Weekly #745 - Our feathered friends Competition

Obviously our feathered friends are popular photographic subjects. A really good number of excellent entries for this week’s competition, the quality of these has made judging extremely difficult. My thoughts on each entry are as follows:-

Heron by Johnwnjr – I like the pose of this heron walking along a roof. However there appears to be a slight softness to head.

Call of the wild by Pespicador – photographing any bird flying across is never easy and this shot of a Mallard is well composed with the bird caught in mid-quack.

Family Scene by Nigelk – you may not take many shots of birds Nigel but this is a cracker. Well composed and pin sharp with cute cygnets as well.

Prince of thieves by RPLSF – a well taken photo of a bird that is new to me. Sadly a lack of EXIF data does mean that it cannot be verified that the photo was taken with a Pentax camera.

Feeding Time by MHOL190246 – a great action shot of a great tit entering a bird box with a grub in its beak.

Thieves by vic cross – an interesting collection of birds feeding on the hyena’s leftovers. A great result given the use of the 6MP istD and 400mm lens at f5.6 and 1/350 sec.

Who’s the Ugly Duckling by JAK – Not only a great photo but also the words to the song. Not quite a swan but certainly not an ugly duckling. Beautiful background colours make the cygnet’s head stand out and enhances the sharpness. I also like the way the positions of the Canada geese heads mirror the cygnet’s.

At the Café, Eating the Crumbs by JudithAnn – A beautifully sharp image of a bird that stands out from a nicely blurred background. Again a lack of EXIF data means that it cannot be verified as being taken with a Pentax camera.

Hoopoe by pipinmels – a lovely photo of a bird rarely seen in the UK. Judging by the grass I feel the camera has focused on the back of the bird rather than the eye which is very slightly soft and not helped by the shallow depth of field arising from the aperture of f5.6. However still a great shot of a bird I have only seen in Portugal.

Lunchtime by retsoor – Well two birds for the price of one, although there is not much left of one. A cracking shot of a sparrowhawk with that beady yellow eye looking back at you. A great result given that it was taken at 200mm through glass with a shutter speed of only 1/60 sec.

Thou shalt not pass by Flan – a different view of a swan, I had to look twice to realise exactly what was happening. Well spotted and spot on focusing and exposure and an interesting conversion to black and white.

Pretty Flamingo by Noelcmn – another different view of a bird and one that immediately gets your attention. Lovely colours and spot on focusing on the eye with a nice out of focus background enhancing the image. A different composition that was well spotted and executed, faultless.

The quality of the entries has made selecting a winner very, very difficult and has had to come down to my personal preference as the technical and compositional qualities were so high. Therefore the positions are as follows:-

1st place – Pretty Flamingo by Noelcmn
2nd place – Lunchtime by retsoor
Joint 3rd place – Family Scene by Nigelk and Who’s the Ugly Duckling by JAK,

Well done everyone, especially out winners! Nice to see the prompt judging as well, many thanks for that.

Thanks to PRYorkshire for the competition and judging and for my 2nd spot. Congratulations to Noelcmn for a deserved winning shot. Well done also to Nigelk and JAK.

well done Noel , it is an eye-catching photo with beautiful lines ,colour and balance
Well done to runners up and thanking the judge PRY also for a swift result

Oh Dear! more work . Thank you for the win, PRYorkshire, though I had thought Retsoor's image had it in the bag!. Congrats to my fellow podia placed Retsoor and Nigelk and JAK, Nothing ugly about that duckling. Thanks are dut too to PRYorkshire, for the challenge, the judging and C&C. Appreciated as always. I'll have a new challenge up shortly.

Oh, I forgot to enter my data. I really do not know why, when I export from Lightroom, my Data does not follow me. And since I have never in my 45 years of photography ever use anything except for a Pentax, I am not guilty of that.... Please know I understand that you cannot know that! LOL. There that is said!
CONGRATS to the winners, because it is always nice to have a few wins in life!

HuGs Everyone

JA

Thanks for the joint third spot, the competition and judging. Well done to the other podium placements.

Judith, as to the missing exif data when you are exporting from Lightroom, do you have "minimize embedded metadata" checked. If so try unticking it!