One of the toughest challenges of photography is to capture an unrepeatable instant, in the only moment nature allows you to observe it. It happens to nature photographers all the time that they have no room for indecision, whether it’s unrepeatable natural phenomena or fleeting movements, like the flight of birds.
The beauty of this moment is celebrated in the Bird Photographer of the Year competition, now in its sixth year in 2021. The competition dedicated to bird photography was attended this year by 22 thousand shots, divided into categories according to the theme photographed. Portraits, details, behavior, flight, black and white, birds in the city, protection, a creative section, three dedicated to young photographers (under 8, 9-13, 14-17) and the “birds and landscape” section, in which the 2021 winning photograph was included. Alejandro Prieto won first place with his shot of a bird standing still in front of a portion of the concrete wall and barbed wire that divides Mexico and the United States.

The poetic charge of Prieto’s photo “Blocked” tells a story of adaptation and emergency. In fact, the aim of the competition is not only to portray rare species, the flight of a hummingbird or the gloom of an owl, but rather to explore the narrative potential of photography, as well as its technical possibilities. The photographs awarded at the Bird Photographer of the Year are also unique from a technical point of view, immortalizing subjects such as birds, as mentioned, is a difficult task and in this way the new digital tools available to photographers are put to the test.
If you’re interested, registration is already open for 2022.