Congratulations to the photographers who captured the images in this category of the competition. Taking the theme for this competition into consideration and looking for a behaviour that is more difficult to capture, the winning entry is Image #15682. Four other images, #15712, #15681, #15824, and #15680, are commended.
Winner: Grey Currawong - Con Duyvestyn (Image #15682). I like this image as it engages with the theme. Both birds are in focus and engaged with each other. An image a second or less later as the adult transferred the insect to the juvenile would have been the ideal shot - easier said than done! There are distracting elements in this image: the bark in the foreground across the branch and the highlighted background leaves are distracting, but the positive elements outweigh the negative ones. Given the urgency to capture such a shot, the image is nicely composed, well exposed and the angle of the branch adds to the overall composition.
Commended: Restless Flycatcher - Mary Wheeler (Image #15712 - image no longer available). Overall, this image is a nice capture of an active bird hovering in search of insects in the pasture below. Considering the fact that a 2x extender was matched to a 70-200mm telephoto lens the image has good sharpness. A shutter speed of 1/2000 second adequately stopped movement and an f9 depth of field ensured the head and background wing are sharp. Whilst f9 has produced a background that does not have a soft and out of focus bokeh, the background has a uniform colour and few distracting elements or highlights. The image would most likely benefit from localised post-processing to reveal more of the details in the dark tones of the bird’s head and back.
Commended: Australian Hobby - Con Duyvestyn (Image #15681). A dramatic image depicting one element of animal behaviour – survival of the fittest. The image has good sharpness and an excellent background highlighting the foreground scene. Many judges would devalue this image due to the hand of man but the fence and fence-post depict an ever-decreasing wildness as a result of human expansion and over population. This scene is the natural environment for this hobby. The floating feathers from the hobby’s victim add to the drama of this image. The image is nicely exposed and the catch-lights in the eyes add character to the Hobby.
Commended: Long-billed Corella - Carole O’Neill (Image #15824).It is difficult to go past an image of Long-billed Corellas when judging a theme such as Animal Behaviour. These avian clowns seem to enjoy life far more than most mammals and can invent a game no matter what the environment provides for their amusement - in this case, a limitless supply of pine needles provides a heap of enjoyment. I don’t find the texture of the pine needles distracting as they primarily create a uniform monochrome foreground and background. The image is sharp, well composed with good exposure and captured by a non-SLR. Well done. My only suggestion is too reduce the headroom a fraction to remove the darker shadows at the top of the image.
Commended: Black-winged Stilt - Con Duyvestyn (Image #15680). It would appear that the bird in the background maybe chasing the bird that has just alighted from the water. There is a reasonable degree of sharpness in the image although the bird furthest away appears to be the sharpest of the two air born birds. A greater depth of field and raising the shutter speed by increasing the ISO would have captured an extremely sharp image of the two birds in flight and possible the stationary bird. The water droplets add drama to this image as does the blurred wing tips, which create movement. The background and light are a pleasant accompaniment to this image. The only distraction in the background is the out of focus pylon in the upper right – I would have burned the highlighted portion of the pylon and its reflected image so that it receded into the background.
