“Green Violetear,” Savegre Hotel, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica, by Barbara Driscoll, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. This image was the Fine Art Winner in the Audubon Photography Awards, part of the overall competition.
Driscoll says: “A friend and I were taking pictures of hummingbirds in Costa Rica, and decided that while some have to be shot from a specific angle to look good, there are no bad angles for taking pictures of the green violetear. This day it had rained, and the birds were perching on an agave plant in front of the lodge, trying to dry out. The nontypical portrait from the back, the way the angle of the bill matched the point on the agave, and how the bird spread its feathers, displaying that beautiful rainbow of color, made me feel I had achieved a shot that managed to capture the bird’s spectacular texture and color.”
This was pretty difficult to capture as it was hung on the wall very low. My first attempt (this one) was quite distorted, but when I went back to try again and shot sitting on the floor, the reflections were horrific, even worse than in this version.
‘Northern Rockhopper Penguin,’ posted earlier: