Inspiring and Supporting Photographers of Australian Birds
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Mistletoebird. Photographer: Diana Womersley
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Chestnut Teal. Photographer: Murray Chambers
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Dusky Honeyeater. Photographer: Audrey Haynes
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Osprey. Photographer: Rob Solic
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Chestnut Teal. Photographer: Bruce McNaughton
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Mystery Reviewer Critiques
All our Mystery Reviewer critique articles are available here, with the most recent ones at the top. Those published within the last two years are member-only access; you must be logged in to see them.
The Mystery reviewer articles are written during the voting phase of the competition; the Mystery Reviewers do not know the identity of the photographers.
There were many excellent images submitted to this competition making it very difficult to choose the winner. In most competitions there are a few stand-out entries making judging relatively easy but in this one there were many potential winners. Any of the images I have commended could be winners on another day in another competition, so these photographers should not be too disappointed, they are all outstanding pictures. In making my decision I gave careful consideration to a number of factors. My first consideration was how well the image aligned with the description of the theme: The focus is on the head and bill but an appropriate amount of neck and upper body (minimum please) as a base for the head and bill is acceptable. The challenge is to obtain sharpness and clarity with the identifiable features of the head and bill including those features that identify the species.
We received about 170 entries in the Intermediate level of the Head and Bill competition, the largest number of the three categories. It’s great to see this level of participation by members, and it gives me lots of quality images from which to choose.
It has been a pleasure to judge the 100 entries submitted in this competition level. In doing so, I reviewed each image three times. With the first review, I focused on elements contributing to a good image that the photographer should consider and control when taking the image (eye visibility, sharpness, general composition including bill and head direction, exposure and depth of field). With the second round of reviews I looked at elements that could have been improved on if necessary, in the post processing phase (cropping, picture placement, background distraction control, shadows and highlights as well as noise control). Finally, in the third round I focused on elements that produced some sort of a ‘wow’ factor (the written comments, feeling, action/drama, interaction with the photographer or something else that makes the image special). I understand that some of these third round elements may come down to good luck and just being in the right place at the right time, but when there are so many worthy entries, it helps to decide on winners when all else is so close.
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."
The chats did quite a few photographers a favour by perching near eye level in reasonably clear fields. On the other hand, the finches gave lots of issues with vegetation, stray birds mucking up the composition, jittery movement, and even the rocks created significant pictorial issues. I suspect that placing small birds in 1800 pixels added to the challenges.
First, congratulations to all photographers who entered our Entry level category. By entering competitions like ours, it forces you to cast a critical eye over your images. It may be your first step in realising your full potential as a photographer, so well done and stick at it.
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