2008 Digiscoper of the Year Contest Winners

Swarovski Optik published winners of the 2008 Digiscoper of the Year contest! Yours truly did not submit any images. (Actually, I don't think I'm eligible). If I had, I probably would have sent in this female Common Yellowthroat - a personal favorite among my 2008 digiscoping efforts. I like how the weight of the little warbler is just enough to slightly bend its perch.

My runner-up for 2008 would probably have been this Dickcissel:



I would see this bird most summer mornings I rode my bike to work.

Admiring all the beautiful digiscoped photography featured on the winners website, I'm reminded an excerpt from a message I recently found on a photography forum. Now where was that...oh, here it is:

"...the images in the above galleries are quite good but not up to the quality of images captured with a DSLR and camera lens. When you view them at a larger size many of them are rather soft. Considering the equipment used and the shooting conditions they are excellent captures but not on par with the work of many photographers I know."

This was in reference to my stuff, Ann Cook's, Gerd Rossen's, and the work of a few other world-class digiscopers out there. Well, we digiscopers will always be regarded as second-class photographers by the photography community. Meh! Eat your heart out!

Anyway, congratulations to all the contest winners! Perhaps I'll give them a little competition in 2009.

All images © 2008 Mike McDowell