that whilst we did have fewer entries, the actual standard was higher in the entrants that did obviously work very, very hard to rise to the challenge to capture great images of this exclusive group of birds.  The bulk of submitted images were sharp, and well lit and it was wonderful to see a wide use of great backgrounds to enhance their images.  This is what we hope to see in the Advanced category as photographers develop a more holistic approach to their image creation.

Winner: Turquoise Parrot, by Wilson Lennard (Image ID 30172 - image no longer available)

A visually descriptive image that combines many of the elements of design splendidly.  What makes this a striking image is that the primary elements of design (lines, shape, form, texture and colour) all balance really well.  Lines are the strongest element in composition, eg. no line no shape, no shape no form, no form no texture, no texture no pattern.
In this image the right to left lines are overwhelmingly the strongest element in the image.  The vertical grass stems, the bark texture running vertically and the tall vertically oriented bird.  The alternately leaning lines of the grasses, the bird and the log all move the eye up and down through the image.  Other elements provide synergies in the image, too.  The shape (contour) of the bird, grass and log are all vertical and long, and the form (structure) of the bird, log and grasses are all round.  These similarities give this image a consistency that the eye cannot deny.  As well, though, there are subtle differences.  The harsh texture of the log bark contrasts to the soft texture of the bird’s feathers.  Colour plays a strong role in the image, too.  The colours of the bird correspond exactly to the background grasses which aid in pulling the foreground and background together, but with just enough contrast in the log sandwiched in the middle, to keep the image from collapsing into a bland game of tones.  A lovely image that tells me much about this bird’s environment.

 

Commended: Sacred Kingfisher, by William Betts (Image ID 30121)

The first thing that struck me in this image is the beautiful lighting.  It’s soft, delicate and the complete bird (facing) is really well exposed. It is a delight to view an image that has been subtly lit so that the whites aren’t overexposed.  In this image we can see the delicate dark spots around the neck clearly.  This light has been very well controlled so as to allow the shadows to fall in the folds of the wing feathers.  Combining with the dark background an almost three dimensional feeling is portrayed in this lifelike rendition.  A very well crafted image.

Sacred Kingfisher

Commended: Crimson Rosella (ssp P.e.flaveolus), by Wilson Lennard (Image ID 30173 - image no longer available)

Looking more like a painting, this image gives us an excellent visual result.  It shows off both the exquisite back plumage as well as an excellent profile view displaying the front head markings.  Not only did this photographer get a bird with blue feathers, he patiently waited for the precise moment to get this highly descriptive orientation.  I’m sure he saw that the perch he selected for his desired image had a background of infinite blur, and was going to give his planned image a soft ‘neutral palette’ for his brightly coloured subject to stand out against.  This style of image is seen by the advanced photographer, prepared early, delivering a no-distraction background and an image of beauty.

 

Commended: Indian Peafowl, by Con Boekel (Image ID 30049 - image no longer available)

Ordinarily a two dimensional study doesn’t create as much interest as an action shot, or even an angled perched image with maybe a head turned showing different postures.  However this orientation well suits this subject in giving us a clear view of the fascinating rear plumage and excellent feather detail.  A real close-up of every part of its textured head.  The natural lighting is attractive and the neutral background framing the subject allows 100% focus on the bird with no distraction.

 

Commended: Sacred Kingfisher, by Brian O’Leary (Image ID 30237)

Obviously this is a very difficult image to capture and as such the photographer is to be congratulated on acquiring it.  As a remote setup shot, even at the fast shutter speed chosen (1/3200) there is a slight amount of motion blur as without panning it’s almost impossible to capture a fast subject crisply in its entirety, albeit here we have a small piece of the wing is in focus as well as the post (focal point).  The image also has a pleasant smooth distraction-free background.

Sacred Kingfisher

 

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: 139
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.