Audubon 2019 Awards

A humbling collection of images:

https://www.audubon.org/magazine/summer-2019/the-2019-audubon-photography-awards-winners

Joe

Hi Joe, Yes there are some really outstanding images in this years top 100. I like to see where the images were taken, the compositions used by the photographers and other such things. Note that there is a picture of two great egrets taken at Smith Oaks Rookery, High Island, TX by Tim Timmis, a very talented photographer. As I recall, Smith Oaks has been a winning location for other top bird photo competitions: BBC Wildlife and Natures Best. I have lost track of which year, but I believe the time period has been in the last ten years.

Personally, I don't find the images that strong. There are a few that are excellent, but a tour through the birds' forum here yields stronger images than most of them IMO.

Scott Fairbairn wrote:Personally, I don't find the images that strong. There are a few that are excellent, but a tour through the birds' forum here yields stronger images than most of them IMO.

Yeah, that was my impression.  One of the category winners I would have probably culled and the great blue heron shot has been easily beaten here probably a hundred times.  But then it's all very subjective and knowing at least a couple of the judges and the work that they do I can see exactly why certain images were chosen, they fit their style of shooting which is likely an unconscious bias.

Photos in naturescapes that attract the most attention seem to be birds on a stick with a monocromatics background that reminds me of plant presses in books. The winners of the contest seem to be a little more dynamic showing a bit of the natural world of birds.

The one that most surprised me was a photo taken at the Alaska SeaLife Center. To me, that is a very different type of photo than a photo taken of a bird in the wild. However, looking at the rules, this appears to be acceptable. The Grand Prize Winner and the bald eagle photo did impress me, some of the others, not at all.

E.J. Peiker wrote:

Scott Fairbairn wrote:Personally, I don't find the images that strong. There are a few that are excellent, but a tour through the birds' forum here yields stronger images than most of them IMO.

Yeah, that was my impression.  One of the category winners I would have probably culled and the great blue heron shot has been easily beaten here probably a hundred times.  But then it's all very subjective and knowing at least a couple of the judges and the work that they do I can see exactly why certain images were chosen, they fit their style of shooting which is likely an unconscious bias.

But then again, I would have given these two images posted here EP’s:

https://www.naturescapes.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=284410&sid=9d5562d5d808476f925c06ee869bcf42

https://www.naturescapes.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=284420

As you say, it is all subjective.

Joe

It's very subjective - one of those images was in the nomination queue already - sometimes it takes a few days as the process is that a moderator needs to nominate it and then it goes through a review process by Greg or me. We can't always get to them right away.

I have yet to see any duds (that I can recall) in contests of this sort, whether it be Audubon or WPOTY.  I can see why images were selected.  I can see why they may not have selected the fox and eagle shot as a winner.  This is a very unique looking shot for me (the kind of nature interaction shots I live for, gets me excited to be out there in the field) but had the photographer used just a bit more shutter speed.  He had the 1D-X for crying out loud    Maybe he got so excited and forgot to adjust the settings which happens to many including me.  A slightly different composition maybe but you have no control over that.  That is an awesome image as is and likely the one being used to promote it now. 

Lots of terrific images for sure!
One of my favs is the pair of Ural owls in the forest.
Also love the low-angle spoonbills.

Paul