Capturing the Natural Beauty of Birds

Photo grid: Natalie Robertson

Lisa Mackem

Bird and native plant photographers should consider entering the 2021 Audubon Photography Awards. Next year will be the contest’s 12th year. Winning photos are featured in  Audubon and Nature’s Best Photography magazines and showcased in Audubon Photography Awards exhibitions hosted by Audubon chapters and centers nationwide. Walker Nature Center in Reston has presented three exhibitions of winning photos and last year Huntley Meadows Park also presented the show. Even though the 2020 award winners will not be exhibited this coming winter, you can take a virtual gallery tour here. 

The 2020 contest entry period ran from January 13 through April 6, 2020, and the 2021 contest entry period will probably be similar. Judges awarded six prizes to photographers including: Grand Prize ($5,000), Professional Prize ($2,500), Amateur Prize ($2,500), Youth Prize (six days at Audubon’s Hog Island Audubon Camp), Plants for Birds Prize ($2,500) and the Fisher Prize ($1,000). Introduced in 2019, the Fisher Prize recognizes an image that is as artistic as it is revealing, and the Plants for Birds Prize honors the top photo that illustrates the crucial relationships between native plants and birds. All photos were judged for technical quality, originality, and artistic merit.

In 2019, amateur photographer Kathrin Swoboda won the grand prize for her photo of a Red-winged Blackbird seemingly blowing smoke rings (actually vapor rings) in Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, VA. The contest attracted 2,253 entrants from throughout the U.S. and Canada that year. Swoboda had not intended to enter the contest, but had posted her picture on the Facebook site “Birds of Eastern US”, and someone suggested that she enter. In an interview for The Potomac Flier, Swoboda recommended that to take better bird pictures, “Focus on one bird or species and get to know their nature story.” 

In 2020, nearly 1,800 photographers entered the contest, representing all 50 states, Washington D.C. and 7 Canadian provinces. The grand prize photographer, professional photographer Joanna Lentini, captured a Double-crested Cormorant diving toward a sardine swarm in Los Islotes, Mexico. Audubon featured the other category winners and honorable mentions along with Ms. Lentini’s article, “How to Snap Amazing Photos of Birds Underwater.”

The Audubon Photography Awards are open to all U.S. and Canadian residents (excluding residents of Quebec) who are at least 13 years old as of the date of their submission. Audubon encourages and enforces ethical bird photography, and photos that do not adhere to Audubon’s Guide to Ethical Bird Photography will be disqualified. Official rules for the 2020 Audubon Photography Awards are likely to continue for the 2021 contest. 

Take a Virtual Tour of the 2019 National Audubon Photography Awards

Photo: Audubon Photography Award Winners

In celebration of the natural connection between birding and photography, Audubon Society of Northern Virginia co-hosted the 2019 Audubon Photography Awards Traveling Exhibition with Walker Nature Center in February and again with Huntley Meadows Park in March. Sadly the exhibition is now closed to the public but you can take a virtual tour and learn about the stories behind the photographs here.