You Be the Judge: Small in the Frame
As regular readers know, the judging for the BIRDS AS ART 1st International Bird Photography Competition has been complete for some time. All of the judges including me were stunned by the quality of the images. We have been and will continue to be posting all of the images that were sent to the judges category by category. Each of you will have a chance to judge each category. Please read the directions below carefully. Your votes will not determine the winning images but it has been and will continue to be fun to see how everyone’s votes compare to the votes of the judges. So far the top pick of the public vote has matched the top pick of the judge’s panel in three of the six categories. I am betting that they match up perfectly in Small in the Frame.
With 422 images, this was a popular category. The 19 images sent to the five judges showed the strength of the category. Here is yet another big time thank you to Darrell, Chris, Julie, and Tim. And a big time thanks also to Peter Kes and Denise Ippolito for pitching in during the first rounds of image selection. We worked very hard for nearly three full days to get from more than 5500 images down to the final 163.
From the rules: Small in the Frame/Environmental category: images of a bird or flocks of birds in their natural habitat.
Before you vote, please sure to click on each image so that you can view it at full size. Then pick your five favorites and vote them 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 with 5 being your very favorite. Like this:
Roseate Spoonbills squabbling: 5
Siskins fighting: 4
Snowy Egrets midair combat: 3
Great Crested Grebe displaying: 2
Common Tern feeding chick: 1
The “Sample Vote” above is for illustrative purposes only. Please do not let the sample vote, the votes of others, or the names assigned to the images influence your vote. Please put each of your five favorites on its own line by hitting “enter” after each one. No ties; please assign a single digit, 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1 to each of your five favorites. As you will see there are a great many dramatic images here.
Please Note
If you wish to comment on any or all of the images, please do so below your five voting lines; this will make tallying the votes easier. Votes cast by those who fail to follow the formatting directions will be relegated to the Trash Bin.
The voting will be closed in about two days and the actual winning images for this category will be posted soon thereafter. A tally of the public vote along with my analysis and comments will follow.
Thanks for voting and please remember to breathe deeply and have fun.
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Heron Silhouette |
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Bear & Wagtail |
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African White Pelicans Fishing |
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Herons and Falls |
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Coot Silhouette |
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Heavenly Cormorant |
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Flamingo Aerial |
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Stilt in Mangroves |
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Savannah Sparrow Singing |
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Eagle Silhouette |
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Bearded Tit on Reed |
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Bird-scape |
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Bramblings & Siskins |
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Oxpecker on Cape Buffalo |
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Sunbird on Blossom |
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Swan-scape |
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Flamingo Patterns |
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White-Eye in Canopy |
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Cattle Egret Mist |
Cattle Egret Mist 5
Oxpecker 4
Savannah Sparrow 3
Heavenly Cormorant 2
Swan-scape 1
Heron Silhouette – 5
Savannah Sparrow Singing – 4
Flamingo Patterns – 3
Heron and Falls – 2
Heavenly Cormorant – 1
all very interesting images
Heron silhouette – 5
Bearded tit on reed – 4
Herons and falls – 3
Brown bear and wagtail – 2
Swan-scape – 1
Would be happy with any of the entries. Congratulations to all.
Bear & Wagtail: 5
Heron Silhouette: 4
Bearded Tit on Reed: 3
Swan-scape: 2
Herons and Falls: 1
Herons and Falls – 5
Heron Silhouette – 4
Bearded Tit on Reed – 3
Eagle Silhouette – 2
Coot Silhouette – 1
5. Heavenly cormorant
4. Heron silhouette
3. Cattle egret mist
2. Bearded tit on reed
1. Heron and falls.
Color played a large part in my scoring but I couldnot skip the dreamy misty comorant.
5. Flamingo Aerial
4. Cattle Egret Mist
3. Herons and Falls
2. Bearded Tit on Reed
1. Heron Silhouette
Very artistic photos in this category. Well done all!
Just got back from Vaca and didn’t even remember I had a photo in this category : ) Great surprise!
Heron Silhouette-5
Bear and Wagtail-4
Savannah Sparrow Singing-3
Oxpecker-2
Coot Silhouette-1
Bearded Tit on Reed: 5
Herons and Falls: 4
Swan-scape: 3
Eagle Silhouette: 2
Bear & Wagtail: 1
5. Heron silhouette
4. Oxpecker
3. Bearded tit
2. Sunbird
1. Coot silhouette
Aside: I was raised in Cape Town, South Africa and loved sunbirds as a child. (I still think they are wonderful.) Then I came here and discovered hummingbirds. So now I call sunbirds the Old World’s consolation prize for not having hummingbirds, just as puffins are the Northern Hemisphere’s consolation prize for not having penguins.
5 – Bear and Wagtail
4 – Heron Silhouette
3 – Heavenly Cormorant
2 – Bearded Tit
1 – Swan-scape
Super duper hard to pick. Good job to all who worked on these.
Heron Silhoutte 5
Heron and Falls 4
Savannah Sparrow Singing 3
Oxpecker 2
Bear and Wagtail 1
But I also want to include the coot silhoutte. And the bearded tit, and the stilt, and the . . .
Cattle Egret 5
White eye 4
Swan scape 3
Sunbird 2
Bramblings 1
Heron Silhouette – 5
Coot Silhouette – 4
Herons and Falls – 3
Heavenly Cormorant – 2
Cattle Egret Mist-1
5 Bear & Wagtail
4 Herons and Falls
3 Swan-scape
2 Stilt in Mangroves
1 Bird-scape
5- Bear and Wagtail
4- Heron Silhouette
3- Bearded Tit
2- Stilt in Mangroves
1- Heron and Falls
Cattle egret mist = 5
Swan-scape = 4
Flamingo aerial = 3
Sunbird on blossom = 2
Oxpecker = 1
OK Here goes:
5-Heron Silhouette
4-bearded tit
3-Heavaenly Cormerant
2-Oxpecker
1-Herons and Falls
All of these images were so good. I tried to base my judging again according to the category as being small in the frame (not just a great image) and chose some over others based on that. This was hard and another congratulations to all of you
Cattle Egret Mist: 5
Heron Silhouette: 4
Heavenly Cormorant: 3
Eagle Silhouette: 2
Savannah Sparrow Singing: 1
Coot Silhouette – 5
Heron Silhouette – 4
Flamingo Patterns – 3
Heavenly Cormorant – 2
Herons and Falls – 1
5 – Eagle silhouette
4 – Bearded Tit on read
3 – Savannah Sparrow singing
2 – Heavenly Cormorant
1 – Coot Silhouette
The Bear and wagtail is not really a bird photo.
It is a photo of the a bear where the bird happend to be in the frame.
The sharpness is on the bear and not on any of the three birds.
The Stilt in Mangroves should heve been somewhat lighter is it looks dark to me.
The white on the bird does not look really white.
5 Swan-Scape
4 Heron Silhouette
3 Bearded Tit on Reed
2 Oxpecker
1 Bird-Scape
Dynamite shots all!! Two questions for the “shooters”…
Was Swan-Scape a picture of Trumpeters in Yellowstone winter?
What were all the types of birds (flying foreground, flying background, and in the trees)in Bird-Scape?
Swan-Scape is Whooper Swans at Lake Kussharo in Japan. Look here: http://www.wildencounters.net/weblog/2012/03/hokkaido-japan-febmar-2012/ The rest of Paul McKenzie’s blog is well worth reading too.
Heron Silhouette: 5
Bear & Wagtail: 4
Heavenly Cormorant: 3
Bird-scape: 2
Coot Silhouette: 1
Heron Silhouette: 5
Bear & Wagtail: 4
Heavenly Cormorant: 3
Savannah Sparrow Sing: 2
Oxpecker: 1
Heavenly Cormorant: 5
Heron silhouette: 4
Swan-scape: 3
Herons and Falls: 2
Bear and wagtail: 1
Wow, what a great collection of photos. So hard to choose. So many true winners, whether they win this competition or not!
5-Heron Silhouette
4-Cattle Egret Mist
3-Herons and falls
2-Bearded Tit on reed
1-Stilt in Mangroves
Hard to decide.