Judges Comments

A well captured shot. Nice focus with the added touch of a piece of reed. Now in professional nature photography positioning
and background is everything. Here the fine details of the bird are obscured by insufficient separation
from the dark coloured water and the bird has been captured departing rather than approaching. So we have more
detail of the tail than the head. And while the format of a photo is often dictated by publishing requirements,
my feeling is that in this case the shot would be improved with about half the foreground and background water.
A publisher is likely to see that as wasted paper and reject the shot.