You be the Judge: Small

You Be the Judge: Small in the Frame

As regular readers know, the judging for the BIRDS AS ART 1st International Bird Photography Competition has been complete for some time. All of the judges including me were stunned by the quality of the images. We have been and will continue to be posting all of the images that were sent to the judges category by category. Each of you will have a chance to judge each category. Please read the directions below carefully. Your votes will not determine the winning images but it has been and will continue to be fun to see how everyone’s votes compare to the votes of the judges. So far the top pick of the public vote has matched the top pick of the judge’s panel in three of the six categories. I am betting that they match up perfectly in Small in the Frame.

With 422 images, this was a popular category. The 19 images sent to the five judges showed the strength of the category. Here is yet another big time thank you to Darrell, Chris, Julie, and Tim. And a big time thanks also to Peter Kes and Denise Ippolito for pitching in during the first rounds of image selection. We worked very hard for nearly three full days to get from more than 5500 images down to the final 163.

From the rules: Small in the Frame/Environmental category: images of a bird or flocks of birds in their natural habitat.

Before you vote, please sure to click on each image so that you can 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:

Roseate Spoonbills squabbling: 5
Siskins fighting: 4
Snowy Egrets midair combat: 3
Great Crested Grebe displaying: 2
Common Tern feeding chick: 1

The “Sample Vote” above is for illustrative purposes only. Please do not let the sample vote, the votes of others, or the names assigned to the images influence your vote. Please put each of your five favorites on its own line by hitting “enter” after each one. No ties; please assign a single digit, 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1 to each of your five favorites. As you will see there are a great many dramatic images here.

Please Note

If you wish to comment on any or all of the images, 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.

The voting will be closed in about two days and the actual winning images for this category will be posted soon thereafter. A tally of the public vote along with my analysis and comments will follow.

Thanks for voting and please remember to breathe deeply and have fun.

Heron Silhouette

Bear & Wagtail

African White Pelicans Fishing

Herons and Falls

Coot Silhouette

Heavenly Cormorant

Flamingo Aerial

Stilt in Mangroves

Savannah Sparrow Singing

Eagle Silhouette

Bearded Tit on Reed

Bird-scape

Bramblings & Siskins

Oxpecker on Cape Buffalo

Sunbird on Blossom

Swan-scape

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Flamingo Patterns

White-Eye in Canopy

Cattle Egret Mist

George

July 10, 2012 at 2:07 am

Cattle Egret Mist 5
Oxpecker 4
Savannah Sparrow 3
Heavenly Cormorant 2
Swan-scape 1

helen pine

July 10, 2012 at 12:12 am

Heron Silhouette – 5
Savannah Sparrow Singing – 4
Flamingo Patterns – 3
Heron and Falls – 2
Heavenly Cormorant – 1

all very interesting images

Richard Curtin

July 9, 2012 at 9:32 pm

Heron silhouette – 5
Bearded tit on reed – 4
Herons and falls – 3
Brown bear and wagtail – 2
Swan-scape – 1

Would be happy with any of the entries. Congratulations to all.

Alan Lillich

July 9, 2012 at 8:38 pm

Bear & Wagtail: 5
Heron Silhouette: 4
Bearded Tit on Reed: 3
Swan-scape: 2
Herons and Falls: 1

Sachin Saraf

July 9, 2012 at 3:35 pm

Herons and Falls – 5
Heron Silhouette – 4
Bearded Tit on Reed – 3
Eagle Silhouette – 2
Coot Silhouette – 1

Candy Meronek

July 9, 2012 at 2:54 pm

5. Heavenly cormorant
4. Heron silhouette
3. Cattle egret mist
2. Bearded tit on reed
1. Heron and falls.

Color played a large part in my scoring but I couldnot skip the dreamy misty comorant.

Matt Hansen

July 9, 2012 at 12:21 pm

5. Flamingo Aerial
4. Cattle Egret Mist
3. Herons and Falls
2. Bearded Tit on Reed
1. Heron Silhouette

Very artistic photos in this category. Well done all!

Just got back from Vaca and didn’t even remember I had a photo in this category : ) Great surprise!

Kathleen Hanika

July 9, 2012 at 12:02 pm

Heron Silhouette-5
Bear and Wagtail-4
Savannah Sparrow Singing-3
Oxpecker-2
Coot Silhouette-1

Kaustubh Deshpande

July 9, 2012 at 11:57 am

Bearded Tit on Reed: 5
Herons and Falls: 4
Swan-scape: 3
Eagle Silhouette: 2
Bear & Wagtail: 1

David Policansky

July 9, 2012 at 10:39 am

5. Heron silhouette
4. Oxpecker
3. Bearded tit
2. Sunbird
1. Coot silhouette

Aside: I was raised in Cape Town, South Africa and loved sunbirds as a child. (I still think they are wonderful.) Then I came here and discovered hummingbirds. So now I call sunbirds the Old World’s consolation prize for not having hummingbirds, just as puffins are the Northern Hemisphere’s consolation prize for not having penguins.

ThereseS

July 9, 2012 at 10:23 am

5 – Bear and Wagtail
4 – Heron Silhouette
3 – Heavenly Cormorant
2 – Bearded Tit
1 – Swan-scape

Super duper hard to pick. Good job to all who worked on these.

Jay

July 9, 2012 at 8:59 am

Heron Silhoutte 5
Heron and Falls 4
Savannah Sparrow Singing 3
Oxpecker 2
Bear and Wagtail 1

But I also want to include the coot silhoutte. And the bearded tit, and the stilt, and the . . .

Paolo

July 9, 2012 at 6:47 am

Cattle Egret 5
White eye 4
Swan scape 3
Sunbird 2
Bramblings 1

Hossam Sadek

July 8, 2012 at 11:32 pm

Heron Silhouette – 5
Coot Silhouette – 4
Herons and Falls – 3
Heavenly Cormorant – 2
Cattle Egret Mist-1

Ted Miller

July 8, 2012 at 8:41 pm

5 Bear & Wagtail
4 Herons and Falls
3 Swan-scape
2 Stilt in Mangroves
1 Bird-scape

James Fuller

July 8, 2012 at 7:15 pm

5- Bear and Wagtail
4- Heron Silhouette
3- Bearded Tit
2- Stilt in Mangroves
1- Heron and Falls

Victor

July 8, 2012 at 4:01 pm

Cattle egret mist = 5
Swan-scape = 4
Flamingo aerial = 3
Sunbird on blossom = 2
Oxpecker = 1

Cheryl Molennor

July 8, 2012 at 3:55 pm

OK Here goes:
5-Heron Silhouette
4-bearded tit
3-Heavaenly Cormerant
2-Oxpecker
1-Herons and Falls
All of these images were so good. I tried to base my judging again according to the category as being small in the frame (not just a great image) and chose some over others based on that. This was hard and another congratulations to all of you

Luigi Carrieri

July 8, 2012 at 2:50 pm

Cattle Egret Mist: 5
Heron Silhouette: 4
Heavenly Cormorant: 3
Eagle Silhouette: 2
Savannah Sparrow Singing: 1

Gaurav Mittal

July 8, 2012 at 2:17 pm

Coot Silhouette – 5
Heron Silhouette – 4
Flamingo Patterns – 3
Heavenly Cormorant – 2
Herons and Falls – 1

Jan Luit

July 8, 2012 at 12:06 pm

5 – Eagle silhouette
4 – Bearded Tit on read
3 – Savannah Sparrow singing
2 – Heavenly Cormorant
1 – Coot Silhouette

The Bear and wagtail is not really a bird photo.
It is a photo of the a bear where the bird happend to be in the frame.
The sharpness is on the bear and not on any of the three birds.

The Stilt in Mangroves should heve been somewhat lighter is it looks dark to me.
The white on the bird does not look really white.

Jeanette Bennett

July 8, 2012 at 11:44 am

5 Swan-Scape
4 Heron Silhouette
3 Bearded Tit on Reed
2 Oxpecker
1 Bird-Scape

Dynamite shots all!! Two questions for the “shooters”…
Was Swan-Scape a picture of Trumpeters in Yellowstone winter?
What were all the types of birds (flying foreground, flying background, and in the trees)in Bird-Scape?

Alan Lillich

July 9, 2012 at 8:45 pm

Swan-Scape is Whooper Swans at Lake Kussharo in Japan. Look here: http://www.wildencounters.net/weblog/2012/03/hokkaido-japan-febmar-2012/ The rest of Paul McKenzie’s blog is well worth reading too.