Birds are such great subjects, to photograph or just watch. Can you possibly imagine a world without them? Mike’s photo of the Tern captures a wonderful, always photogenic species — in motion, bursting with energy and life. Great lighting, evocative background, a frozen moment in a bird’s fast-forward life.

Michael’s tattler image immediately pulled me into the scene, the subdued light (morning sun behind clouds?), wonderful colours of the rock, the motion of the surf and the tentative, ever-watchful long-distance traveller, such a natural part of the landscape. I can just smell the beach and the water.

Wandering Tattler (Tringa incana), Deadman's Beach, North Stradbroke Island. Photograph by Michael Hines. A medium-sized shorebird that breeds by mountain streams in Alaska and far eastern Siberia; migrates to southern North America, Central America and northern parts of south America, small islands in the Pacific Ocean, and the east coast of Australia and New Zealand. 

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs. Ansel Adams