Comments on: BIRDS AS ART 2nd International Bird Photography Competition Pleasing Blurs Category Winners & the Readership Vote https://www.birdsasart-blog.com/baa/2014/05/15/birds-as-art-2nd-international-bird-photography-competition-pleasing-blurs-category-winners-the-readership-vote/ The blog of bird photographer Arthur Morris Mon, 16 Jun 2014 08:41:05 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 By: Paul Mckenzie https://www.birdsasart-blog.com/baa/2014/05/15/birds-as-art-2nd-international-bird-photography-competition-pleasing-blurs-category-winners-the-readership-vote/comment-page-1/#comment-1123732 Sat, 17 May 2014 03:01:48 +0000 http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/?p=19982#comment-1123732 Thanks Conrad. I should add on the Cape Petrel image that 1) the ship with pitching and rolling in a heavy swell; 2) I used a little fill flash set to rear curtain sync which helped accentuate the streaking effect and 3) I needed to take several hundred images over the course of a few days to get the image I was after: a reasonably sharp bird with a blurred and most importantly, fairly uniform blue background without large streaks of white spray.

]]> By: David Policansky https://www.birdsasart-blog.com/baa/2014/05/15/birds-as-art-2nd-international-bird-photography-competition-pleasing-blurs-category-winners-the-readership-vote/comment-page-1/#comment-1116617 Thu, 15 May 2014 14:59:45 +0000 http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/?p=19982#comment-1116617 Hi, Artie, and thanks as always. I think these results point out an issue with the category’s name, “Pleasing blurs.” Apparently, what pleased us voters wasn’t what pleased the judges. You know, only this category has a value-laden descriptor (“pleasing”). All the rest are objective (e.g., small in the frame, flight, portrait, and so on). I wonder if you might consider replacing the word “pleasing” with a neutral descriptor, or even none (just call it “Blurs”). Let me echo your congratulations to all the photographers; wonderful images all.

When I was a kid in Cape Town I used to go fishing on my father’s boat and in winter I was always delighted by the incredible diversity of seabirds, including Cape petrels and many species of albatross, including wandering albatrosses. Cape gannets were my favorite seabirds there, as northern gannets are my favorite seabirds in this country. The only obvious difference I can remember is that Cape gannets have black-tipped tails, like their wings. Our gannets have white tails.

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