Aussie Finch Forum

Watched Australian story last night. It was about David Rennie, his life and his passion for photographing birds. Comments were made about his controversial picture that won a major prestigious award. A very interesting watch.

I even saw someone I recognized at the awards ceremony.

http://www.abc.net.au/austory/

Even the limited angle of the photo shows it must be spectacular.
The transcript was also good reading

Was a good watch that. We have a member who got his mug on twice hey DP.

A LOT of big-time bird photographers are VERY upset about that photo, and I can understand why too...

Jayburd wrote:A LOT of big-time bird photographers are VERY upset about that photo, and I can understand why too...

I don't understand why. Is it the subject matter? If so, contact like this is natural and unscripted. It seems to me to be the "shot of a lifetime" !

I hope this is not the case. Otherwise, do we censor other natural events that have the drama of this shot? That would be sad because drama is basic to the struggle for survival. IMO
Tom

Tom,
Essentially the general view is that he cheated - not something said lightly.
The rules of the ANZANG main competition do not allow composite photos, and this really does appear to be one (two or three different images edited into one - the vast majority of people I have spoken to are certain of this, and being professional photographers, they are likely to know).

Whilst there is no way for them to prove it, it is the prevailing opinion. It is simply too unlikely a situation. There are also several interesting discrepancies, discovered upon investigation. First, the lens. The image was submitted as having been taken with an 800mm lens - and later corrected to a 24-105mm lens. That's not a simple typo to make, and they sure as heck aren't lenses you'd get confused with each other!

The revised version of the data said the shot was taken at 55mm, and 1/400th of a second. 55mm is very short - getting close enough to get such a shot with the bird's behaviour not affected is practically an impossibility. You would need to be within 3-4 meters. 1/400th is simply not fast enough to freeze the action represented. Add this to the fact he was quoted in an interview as having said 1/2000th of a second.

There is a section for composite images and other digital creative editing, but it was not entered there.

Finally, there is no RAW file. That in itself isn't a crime, the image I myself just entered into the ANZANG 2014 competition was not taken in RAW format. But it's absence makes an already disturbing mystery just that much more real.

Let's be clear here. The 1st prize isn't just a status symbol. It's 10 thousand dollars and a birding trip of a lifetime, valued well above 10k - closer to 30k all up. I'm sure you can see, with all of the above in consideration, why people are upset!

If the shot is real - my and everyone else's hats off to him. He has achieved the improbable. But he really made some screw ups with the incorrect data being submitted - extracting the metadata of a photo is not a hard thing to do.

Hi Jaybird.
Thanks so much for telling me this.
I fully understand the scepticism!!!
Sometimes mugs like me don't understand what is well known in other circles.
Thanks again

No problem. It all stinks a bit, and it's really sad that such a thing even has to be investigated - I hear they're changing the rules to RAW-files only in the next few years, which hopefully will rectify the issue.

Towards the end of the program there was a explanation of the controversy and why the picture was questioned in the first place.
According to the program the concern came from the unusual picture plus the fact that David Rennie didnt keep track of his photos and had used several different formats when storing, copying etc.