Posted by Ken Watkins on October 23, 2014 at 5:35 AM
Some good but mostly bad, I am sure the judges have absolutely no idea of what makes a good image or why!
Better ones appear on this forum most days.
At least the Lions are not blue!
Posted by Nate Chappell on October 23, 2014 at 11:47 AM
An interesting collection of images. Jan van der Greef's shot of the Sword-billed Hummingbird fighting with the Collared Inca was taken on a private tour with me in Ecuador, so on a personal note that was neat for me to see.
Posted by Jim DeWitt on October 23, 2014 at 12:57 PM
The judges seemed more interested in abstraction and effect than fidelity and behavior. I agree with Ken; there are better photos here most days. Neat for Nate to get a customer's shot posted, but, honestly, Sword-billeds do that all the time.
Posted by Nate Chappell on October 23, 2014 at 1:23 PM
Jim,
Sword-billed's do defend their feeders on a regular basis but it's not an easy image to capture. Other than my shots and Jan's I haven't seen any of it. So in that respect I think it's a pretty unique image, not perfect in some respects with the clipped bird but unique.
Posted by Max Waugh on October 23, 2014 at 1:51 PM
Nate, congratulations to Jan and to you. I liked the hummer photo.
I don't think there were "bad" photos, but overall I was a bit underwhelmed this year compared to past years. As Jim mentioned, abstract is certainly a key to success (wide angles and not-so-subtle artificial light also help).
I think Tim Laman's Portfoilio award was very well-deserved. The work he did documenting all of the Birds of Paradise is fantastic.
Max
Posted by Jim DeWitt on October 23, 2014 at 3:55 PM
Max, I agree that Tim Laman's and Edwin Scholes' Birds of Paradise is superb. I meant no criticism of the Portfolio Award. Laman's BOP photos are among the great bird photos of the decade. The book is a delight.
Posted by Max Waugh on October 23, 2014 at 4:41 PM
I was given the book as a gift by my parents, coincidentally after I had just watched their television program (also quite good). It must be very rewarding to see all those years of hard work pay off for those guys!
Max
Posted by Martin Dunn on October 24, 2014 at 5:18 AM
As with the award that went to Greg du Toit last year I can only assume that they are rewarding someone who has produced a great body of work.
For me the winning image was OK, but not great and once again I couldn't help thinking that they see so many crisp, perfectly exposed shots that they were looking for something that was just different.
Discussion
8 repliesWPOTY
Better ones appear on this forum most days.
At least the Lions are not blue!
Sword-billed's do defend their feeders on a regular basis but it's not an easy image to capture. Other than my shots and Jan's I haven't seen any of it. So in that respect I think it's a pretty unique image, not perfect in some respects with the clipped bird but unique.
I don't think there were "bad" photos, but overall I was a bit underwhelmed this year compared to past years. As Jim mentioned, abstract is certainly a key to success (wide angles and not-so-subtle artificial light also help).
I think Tim Laman's Portfoilio award was very well-deserved. The work he did documenting all of the Birds of Paradise is fantastic.
Max
Max
For me the winning image was OK, but not great and once again I couldn't help thinking that they see so many crisp, perfectly exposed shots that they were looking for something that was just different.