Spotless composition, with the bird centered in the frame, facing away and therefore showing us the beautiful colouring on its head in its entirety. The lavender stems in the foreground and background, all neatly placed but going in different directions, add a positive dynamic component to the shot. The sharpness on the subject compared to the blur on the background is beautiful and very appealing to the eye. And lastly, this shot's colour palette is just wonderful, and certainly a very strong point in the success of this shot. The beige and cream in the background resembles the tones on the breast of the goldfinch, and beautifully complements the navy blue and rich red of its head. A wonderful shot that deserves first place. Well done!
Brief
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**This contest is open to photographers ranked below 1000 in this week’s <a href="https://www.photocrowd.com/photographer-community/">Leaderboard</a>.** Our gardens often offer a wildlife haven that is easily overlooked, even when we live in a town or city. Photography offers us an opportunity to explore our world more closely, and there can be great joy in being confined to a small area in which one must find interesting imagery. It’s a discipline that teaches us to make the most of what we’ve got, and that often it is enough, The same can be said of looking for wildlife in one’s garden or local patch of green. It might require patience for a bird to land, or a fox to pass by, or a macro lens that makes the bugs a bit bigger, but wildlife gets everywhere, thank God, and we’ll be there to take interesting pictures of it.
It isn't easy to capture a simple, yet captivating shot of wildlife, but it's something the photographer has achieved beautifully in this picture. I love how the lighting catches the front of the hare, highlighting its fur, face, ears and whiskers, all beautifully standing out against the dark stone background. There is something cute and endearing about the pose of the hare, head up, whiskers up in the air, perhaps about to nibble on a stem of grass. It wouldn't have been the same if the hare had been simply staring ahead, so props go to the photographer for choosing to capture this specific moment. I tend to find wide apertures and blurred backgrounds in wildlife photography very effective, but in this case the non-blurry stone wall actually adds to the picture, it tells a story, and the photographer has made the right choice in keeping it visible. A simple, yet magical shot. Well done!
There is lovely life and vitality emanating from this unique shot that makes me want to zoom in more and more to check in on every single one of the busy birds. There is so much happening in this image and yet it appears tidy and well-composed - not an easy thing to accomplish and a success to attribute to the photographer's skill for sure. The "slower" shutter speed of 1/320 allowed for some movement blur, which highly benefits the shot. The softness of the moving birds and their flapping wings is in lovely contrast with the stillness of others and nature around them, and gives a true sense of movement to the shot that would have been lost should everything have been frozen by a faster shutter speed. A fantastic shot, well done!
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