PotM Calendar
The Photo of the Month (see gallery) is a year-round calendar of wildlife and nature images with story contributions from visitors, friends and fellow photographers.
When it comes to nature photography, it's not only those exciting tales of high adventure that often accompany talent and skill for a fabulous result. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a well-timed shot or well-framed one can say as much about you as a photographer. So, if you'd like to showcase one of your pictures here, free, for one calendar month with a short story or personal account, then this page is for you.
Bourne, Lincolnshire
Photography is all about lighting, with a touch of personal perspective. So, seeing a subject in a different light, especially a wildlife one, can mean several things — like discovering a new facet of its life, using a more unusual portrait angle, or finding an ingenious way to tell a more compelling story.
In rear-curtain sync photography, only the second half of a camera’s shutter is in step with its flash to produce an image. Exposure times of 1/10th of a second or less are used to create a spectral effect from motion blur. The trick is to pick an eye-catching subject, like this triple-image trail of a greenfinch against a dark background—created not only to capture the bird aesthetically but also to focus our attention on the plight of greenfinches in Bourne and the rest of the UK since the early 2000s.
This olive-green finch with a bright flash of yellow in its wings is now classed as *threatened due to Trichomonosis, a pervasive parasitical disease you could say is depicted in the photo by the darkness surrounding it. In contrast, from our sync behind the magic curtain, is a recovery story portrayed by its three-in-one imagery. Starting with the lower faded body representing the bird’s threatened past; the less faded middle, its uncertain present and the more defined uppermost image, its emergence to a more solid future—a story, one would hope, is a true picture of our Greenfinch population and their situation today.
*Listed as Red in the UK Birds Red List, aka Birds of Conservation Concern 5 (2021)
Special announcements or simple hellos. Place your message, or link here as part of your PotM agreement. With two places left for 2024, the PotM Calendar is now closed until October 18th. To learn more about posting news, comments and events under a PotM agreement, see our Terms of Use page, where you can submit your photo (along with your story) during the last two weeks of every month.
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