Our Zoom presentation "Members Inspiring Members" on Wednesday 17^th April was attended by about 50 members.  For those who were unable to attend at the time, we recorded the presentation, and it is now available for members to view, in Resources - Our Zoom Presentations.  This video is accessible only to our members; you must be logged in to view it. 

This presentation was from members who won awards for the 2020 Photo Competitions talking about their award winning images and how they achieved them. ⁠ They discuss their camera settings and why they chose them, their fieldcraft to obtain their images, and post-procesing tips.  The presenters were Stephen Garth, Graham Gall, Chris Young, Bill Harding and Jason Moore.

The theme for our second competition for 2021 is Cranes, Storks, Crakes, Rails and Swamphens.  There should be something for everyone here.

This competition is open to members for submission of entries until 6pm EST on Monday 24^th May 2021.  Images must have been taken during the last three years (that is, on or after 5^th April 2018).  Up to four of your best images may be submitted.  Images submitted to previous competitions, or to the New Images gallery, may be submitted to this competition; if you choose to do this, you must resubmit the image to the competition gallery; images cannot be moved from another existing gallery.  See the Photo Gallery - Competitions section for full details and rules of our competitions, and quick access to the current competition galleries.  As usual, there are three competition levels: Entry, Intermediate and Advanced.  Please refer to the  Photo Gallery - Competitions - Competition Levels - Guidelines page for more details.  All three levels will be open to member voting at the close of submissions, and a Mystery Reviewer will judge all levels. 

Member voting for the Best of 2020 competition, which closed for entries on 8^th March and for voting on 22^nd March, has been analysed and the results for the top five images in each category are listed here.  This competition received good support from our members, with 340 images entered across the 3 competition levels by 106 photographers.  The Winner is the image which received the most votes; and we also show the next four highest placed images, rating them as Highly Commended if they received at least 90% of the votes for the winning image, and Commended for scores less than that.

Advanced Level – Best of 2020

This category attracted 115 entries, from 34 photographers. 45 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Great Crested Grebe, by Jason Moore (Image ID 45006)
• Commended - Fairy Tern, by Cherilyn Corker (Image ID 44450)
• Commended - Yellow-billed Spoonbill, by Nathan Watson (Image ID 44874)
• Commended - Great Crested Grebe, by Peter Quinn (Image ID 44761)
• Commended - Yellow-billed Spoonbill, by Jason Moore (Image ID 45060)

Intermediate Level – Best of 2020

This category attracted 157 entries, from 48 photographers. 53 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Black Kite, by Les George (Image ID 44430)
• Commended - Welcome Swallow, by Jane Putland (Image ID 44408)
• Commended - Purple Swamphen, by Steven Roe (Image ID 45030)
• Commended - Red-necked Avocet, by Jane Putland (Image ID 44890)
• Commended - Great Egret, by Jane Putland (Image ID 45192)

Entry Level – Best of 2020

This category attracted 72 entries, from 24 photographers. 47 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Rainbow Bee-eater, by Inigo Koefoed (Image ID 44818)
• Commended - Brown Thornbill, by Alison Bowling (Image ID 44583)
• Commended - Purple Swamphen, by Chunfang Liu (Image ID 44688)
• Commended - Golden-headed Cisticola, by Linda Waters (Image ID 44955)
• Commended - Willie Wagtail, by Indrani Pathirage (Image ID 44918)

Congratulations to all these photographers for their quality images.

The BLP Photographer of the Year - our most prestigious award - goes to Gary King.  This award is made to the member who excels against the following criteria:

• Submits at least 24 high quality images to the image galleries on the website during the calendar year,
• Participates in at least 50% of the Current Competitions organised during the calendar year,
• Actively contributes to at least one of a range of BirdLife Photography activities, events, project or resources that benefit our members.

Gary contributed 48 images, and entered all 4 competitions.  His major contribution to BLP activities was as coordinator of our Photo Competitions for 2020 (a postition he continues in for 2021); he also provided a very well worded and comprehensive summary of our 2020 Member survey which the committee found very useful for planning our activites since the survey.

Congratulations Gary, for a well-deserved award!

Photograph of the Year

Red-necked Avocets - Nathan Watson (Image ID 39859)

This image was chosen by member voting from a short-list of 12 images selected by a panel of image moderators and committee members; images from any panel member were not eligble for this award.

Our Zoom presentation of Graham Cam's Lightroom Classic tutorial, on Wednesday 10^th February, was attended by almost 100 members.  For those who were unable to attend at the time, we recorded the presentation, and it is now available for members to view, in Resources - Our Video Tutorials - Lightroom (M).  This video is accessible only to our members; you must be logged in to view it.  We extend our thanks to Graham for this excellent overview of Lightroom Classic.  We also apologise for the computer audio problem which affected many viewers who were forced to use their phones to hear the presentation; happily, this did not affect the recording.

Awards are presented to members who have achieved the top three scores in each competition level. Points are accrued from member votes and Mystery Reviewer judging across the year, for all four competitions. For details, see the About Us - BLP Awards page.

Advanced Level Competition

   Gold medal  – awarded to Bill Harding
   Silver medal  – awarded to Jason Moore
   Bronze medal  – awarded to Stephen Garth

Intermediate Level Competition

   Gold medal  – awarded to Chris Young
   Silver medal  – awarded to Linda Unwin
   Bronze medal – awarded to Mary Wheeler

Entry Level Competition

   Gold medal  – awarded to Graham Gall
   Silver medal  – awarded to Diana Womersley
   Bronze medal – awarded to Donna Evans

Congratulations to all our winners!

Our Mystery Reviewers have completed their assessments of the images in each level of the Reflections competition; their ratings are as follows:

Advanced Level – Reflections

• Winner: Brolgas, by Con Duyvestyn (Image ID 42538)
• Highly Commended: Mulga Parrot, by Bill Harding (Image ID 42875)
• Commended: Emu, by Jill Wilson (Image ID 42509)
• Commended: Australian Pelican, by Ian Smissen (Image ID 42721)
• Commended: Marsh Sandpiper, by Terence Alexander (Image ID 43235)
• Commended - Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, by Jason Moore (Image ID 42887)
• Special Mention - Black Swan, by Con Duyvestyn (Image ID 42732)
• Special Mention - Australasian Grebe, by Steve Mantle (Image ID 42796)
• Special Mention - Brown Quail, by Steve Mantle (Image ID 42564)
• Special Mention - Great Egret, by Ian Smissen (Image ID 42720)
• Special Mention - Black-bellied Crimson Finch, by Mark Lethlean (Image ID 42987)
• Special Mention - Great Egret, by Peter Bennet (Image ID 42597)
• Special Mention - White faced Heron, by Bill Harding (Image ID 42843)
• Special Mention - Sharp tailed Sandpiper, by Jason Moore (Image ID 42935)

Intermediate Level – Reflections

• Winner - Yellow-billed Spoonbill, by Nathan Watson (Image ID 43239)
• Highly Commended - Red-necked Avocet, by Nathan Watson (Image ID 42804)
• Commended - Black-fronted Dotterel, by Linda Unwin (Image ID 43246)
• Commended - Splendid Fairywren, by Woody Woodhouse (Image ID 43241)
• Commended - Australasian Grebe, by Barry Deacon (Image ID 42783)
• Commended - Bluebonnet, by Mary Wheeler (Image ID 43184)
• Honourable Mention - Bourke's Parrot, by Linda Unwin (ID 43191)
• Honourable Mention - Red-necked Stint, by Jane Putland (ID 42883)
• Honourable Mention - Red-necked Avocet, by Linda Unwin (ID 43202)

Entry Level – Reflections

• Winner - Australian Pelican, by Bob Durant (Image ID 43149)
• Highly Commended - Pied Stilt, by Diana Womersley (Image ID 42565)
• Highly Commended - White-faced Heron, by Alan Burdett (Image ID 42960)
• Commended - Whiskered Tern, by Glenda Gore (Image ID 42684)
• Commended - Australasian Grebe, by Donna Evans (Image ID 42847)

The Mystery Reviewer Critiques are available in the Resources - Mystery Reviewer Critiques page.  Critiques published within the last two years are only visible to our members; you must be logged in to the site to see them.

Results of the 2020 BirdLife Australia Photography Awards have been released on the official competition site.

The competition received 6,500 entries this year, a big increase on the 4,100 in 2019, with lots of great photography on display including work
by a number of BLP members.  Special congratulations to our members who participated in this competition.