When a photograph looks like a painting, you know the photographer did many things right! The first thing to catch my attention in this shot is certainly the cute subject, perfectly posed, eyes to camera, like a professional model. But that's not all there is to it. The same subject photographed in a messy undergrowth wouldn't have looked half as good. It is thanks to the photographer's composition skills that this shot has become the winning image that it is. The plain, non-distracting background, the almost triangular shape of the flowers (from the higher flower, to low stems, to the bunch the mouse is sitting on) - it all makes for a tidy and appealing composition that takes this shot to the next level. The colour palette is also very successful here, with the dark green of the background complementing the hot pink of the flowers extremely well. What a great shot, well done!
Brief
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**This contest is open to photographers ranked between 251 and 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.
I have scrolled through hundreds of portraits of Robins whilst judging this competition, but there was no other image like this image. There are many things that take this shot apart from the others. The first thing is lighting. Seeing low-key lighting in an outdoor portrait of a robin is unique, and not easy to achieve either. It sets a wonderful, warm, intimate mood that is only enhanced by the eye contact between bird and camera and by the shallow depth of field that blurs everything behind the subject, minimising distractions. The colour palette, also beautifully warm in all shades of gold and browns, complements and enhances the intimate mood set by the lighting. A wonderful shot, well done!
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357 Photographers
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