Wild Bird Trust photographers of the week

Another great week for me as I have one picture among the 25 chosen as the top photographs of the week by Steve Boyes of Wild Bird Trust. I think the standard is being raised almost every week and to have had pictures among the lot for the last three weeks feels great. This week is no exception and you will find many great photos together with my photo of a Eurasian Jay from the Golden Eagle workshop in Kalvträsk.

You can see the rest of the week’s photos at National Geographic’s News Watch.

I think the picture is among the better that I have taken this year.

Why do I rate this picture so high?

Well there are many small details that is important for me in this photo. The first you notice is the light. It was a glorious light this evening and we sat hoping for the Golden Eagle to come and bask itself in the golden rays from the sun. While sitting there I thought I should have a go at the Jays, there were six of them in total. I had tried to get a good flight shot the other days but those times it was impossible to raise the shutter to get a good sharpness on the bird. So the light was oh so important to get this photo.

The light leads to the shutter that made it possible to get the sharpness and the lack of direct sunlight on the background makes it a nice and uniform part of the picture. It doesn’t distract from the bird it more enhances the picture from my point of view. So one could say I was a little bit lucky.

When I look at the picture I see the movement in the wings that are in full stretch. This is a really important detail for me in flight shots and it is always a little gamble when you chose the shutter speed but I seem to get it right more times than not.

I chose the 16:9 format for the picture as I think it is the best when you want forward movement in the picture. This together with the sharpness, golden light, soft background and the wing movement makes this a darn good picture and on top of that you see the glint in the eye on this wild bird.

I hope you all appreciate and enjoy my interpretation of a Eurasian Jay in flight.