2023 Judges Tips: Michael Snedic

What makes a winning nature or bird photograph for you?

When you are up against so many other photographers that enter completions, your image needs to ‘stand out’ from the others. There may be hundreds of entries of birds in a category that are sharp, nicely composed, with decent lighting and no distractions. When judges like myself are looking through a plethora of images, what makes an image stand out? To me, a winning bird photograph is one that stands out from the norm and has that instant ‘wow’ factor.

What key advice can you offer to entrants?

Think ‘outside the box’. Try and capture images of birds that are different and not the usual ‘sharp bird on a stick with a smooth background’. Use lenses with different focal lengths and try shooting from different angles. Apart from close-up portraits of birds, also look for stunning landscapes, where the bird is a small part of that scene. Also, get down low for ground birds and watch out for distracting backgrounds. Basically, get on out there, experiment and break the rules!