I have spent quite a long time looking through all of your beautiful bird photograph entries today, and I must say I am so inspired by all the submissions. This was a VERY hard decision for me to make, as I can clearly see the effort and talent behind these lovely photographs. I must reiterate that the purpose of this bird photography contest was to inspire us ALL, and help us better our skills as photographers. I think this was a very successful challenge, as the intention became clear while looking through all the submissions. 

To be fair, I wrote a list of requirements for the bird photography submissions. You can see the below list to see exactly what helped me make my decision in choosing the winners. Please refer to my original journal "Win 1,000 Points (Bird Photography Challenge)" to see more details about the rules, requirements, and the submissions entered. 

• What was I looking for?

• - I am simply looking for two bird photographs that inspire me, aesthetically, and I will be looking at technique as well. 
  
• - What I mean by aesthetically, is that the bird is photograph is not over-edited, not photo-manipulated (i.e. adding objects, fake bokeh, or anything "unnatural" to the photo). 
  
• - I am looking for a bird photograph that is aesthetically stunning, i.e. good lighting/exposure, sharp, etc). Black and white or Colour submissions are welcome!
  
• - Please note that I will be looking at photography technique, i.e. whether it be closeup, macro, composition, etc).
• - I will not be judging the bird itself! I love ALL birds, no matter what color or shape they are, they are all beautiful to me. 
  
• - I will not be judging what camera you use, though for bird photography it does help to use a telephoto lens, as birds are very quick etc.
  
• - I will be looking for originality most importantly. Capturing a bird's behavior for instance, such as feeding it's babies or flying is excellent but just a few of MANY ways to capture birds!

A huge congratulations to the winners, and EVERYONE who entered, you are all wonderful! I wish I had enough points to give to you all, but keep an eye out for more contests coming up. My next one will be a general nature photography contest! If you have any suggestions for the future, please feel free to note me anytime. Thank you all so much for your entries, I very much enjoyed looking through them all!

Recent DeviantART News 

• Just incase anyone missed out on my last journal, I wrote an in-depth article about how I re-edited some of my older photographs. There's lots of Photoshop tips and tutorial help there too!
• Please give a warm welcome to my partner in crime and lover, parvanitis, who is now finally on deviantART and submitting his beautiful photography!
• The Best of Unframed Nature feature for 2015 - spectacular features! 
• CRPhotography's 52 Week Photography Challenge 
• MarcosRodriguez's Macro Spotlight Feature
• CRPhotography is looking for help! Check out their journal for info. 
• Queen-Kitty's 15 Under 15 Feature is amazing!
• Welcome to the new community volunteers!! 
• Are you able to donate a prize for this contest? Thank you!

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