Weekly Competition #356 - Flight Competition

Some great entries and certainly not an easy job to pick thetop three or the highly commended pictures.
Please remember this is the personal opinion of a non professional.

simonarron - Charge of the Light Brigade What can one say here but congratulations for keeping a cool head and not ducking!!! Opportunism at its best.

Tiny2 - Phantom Good shot and I like the black and white treatment used here. Would have liked to see more detail revealed in the darkest areas. Congratulations for not being tempted to move the dustbin. Love it as it is.

Puggy - On Patrol A jaunty angle for sure. It’s sharp where it needs to be but i do feel a much tighter crop was needed

stephanie0821 - Red Kites in Flight Love the detail you have captured here. Would have preferred to see a tighter crop omitting the Kite at the top which takes the eye away from the main performers.

Daroni - The Flyer Just about perfect again with great crop/composition. A truly stupendous capture.

Paulb531 - Red Kite in Flight Superb study of this magnificent bird. Perfect crop/composition. A great entry.

LancashireLad - Ready for Take-Off Nice shot of a splendid looking bird. A shame the net was strung across the background but we cannot choose locations for this type of picture

ken2390 - Just Drifting It’s a shame this is a little out of focus as it would have made a nice picture with the bird gliding over the rooftops

geordie01 – Hawker Very nice work indeed. I think it would have been improved by toning down the bright background colours in post processing.

michaelblue - Going Home A very well taken shot showing the true majesty and grandeur of nature. What airline was that? When I fly the windows are never clean!!

aliengrove - 777 Nicely in focus aircraft with gorgeous vapour trails. Well done indeed.

cardith_gareth - Birds in Flight Some will say the composition was luck but luck often comes to him who waits. A truly stand out photo with the added masterstroke of presenting it in black and white.

JAK - Oi! Mind out of the way Nice work here just lacking in sharpness a little.

johnriley - In Flight Meal So tell us how did you get this fella to play peek-a-boo? Very nice shot demonstrating right place right time always pays off.

bforbes - Gossamer Wings A stupendous capture. A photo anyone would be proud to have taken.

Gravelrash - Budget Airlines A nice shot of two fine old performers

drofmit - There's a Humphrey about! A nice macro. Would have liked to see more of the shot in focus I think.

Oppenheimer45 - Into the Blue Looks like a nice day for flying!!! A better composition is required here with too much sky in the frame.

Noelcmn - Little Egret A stunning shot and not an easy one. This is lacking detail in the blown areas I feel.

Perspicador - Red Kite in Flight Too much sky in the frame I feel. A tighter crop would help.


Number 1 cardith_gareth - Birds in Flight
Number 2 bforbes - Gossamer Wings
Number 3 johnriley - In Flight Meal

Highly Commended Daroni Paulb531 stephanie0821 aliengrove

Our judges comments were sent to me, so I've pasted them into the message above.

Many thanks to our judge and well done winners!

Congratulations to Gareth and those others mentioned. My thanks to the judge for the second place, his kind comments and for setting the competition

The entries were really top draw and the three winning entries were well deserved; the ultimate winner had such a lovely "early" style to it, a great image by gareth.

Congratulations to all

Daronl

Congratulations Gareth for a stunningly timed shot, and as the Judge has mentioned, perfected in B/W. Nice touch keeping a bit of the tree there too! Congrats too to Bforbes and Johnriley and the HM's Daroni Paulb531 stephanie0821 aliengrove. Lovely contest, super pics, so an added thanks to Billspad for the challenge and judging!

Grats to the winners and I can't believe it's Gareth's first win!!

one of the main reasons I enter this is to read the judging comments and learn from them. It's interesting again for me. Every other Dragonfly shot I have is tightly cropped and I chose this one to enter because I liked the bokeh and thought the space gave it more of a sense of flight and summer.

Thanks to billyspad for the comp. a nice theme
Congratulations to the winners and HC's

By the way....the airline was 'Emirates', their planes are always spotless!

thank you for the commendation and for a great subject for the competition.

Thanks for setting the competition and for all the comments.

Congratulations to Gareth and the runners up.

Carl