Flower Photo Competition 3 2013 : Entry Number 675

A yellow bird on top of a sun flower, which appears more dead than alive. Something raw and real about this image, and definitely not not posed nor pretentious. Nice composition and showing how one needs the other. The bird eats the seeds and the seeds will grow new sun flowers.

Thank you I Shot It judge for this unbelievable honor! This is a male Gold Finch, state bird of New Jersey. I shot this photo using a DMC-FZ200 Lumix Focal Length108mm Shutter Speed1/500 secs Aperturef/3.5 ISO/Film400 I live in a very urban area and these birds are VERY small and most New Jerseyans have never even seen one. However, I did see him eating a top of one of my sunflowers. I cropped and muted the saturation to give it a more raw, dying flower feel. As the judge said, it's really a mutualistic relationship. The bird eats from the flower, some seeds drop, those seeds will grow into a flower the following year, the bird again eats the seeds. (I have not planted a sunflower in over 6 years) the birds seem to take care of that for me. Thanks so much for the 'Mark of Excellence' I am so honored! Congratulations to the winner and to all the other photo's that received a "Mark Of Excellence" Patrice O'Rourke