You Be the Judge: Captive « Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

You Be the Judge: Captive

You Be the Judge: Captive

The judging for the BIRDS AS ART 1st International Bird Photography Competition is complete. All of the judges including me were stunned by the quality of the images. We will be posting all of the images that were sent to the judges. Each of you will have a chance to judge the images. Please read the directions below carefully. Your votes will not determine the winning images but it will be fun to see how everyone’s votes compare to the votes of the judges.

Below are the ten images in the Captive category that were sent to the five judges: Darrell Gulin, Chris Van Rooyen, Julie Zickefoose, Tim Laman (who filled in for a honey-mooning Andy Rouse), and yours truly. Here is a big time thank you to Darrell, Chris, Julie, and Tim. And a big time thanks also to Peter Kes and Denise Ippolito for helping me choose the images that were sent to the judges. We worked very hard for nearly three full days to get from more than 5500 images down to the final 163.

The Captive category is for photographs of captive, zoo, pet, or rehab birds. Before you vote, please click on each image to view it at full size. Then pick your five favorites and vote them 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 with 5 being your very favorite. Like this:

Bald Eagle calling: 5
Flamingo head and neck: 4
Philippine Eagle: 3
Toucan: 2
Flamingo legs with shadow: 1

The “Sample Vote” values above are for illustrative purposes only. Please put each of your five favorites on its own line by hitting “enter” after each one. You can make your life easier by cut and pasting the name of each image that you wish to vote for. No ties; please assign a single digit, 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1 to each of your five favorites.

If you wish to comment on any or all of the images that you voted for, please do so below your five voting lines; this will make tallying the votes easier. Votes cast by those who fail to follow the formatting directions will be relegated to the Trash Bin.

A tally of the public vote along with the actual winning images for each category will be announced approximately 48 hours after each posting.

Sleeping waterfowl

Great Horned Owl on curved branch

Bald Eagle calling

Flamingo head and neck,Flamingo Gardens, Davie FL. Image copyright 2012: Patty Corapi. Canon 7D and the 100-400mm at 285mm. Settings were ISO 400, 1/1250 at f/5.6 with some fill flash. Thanks for the wonderful honor. And Artie – I thank you for all you have taught me over the years. Congrats to the other winners as well. Everyone did a wonderful job.

Philippine Eagle

Toucan

Flamingo legs with shadow

Great Horned Owl vertical

Red-tailed Hawk

Barred Owl sleeping

161 comments to You Be the Judge: Captive

  • avatar Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

    The voting is now closed. Thanks a stack to all who participated. Will are now tallying the vote. The winners will be announced soon. artie

  • avatar MADELINE

    red tailed hawk – 5
    barred owl sleeping – 4
    philippne eagle – 3
    flamingo legs with shadow – 2
    toucan – 1

  • Toucan 5
    Phillipine Eagle 4
    Redtail Hawk 3
    Flamingo Legs with Shadow 2
    Great Horned Owl on Curved Branch 1

  • avatar Mike Hancock

    Toucan – 5
    Red Tailed Hawk – 4
    Phillipine Eagle – 3
    Great Horned Owl Vertical – 2
    Bald Eagle Calling – 1

    Congratulations to all!

  • avatar Henriette Brasseur

    Flamingo legs with shadow (5)
    Great Horned Owl vertical (4)
    Red-tailed Hawk (3)
    Philippine Eagle (2)
    Toucan (1)

    I chose Flamingo Legs With Shadow as my top pick because it was the only one with a different point of view ad it is indeed very amusing and original.

  • avatar Ted Miller

    Red-tailed Hawk: 5
    Philippine Eagle: 4
    Great Horned Owl on curved branch: 3
    Bald Eagle calling: 2
    none: 1

  • Red-tailed Hawk: 5
    Toucan: 4
    Great Horned Owl Vertical: 3
    Philipping Eagle: 2
    Bald Eagle Calling: 1

    Can’t wait to see the next set of images. BTW, Unable to cut from post or paste into post (after typing in text editor) due to the site content protections.

  • avatar terry gretzinger

    the barred owl is a great shot,nicely done

    • avatar Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

      Terry, You are personally invited to vote for your favorite five. 🙂

  • avatar Robert Chua

    Philippine Eagle-5
    Toucan-4
    Red-tailed Hawk-3
    Great Horned Owl vertical-2
    Barred Owl sleeping-1

  • avatar Dan

    Red Tailed Hawk – 5
    Barred Owl – 4
    Toucan – 3
    Bald Eagle – 2
    Philippine Eagle – 1

  • avatar Terry Spence

    Red-Tail Hawk 5
    Great Horned Owl on curved branch 4
    Great Horned Owl vertical 3
    Toucan 2
    Bald Eagle calling 1

  • Gorgeous photos….Awesome to see. Thanks.

    Red Tailed Hawk – 5
    Barred Owl Sleeping – 4
    Philippine Eagle – 3
    Great Horned Owl Verticle – 2
    Bald Eagle Calling – 1

  • Phillipine Eagle -5
    Red Tailed Hawk -4
    Bald Eagle Calling – 3
    Great Horned Owl vertical-2
    Flamingo Head & Neck -1

  • avatar Mark A Jordan

    Flamingo legs with shadow: 5
    Great Horned Owl vertical: 4
    Philippine Eagle: 3
    Toucan: 2
    Red-tailed Hawk: 1

  • avatar Austelle Futch

    Toucan 5
    Red-Tailed Hawk 4
    Bard Owl Sleeping 3
    Philippine Eagle 2
    Flamingo Legs with Shadow 1

    Amazing photos!

  • avatar Dennis Olsen

    Great Horned Owl vertical – 5
    Great Horned Owl on branch – 4
    Toucan – 3
    Phillipine Eagle – 2
    Red Tailed Hawk – 1

  • avatar Billie Snell

    Toucan-5
    Sleeping waterfowl-4
    Barred owl-3
    Flamingo-2
    Red tail-1

  • Toucan 5
    Great Horned Owl on Curved Branch 4
    Red-tailed Hawk 3
    Flamingo Head and Neck 2
    Great Horned Owl vertical 1

  • avatar Carol Nichols

    Toucan – 5
    Sleeping Waterfowl – 4
    Philippine Eagle – 3
    Red Tailed Hawk – 2
    Great Horned Owl Vertical – 1

    Thanks for giving us the opportunity to view the top photos in each category!

  • avatar Sandy

    Phillipine Eagle – 5
    Flamingo head – 4
    Great Horned Owl vertical – 3
    Red-tailed Haawk – 2
    Flamingo legs and shadow – 1

  • avatar Don Poulton

    Great Horned Owl vertical 5
    Red-tailed Hawk 4
    Bald Eagle calling 3
    Philippine Eagle 2
    Sleeping waterfowl 1

  • Red-Tailed Hawk – 5
    Great Horned Owl vertical – 4
    Bald Eagle calling – 3
    Philippine Eagle – 2
    Toucan – 1

  • avatar Larry Brown

    Flamingo legs-5
    Toucan-4
    Great Hornd Owl Verticle-3
    Red Tailed Hawk-2
    Sleeping Waterfowl-1

  • avatar Hugh Fitzmorris

    Red-Tailed Hawk 5
    Philippine Eagle 4
    Great Horned Owl V 3
    Flamingo 2
    Toucan 1

  • Great Horned Owl Vertical-5
    Flamingo Head-4
    Flamingo Legs With Shadow-3
    Philippine Eagle-2
    Toucan-1

    I love the Philippine Eagle but found the feathers in the throat lacking detail. The toucan is beautiful but I found the catchlight in the eye not exactly pleasing. I would have voted for the red-tailed hawk but the background was a bit busy. All in all, a nice bunch of photos!

  • avatar Gerry

    Sleeping Waterfowl 5
    Toucan 4
    Barred Owl Sleeping 3
    Red Tailed Hawk 2
    Phillipine Eagle 1

    Fantastic shots!

  • avatar John Clark

    Toucan: 5
    Philippine Eagle: 4
    Red-tailed Hawk: 3
    Flamingo head & neck: 2
    Barred Owl sleeping: 1

  • 5 Red-tailed Hawk
    4 Sleeping Waterfowl
    3 Flamingo Head & Neck
    2 Great Horned Owl Vertical
    1 Phillipine Eagle

  • Great Horned Owl vertical 5
    Toucan 4
    Great Horned Owl on curved branch 3
    Flamingo head and neck 2
    Flamingo legs with shadow 1

  • 5-Toucan
    4-Red-tailed Hawk
    3-Flamingo Legs
    4-GHO Horizontal
    5-Flamingo vertical

    This was not an easy decision for me. I personally found the most interesting image to be the Flamingo feet with shadow b/c it was unique. However, I had to go with the Toucan b/c it was aesthetically pleasing as well as outside the norm.

  • avatar Cheryl Slechta

    Toucan – 5
    Philippine Eagle – 4
    Barred Owl Sleeping – 3
    Flamingo Head and Neck – 2
    Red Tailed Hawk – 1

  • avatar Tim Clifton

    Phillipine Eagle 5
    Toucan 4
    Burred Owl Sleeping 3
    Red Tailed Hawk 2
    Bald Eagle Calling 1

    Great images, extremely hard to choose. Congratulations to all

  • Philippine Eagle: 5
    Toucan: 4
    Barred Owl Sleeping: 3
    Flaming head and neck: 2
    Red-tailed Hawk – 1

    I have no particular concerns about the contest – there is no way the final judges should be expected to check all of the images. There needs to be several rough sorts before the finals. For my part – I don’t mind having Artie, Denise, and Peter looking at my shots and deciding.

    Bernie

  • Toucan: 5
    Great Horned Owl on curved branch: 4
    Philippine Eagle: 3
    Barred Owl sleeping: 2
    Red-tailed Hawk: 1

  • Red Tail Hawk 5
    Toucan 4
    Philippine Eagle 3

    Even if it is a captive bird, it’s tough to get a sharp image of a bird flying and get the great bokah/pleasing background around the bird such as in the Red Tail Hawk. The Red Tail is a Great image.

    I like the Toucan and the Philippine Eagle is good too. Sorry but for me (and obviously my opinion doesn’t count) the rest would all be a tie for 5th since the images are fairly common and easy to get (Isn’t that owl on the branch a Hawkquest owl at Bear Creek?). Where I live in the West you can get similar shots of owls in the wild fairly easily. Just because they are captive doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try for something just a little different. But seriously, A BIG CONGRATS to the winners.

    • avatar Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

      There is a big difference between easy to get shots and good photographs :).

    • Sorry, I did not mean to imply they were not good photographs, just not my cup of tea – but I’m not the judge. I know the judges had hard decisions to make and again congratulations to all.

  • avatar Mette

    I apologise to all of you. English is not my first language so my choice of words was probably wrong. All I meant was that I liked the Toucan best and gave it a 5. Flamingo legs with shadow a 4. The other photos did not do anything for me for various reasons. I didn’t mean to upset people.
    I’m sorry!

  • avatar Maureen

    Flamingo Head and Neck – 5
    Philippine Eagle – 4
    Toucan – 3
    Flamingo Legs – 2
    Great Horned Owl Vertical – 1

  • avatar michael wolf

    Toucan: 5
    Flamingo Head: 4
    Phillipine Eagle 3
    Great Horned Owl: 2
    Bald Eagle: 1

  • Phillipine Eagle – 5
    Toucan – 4
    Flamingo Head – 3
    Bald Eagle calling – 2
    Sleeping Waterfowl – 1

  • avatar Dennis Bishop

    Flamingo head and neck: 5
    Barred Owl sleeping: 4
    Red-tailed Hawk: 3
    Great Horned Owl on curved branch: 2
    Bald Eagle calling: 1

    Tough call between flamingo and barred owl. They’re probably on a par technically, but flamingo gets the nod for aesthetics.

  • avatar Mike Krehbiel

    Sleeping waterfowl – 5
    Toucan – 4
    Philippine Eagle – 3
    Red-tailed Hawk – 2
    Bald Eagle calling – 1

  • I appreciated Dan Ferrin’s comments re; Mette who amazingly publicly stated that only two of the ten images were “up to my standards.” I won’t try to psychoanalyze but like Dan I did not enter in this category as I simply don’t enjoy shooting captive creatures as much. Sort of like going hunting on a farm when they release the “wildlife” for hunters to shoot. But I hope that everyone didn’t necessarily enter simply their best images but perhaps their most enjoyable images. I have been having enormous enjoyment working a colony of flamingos and so decided to try to use all flamingo images from the last couple of months in as many categories as I could. It was a fun project stimulated by Artie’s competition. I hope others concentrated on recent opportunities so we can see a lot of new stuff! (Tells you all if you don’t see any flamingos in the future images mine didn’t make it!) At least I hope they make the standards of most of us here.

  • avatar Brooke

    5: Toucan
    4: Sleeping Waterfowl
    3: Philippine Eagle
    2: Red-tailed Hawk
    1: Great Horned Owl vertical

    I can’t even imagine how tough it was to make these choices. Any chance that we’ll get to see ALL the entries?

  • Phillipine Eagle – 5
    Bald Eagle calling – 4
    Red-tailed Hawk – 3
    Flamingo legs with shadow – 2
    Barred Owl sleeping – 1

  • avatar Gloria

    Toucan – 5
    Sleeping waterfowl – 4
    Philippine Eagle – 3
    Great Horned Owl vertical – 2
    Great Horned Owl on curved branch -1

  • avatar Luis Paez

    Philippine Eagle-5
    Toucan-4
    Great Horned Owl vertical-3
    Bald Eagle calling-2
    Flamingo head and neck-1

  • Great Photos. You could almost put names in a jar, draw them and not go too far wrong.

    Toucan 5
    Red-tailed Hawk 4
    Philippine Eagle 3
    Bald Eagle calling 2
    Great Horned Owl vertical 1

  • Toucan – 5
    Flamingo Head – 4
    Sleeping Waterfowl – 3
    Phillipine Eagle – 2
    Red Tailed Hawk – 1