The Society of the International Nature and Wildlife Photographers have recently announced the winners of the SINWP Bird Photographer of the Year 2023 competition. Organized in support of the RSPB, this competition helps to showcase some of the best wildlife photography from around the world.
With 1,750 entries, the judges saw a huge range of feathered species from around the globe. However, there could only be one winner. The wildlife photographer to scoop the top prize was Gianpiero Ferrari, from Leicestershire, England. His image of a fieldfare enjoying an apple in the snow helped him win a collection of prizes worth £900.
His winner was shot with his Canon EOS-1DX and 500mm f/4. The exposure was 1/200 sec at f/10, ISO 500.
''The shot is from my home", he explains. "After a snowfall during the night, several Fieldfare came in the garden to take advantage of the apple that I provided. This one was very aggressive and took over the entire garden chasing away all the other birds. I started to take some pictures from the house through a window, but I was not happy with the composition. I thought a ground level composition would have been much better. So first I had to build a pile of snow to use as a background and then lay on the ground under a camouflage blanket, waiting for the bird to return to eat the apples."
The competition raised over £2,200 for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds - bringing the total raised for the conversation charity to over £13,000 in the six years of the contest.
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