Past Judges Tips: Ian Wilson

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What makes a winning nature or bird photograph for you?

Award-winning bird photographs invariably have some or all of the following attributes; show an interesting subject or behaviour; have a pleasing composition; attractive lighting; and capture a special moment with exquisite timing. In the best images these attributes harmoniously come together to produce a powerful photographic narrative that will leave a lasting visual and emotional impression.

What key advice can you offer to entrants?

Aim for a point of difference that will make your image stand out from the many. You must give the judges a reason to look twice at your image at each review along the way to the short list. A simple ‘bird on a stick’ composition will not usually be enough to catch the judges’ attention and any noticeable technical faults will be fatal. Over-sharpening, digital noise, heavy-handed lighting and colour adjustments with surreal saturated colours will not impress.

Favourite Image - A Throng of Thieves

There is always something interesting going on around seabird colonies. Pairs sharing a tender moment while renewing their bonds, courtship displays, nest building, birds flying in with full crops and gapes stuffed with glistening little fish, cute chicks and dishevelled dozy fledglings, patient partners waiting to change-over parenting duties, squabbles between nesting birds, and the attendant coterie of scavengers and thieves. Then there is the deafening noise and the smell… Life and death dramas occur regularly like the one captured in this image. The story is all too obvious; an inattentive noddy has allowed a gull to steal an egg and fly the short distance to the beach where it is mobbed by a throng of thieves all eager to feast on the protein-rich yellow yolk.

The composition focuses attention on the fate of the egg and the soft light has allowed the unfolding drama to be captured free from the intrusion of harsh shadows and the technical challenges of a high dynamic range scene. The image evokes an extra dimension, a subconscious sound-scape dominated by the excited harsh squeal of the gulls as they jostle in the contest for a share of the prize.

Canon 5Ds + 400 mm f/4 DO II + 1.4x III extender, f/5.6, 1/4000 sec, ISO 800