Why is only the top end of the bird(s) displayed in budgerigar photographs?

As I was the founder and editor of Budgerigar World Magazine, I perhaps was also “guilty” of doing exactly the same as many other photographers in concentrating on the bird(s) from the perch upward, but I had my views at the time which I will come to later.

Mick Freakley. leading breeder and official Budgerigar Society photographer, kindly supplies me with a great many photographs, so I decided to request him to answer this good question on behalf of Budgerigar.co.uk .

The Freakly Point of View

Below are four pairs of images to illustrate why, in my opinion, the camera concentrates on the top end of birds for public viewing.

Four are full length and four are cropped for comparison purposes.

As far as I am concerned, any full length image lacks impact.

The Grey Green cock featured here is the Best in Show bird from the 2010 Budgerigar Society Club Show – shown by Les Martin of Studham in Bedfordshire. A bird in the super class.

In the full length view you can clearly see the two tails are present. If it did not have these in the first place you would not be looking at the major part of the bird.

My personal choice is to see all birds from the perch upward in a photograph.

I did a series of full length photographs at the request of the UK Budgerigar Society for them to consider their possible use in their magazine. This followed a complaint that only “cropped ” images were being used all the time.

Obviously all judges will have penalised any suggestion of a dipped tail or a badly hinged tail while judging, so as winners are always the subject of published photographs, it can be accepted that the tail is / was right and in line with the body axis at the time.

The other three birds featured in this article clearly illustrate my point.

Please click on an image to enlarge it.

Summary by Gerald Binks

I have to say I am in full agreement with Mick.

Anyone can breed a body, whether big or small, but it is the detail in the head and top end that is essential to be pictured in all photographs.

That said, when I was the editor and photographer of Budgerigar World magazine, I began the series of featuring, say, four birds to a page and either judging them myself or inviting other judges to do the same: pointing out the good points and bad points on each bird – and, on occasion, complete with tails!

This feature was very popular with beginners and novices, so I propose to introduce it on this website at a later date.

The above can be viewed as follows:

• BS Club Show 2010 – Photographs by Mick Freakley

Hence, there is now a section entitled “Photo Galleries” on the site, where all budgerigar photographs are located. The link to this section is situated on the second line of horizontal navigation at the top of every page.

The photographs shown in the galleries are clickable – once clicked they will expand in size and show in an easy-to-navigate slide show format. Once the slide show is shown, the page background will be darkened to enable better viewing of the image.

To navigate to the next image in the sequence, please click on the “>>” or “<<” arrows that appear undet the slide show image.

To end the slide show, just click on the image itself. This can be done on any image – it does not have to be the last one in the sequence!

Additional photographs will be added regularly and news of such additions will be published under the “Noticeboard” section on this site.

It is a free place to promote yourself, your society, and winning birds – and in doing so, to advertise your existence.

As the heading on the site says, “Be Part Of It”. It is the international website for all budgerigar breeders.

Free Publicity for Your Budgerigar Society

I have a request to all breeders – world wide. Will you individually make a point to stand up at your next society meeting and pass my request to the “top table”, that it is all here and free of charge. In other words, ask your society’s management to get involved and not stay passive.

World Wide Exposure

Here is just one example of an incentive for all societies. Photographs (without bars) of the Best in Show and Best Young Bird in Show at your society’s annual show will be featured on this site! So not only would the winning breeder win the best award(s) at the show, but their bird(s) would be seen by breeders world wide.

Anyone Can Contribute

On a personal basis, I will be approaching many experienced breeders to write and submit articles for the site – along with their photographs of birds, their aviaries and themselves. That, however, does not prevent those less experienced from also contributing. There is great pleasure in seeing your work published and the benefits are profound as you will find out. It also does not stop breeders and exhibitors from non-english speaking countries writing – as users of the site are aware, the Internet has given us many free translation tools!

Act Now!

In conclusion, I have written masses of articles and a few books – so now it is your turn to express your experiences – via this website. Do not worry if your English is not great – it is my job as editor to help you. Just send in your submission and leave the rest to me! Don’t step back – make a contribution. Not tomorrow, but today! It’s easy once you start. The most massive plus is that everyone knows your name!

To read full details regarding writing and submitting articles / photographs etc. please click here.

To view, please click here.