Award-winning peregrine photo

[Stuhar]

Manuel Presti's photo of a peregrine hunting starlings wins Wildlife Photographer of the Year award: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4355628.stm

[London Birder]

a cracking 'action' shot

[tamandua]

An unusual,but very magnificient photo.

[Nick-on]

Just shows that people have different tastes.....don't like it much at all, but hey, what do I know?

Just my opinion.

Nick

[ed keeble]

Just shows that people have different tastes.....don't like it much at all, but hey, what do I know?

Just my opinion.

Nick

Like it or not (I do) it's great to see a winner that isn't a close-up and hasn't been taken on safari.

[Andy Bright]

A thread on this was started on this in the early hours on the photography forum http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=43956
I like it, very different.

[Silvershark]

Just shows that people have different tastes.....don't like it much at all, but hey, what do I know?

Just my opinion.

Nick

I don't like it much either...

[Stuhar]

Apologies to Hindolbittern for starting a thread on the same topic (thanks for the link Andy). I quite like it because it's so different. It's a view that isn't normally depicted. As Katy Penland says, artistic judgements are ultimately subjective.

[Touty]

Apologies to Hindolbittern for starting a thread on the same topic (thanks for the link Andy). I quite like it because it's so different. It's a view that isn't normally depicted. As Katy Penland says, artistic judgements are ultimately subjective.

This photo is creating some ructions amongsts bird photographers I know in Italy... lots of them reckon the photo is mediocre but agree that Manuel Presti is a great photographer with an 'eye' for a photo. Here's his site:

http://www.wildlifephoto-presti.com/

Italy has a huge number of good wildlife photographers as a proportion of those interested in wildlife. Light is often excellent and rock formations and vegetation offer compelling backdrops. I think it was the fact that the winner was a 'point and click' pic when most great photos are the product of hours, days or weeks of patient preparation that is getting people's goat

[Silvershark]

This photo is creating some ructions amongsts bird photographers I know in Italy... lots of them reckon the photo is mediocre but agree that Manuel Presti is a great photographer with an 'eye' for a photo. Here's his site:

http://www.wildlifephoto-presti.com/

Italy has a huge number of good wildlife photographers as a proportion of those interested in wildlife. Light is often excellent and rock formations and vegetation offer compelling backdrops. I think it was the fact that the winner was a 'point and click' pic when most great photos are the product of hours, days or weeks of patient preparation that is getting people's goat

I've just flicked through some of the photos, a lot of them I find far more appealing than the winning shot.

[Touty]

I've just flicked through some of the photos, a lot of them I find far more appealing than the winning shot.

I showed it to a friend of mine who spends hours a week in a hide waiting for action and he said 'if I'd taken it I wouldn't even have submitted it... half the game is knowing what to submit to the judges'. Bit like the Turner prize really... a bit of a mystery.

[stuartlawrie]

Must admit I don't find it that good. Like Touty said its about knowing what to submit, have often deleted similar photos to this one.

[edenwatcher]

I also fall into the camp of "if I'd taken it, I wouldn't have submitted it". It is certainly striking but ...
Looking at his website there are some crackers e.g. this willet
http://www.wildlifephoto-presti.com/Galleries/Birds/Birds31.htm

Rob

[tamandua]

The judges did not choose this one because of magnificient colours, fantastic details or whatever. They chose it because it is different. Nothing what we are used to see as a winning photo. In its own way, it is ingenious. Very different,but ingenious. Many people won't like it because of its difference,but I think no one will say that this photo does not look amazing in a special way. I mean...look at the starlings and the peregrine...they seem to be alive and seem to move. One feels the action and the starlings's panic... THAT is why they chose it. The other photos ar very good,too. But often,photos are like painted pictures. Everything's standing still like a sculpture.
It is the breath of live that makes this photo that outstanding.

[Silvershark]

I don't really agree with it looking "alive" in the photo, it just doesn't look that way to me at all. I do believe the portfolio will be arriving in the next edition of the BBC wildlife magazine, so I am curious as to what the other submitted photos are like. I did like the shot of the elephants, but the one of the whooper swans looked as if it belonged on an Xmas card. it is a beautiful photo, but it doesn't really "grab" me in any way, although I do like the pale blues and whites of the photo. I honestly think that the winning shot from last year is a far better example of an action shot than this photo of the peragrine and starlings, but it is entirely down to the person looking at it whether they view it as art or not.

[salty]

i like it, as mentioned it's not your average shot, so this swings it a little for me. makes it a more unique shot.

[Neil Grubb]

I really like the shot, it conveys a good sense of drama, and I'd have been very pleased indeed if it had been mine. But to win wildlife photographer of the year on that shot ? I'm really surprised! I like it but surely it isn't that good!

[Nick-on]

Looked at a few more times and still don't like it...his Peregrine sat on a rock is a better 'action' shot, despite it not actually moving!

again IMHO

Nick

[charlierocky]

Hello all, this is my first post hear so please be gentle, and if you will allow me to indulge myself I will explain what I see in this picture. Remember those films we watch on TV, the ones where huge shoals of fish twist and turn as one whilst the predator attacks, or the lion which attacks a huge heard of wilderbeast creating chaos as the lion trys to single out one beast. I think this is what I see in this picture, not the Peregrine and starlings but prey and predator, life and death. Its the scenario the picture suggests,rather than the content. I like this picture the more I look at it but have to admit I probably would have dissmissed it myself?

[barry potter]

i agree with rocky what a brill action pic its not a detiled pic but an overall action shot . well done the judges for being brave :clap: :clap: