Bird Photo Competition 2 2019
Results
Winning Photo

This is definitely more of an architectural image than a bird image, but the inclusion of birds is critical to the overall effect. Without them, it would be difficult to establish a sense of scale and so we could be looking at an object only a few centimetres long. As it is, the sheer scale of the sculpture makes this an object of much greater interest. The monochrome treatment and strong lead-in composition create aesthetic appeal, especially with the addition of the starling flock neatly framed at the bottom-left (try covering them up to see how much balance they add to the composition). This photo is of a man-made object that depicts a natural subject: it's interesting how it depends on the birds to bring it to life.

Thank you for honouring me with this prize. I don't dedícate to bird photography but I was very afortunated when I saw those starlings on that monument near my home. Fortunately I was able to run home, get my camera and go back and shoot them while they were flying from ground level up to that monument's head, and catch them just in the right place. My name is Joseba Iriarte, I am an amateur photographer from Vitoria-Gasteiz, basque country, Spain. I used a canon 80D camera with a canon 55-250 ISII lens, and processed it in Lightroom.