Karen and I have gone on four bird tours with our Birding Buddies. Four of us are bird photographers so after each trip we get together and share our photos and have a little competition, which we call The $5 Shot. Each of the four selects one pic from the trip, puts $5 into the kitty, and the non-photographers select who wins the prize money. Let’s just say I am Zero for Four in the $5 Shot contest.
This last time I thought I had a sure winner. I submitted the picture below of a White-headed Coquette we had observed during our Costa Rica trip.
I mean, what’s not to like – beautiful bird captured in mid-flight, a sharp focus with an interesting background. One of our judges was Jen, who is an artist and uses colored pencils and painting to create her art. She took a minute to explain why she didn’t vote for my picture as the winner. The first thing she mentioned was that light-green leaf above the head of the bird was very distracting and suggested that the photo would have been better if I would have Photoshopped it out. I told her that I hadn’t even noticed that leaf, probably because I was so focused on the bird itself. Jen replied that sometimes she envisions a picture in black-and-white to see any distractions. Below is the same picture in black-and-white – and you can see how the leaf above the head stands out.
I did feel a little better about losing the contest knowing how one of the judges evaluated the photo (she gave the impression mine was a close #2). Next time I enter the $5 Shot contest I’m going to look at my potential finalists in black-and-white and see if there are any distractions I may have missed.
If you enjoy seeing beautiful pictures of birds from around the world and reading about them Click Here to sign up for our mailing list. Members can post their own GreatBirdPics and learn more about bird photography techniques. GreatBirdPics.com helps its members to evaluate the quality of their bird photographs.