Winner Chosen - May 2012 - Admin's choice - Image of the month

**Marko** · 06-08-2012, 11:00 AM

(I just want to preface this month's choice (again) by saying it was very difficult to choose only one image...)

Hi members,

In case you are new around here this is where the Admin (me) chooses one excellent photo each month from all the photos nominated by other members during that month in the Member's monthly choice forum.

Just so it's clear, the photo I choose is not necessarily the best one of the month. I've come to realize it's not really logical to pit images from totally different genres against each other. That's why there are categories in photo contests. My goal is to simply choose an excellent photo and talk about why I think it rocks.

This month's choice is Male RTH Hummingbird Mike Bons

I chose this image for several reasons:

Composition - The composition here is very pleasing. The bird's eye lines up on right near one of the lines of the thirds which is visually interesting. The plant and the bird are captured on a diagonal which is also visually interesting. Brightness is very well handled here and I find no distractions that bother me.

Colour - What a rich pleasing colour palette used here. The colours of the bird and the flower even seem to match. Reds in the flower might be a hint too bright and oversaturated for me, but I can easily live with it.

Sharpness - I love how sharp the bird is here (especially the eye and the beak) versus the out of focus background, it totally pops.

Exposure/lighting - Again both are well handled. The combination of flash and ambient light is what is freezing the bird in mid-feeding here. I like how the bird is well lit without being 'over-lit' by the flash.

For all these reasons, this is my choice for image of the month. Since we all have opinions, some members may disagree with my choice. That's cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to further critique the image. The purpose here is to suggest strong elements in the photo that we may learn from.

Congrats again Mike Bons for capturing this little beauty.

**Iguanasan** · 06-08-2012, 11:35 PM

Congratulations. What a wonderful shot, Mike. First post to the forum and you end up with image of the month. You'll have a hard time topping that one!

**Runmonty** · 06-09-2012, 02:38 AM

Congrats Mike, it is a great image

**vyeko** · 06-09-2012, 06:22 AM

Congrats fantastic image.

**Mike Bons** · 06-13-2012, 11:48 AM

Wow, I just found this part of the board. Its just taking me a little while to navigate my way around here, but I am really happy I found it. Thanks so much for your considering this image and Marko I agree with you about the reds on the flower. I take almost all my hummingbird images from my back deck of my house. Its a little relaxing routine I do about 2-3 nights a week. I also wanted to give a shout out to all the images that were in the Members Monthly Choice as they were all very strong.