Past Judges Tips: David Stowe

What makes a winning nature or bird photograph for you?

A winning bird photograph has to be more than just a field guide image. Yes the technical aspects of an image need to be spot on, but there is so much more to a great image than just whether it is sharp and well exposed or not.

A winning image tells a story. It captures a moment that others might have missed or never seen. It might describe where it lives or how it survives. It is different; unique.

And most importantly for me, it is composed beautifully. Composition is that ultimate, subjective intangible that has just the right amount of space here or there and the right number of lines (obvious or implied) that give the ability to lead the viewers’ eye in a deliberate way around the image while still highlighting the subject.

What key advice can you offer to entrants?

Think long and hard about your composition. This isn’t Instagram where cropping tight to make the subject look big might get you more likes.

Remember: It doesn’t matter how many hours you might have sat in a hide waiting for your image. It doesn’t matter how rare the species is. If it doesn’t have any wow factor then it simply won’t wow the judges. A boring photo of a super rare species is still a boring photo.

Favourite Image - Emuscape

This image made it into the ANZANG competition in 2015. Its a photograph that takes me back to my favourite place in Australia - “Nowhere”.

A number of curious Emus appeared over the horizon walking towards a dam we were waiting by in far western QLD. They paused to investigate us and in doing so spread themselves out perfectly. Using a wide angle lens I was able to capture not only the birds themselves, but also the seemingly unending dry, desolate landscape. I deliberately included more sky in the frame, and also cropped to a wide panoramic, to add to that feeling of nothingness; the open expanse they call home.