{"id":17237,"date":"2023-09-10T06:57:12","date_gmt":"2023-09-09T18:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/?p=17237"},"modified":"2023-09-10T06:57:51","modified_gmt":"2023-09-09T18:57:51","slug":"bird-photographer-of-the-year-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/17237","title":{"rendered":"Bird Photographer of the Year 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GibsonsAlbatross-NZ9_8609-2-DxO-POTY-web.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GibsonsAlbatross-NZ9_8609-2-DxO-POTY-web.jpg?resize=960%2C640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Photo of Toroa\/Gibson's Albatross pan blur - Highly Commended - Birds in Flight - Bird Photographer of the Year 2023\" class=\"wp-image-17238\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GibsonsAlbatross-NZ9_8609-2-DxO-POTY-web.jpg?w=960&amp;ssl=1 960w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GibsonsAlbatross-NZ9_8609-2-DxO-POTY-web.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GibsonsAlbatross-NZ9_8609-2-DxO-POTY-web.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Toroa\/Gibson&#8217;s Albatross pan blur &#8211; Highly Commended &#8211; Birds in Flight &#8211; Bird Photographer of the Year 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>For the second week in a row, I can finally share some exciting news. Again apologies to my social media followers who will already be aware of this. Last week the news was being again selected as a finalist in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/17221\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">NZ Geographic Photographer of the Year<\/a>. This week the news is that two of my images have been selected for inclusion in the Bird Photographer of the Year 2023 Collection 8. The the full results see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.birdpoty.com\/bpoty-2023-winners?mc_cid=3c046def64&amp;mc_eid=4ccaf9661a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bird Photographer of the Year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the end of 2022 I submitted a portfolio of images to the competition and was excited to receive an email in early March requesting high res files for 7 images that had been shortlisted. In early July I received the news that two images had been selected for publication and one had been Highly Commend and included in the touring exhibition. Having been competing in a pool of over 23 000 submissions, I was pleased to have had 2 images selected among the approximately 300 for publication and one for the exhibition. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Shoveller-20220810-_NZ99446-DxO-POTY-web.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Shoveller-20220810-_NZ99446-DxO-POTY-web.jpg?resize=960%2C640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Photo of Kuruwhengi\/Australasian Shoveler - Birds in Flight - Bird Photographer of the Year 2023\" class=\"wp-image-17239\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Shoveller-20220810-_NZ99446-DxO-POTY-web.jpg?w=960&amp;ssl=1 960w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Shoveller-20220810-_NZ99446-DxO-POTY-web.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Shoveller-20220810-_NZ99446-DxO-POTY-web.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Kuruwhengi\/Australasian Shoveler &#8211; Birds in Flight &#8211; Bird Photographer of the Year 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>I must acknowledge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edinz.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Edin<\/a> as the stimulus to enter this competition. She entered last year and had a lovely image of a NZ Storm Petrel selected for inclusion in Collection 7. Sharing her journey was exciting and she nudged me and helped me select images for a submission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The award for the Albatross pan blur is especially pleasing for me. It is one of those images that really excited me when I caught it. Albatross in general, but greater albatross in particular, are stunning birds in flight and this pass was something special as I was working on expanding my repertoire of pan blurs. Reviewing on my camera LCD,  I was immediately excited by the image as it captured exactly what I was looking for with the bird appearing, to my eye at least, to be flying out of the image 3 dimensionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I submitted it in the wildlife category of another competition where it wasn&#8217;t recognised and I began to feel that my feelings for it were too tied up with my emotions around the experience. Having it now recognised and Highly Commended in a specialist bird photography competition by international bird photography judges gives me a quiet satisfaction that I&#8217;m not too far outside the extreme of the Bell curve of bird photographers despite being happily well adrift from the &#8220;normal&#8221; population!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photos with Nikon Z9. Albatross with Nikkor Z 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 VR S at 140mm f8, Shoveller with  Nikkor Z 800mm f6.3 VR S + 1.4x teleconverter (1120mm f9).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bird Photographer of the Year 2023 &#8211; Highly Commended image included in the touring exhibition, two featured in Collection 8 book of the competition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Bird Photographer of the Year 2023 - Highly Commended image included in the touring exhibition, two featured in Collection 8 book of the competition","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[982,29,8],"tags":[1177,26,144,247,221,869,983,190],"class_list":["post-17237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-photography","category-new-zealand","category-news","tag-bird-photographer-of-the-year","tag-bird-photography","tag-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand-bird","tag-nikon","tag-nikon-z","tag-nikon-z9","tag-photography","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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recall shooting functions is the one feature I would miss the most if I had to go back to using a DSLR","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bird Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bird Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/bird-photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_3963.jpg?fit=960%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_3963.jpg?fit=960%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_3963.jpg?fit=960%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_3963.jpg?fit=960%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8306,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/8306","url_meta":{"origin":17237,"position":1},"title":"Bird Photography Competitions","author":"tony","date":"October 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Bird photography competitions are a unique subset of photography competitions. 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I don't envy the judge's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/2_TonyWhitehead_OystercatcherPairTerritorialDisplay.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/2_TonyWhitehead_OystercatcherPairTerritorialDisplay.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/2_TonyWhitehead_OystercatcherPairTerritorialDisplay.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/2_TonyWhitehead_OystercatcherPairTerritorialDisplay.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9370,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9370","url_meta":{"origin":17237,"position":2},"title":"NZ Geographic Awards Night 2018","author":"tony","date":"October 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night we attended the NZ Geographic Awards Night 2018 as Edin had again been selected as a finalist in the Wildlife category. We have had a good run with invitations in 2014 when Edin was Young Photographer of the year, 2016 when we were both finalists, (Edin achieving a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;New Zealand&quot;","block_context":{"text":"New Zealand","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/new-zealand"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/IMG_6935.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/IMG_6935.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/IMG_6935.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/IMG_6935.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/IMG_6935.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19343,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/19343","url_meta":{"origin":17237,"position":3},"title":"New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year Finalist again &#8211; 2025 Edition","author":"tony","date":"August 31, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year Finalist again - 2025 Edition. Threepeat with Edin","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bird Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bird Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/bird-photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of Hoiho\/Yellow-eyed penguins","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Yellow-eyedPenguins-20241023-NZ9_4692-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Yellow-eyedPenguins-20241023-NZ9_4692-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Yellow-eyedPenguins-20241023-NZ9_4692-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Yellow-eyedPenguins-20241023-NZ9_4692-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19427,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/19427","url_meta":{"origin":17237,"position":4},"title":"NZ Geographic POTY Awards 2025 &#8211; Edin wins Wildlife","author":"tony","date":"October 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"NZ Geographic Photographer of the Year 2025 - Dr Edin Whitehead wins wildlife category with a powerful image of an Antipodean albatross chick","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bird Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bird Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/bird-photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/EdinNZPOTY2025WildlifeWinner-20251023-DSCF8186.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/EdinNZPOTY2025WildlifeWinner-20251023-DSCF8186.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/EdinNZPOTY2025WildlifeWinner-20251023-DSCF8186.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/EdinNZPOTY2025WildlifeWinner-20251023-DSCF8186.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11284,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/11284","url_meta":{"origin":17237,"position":5},"title":"Bird Photography Tips &#8211; Head Angle","author":"tony","date":"January 29, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Bird Photography Tips - Head Angle. An important consideration in pursuit of great bird images.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/SouthIslandRobin-DSC_1082-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/SouthIslandRobin-DSC_1082-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/SouthIslandRobin-DSC_1082-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/SouthIslandRobin-DSC_1082-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}