The February Art of Birding, Wildlife and Nature project was to present a portrait rather than just a snap of a chosen critter; to make the critter the hero of the image. See the best images and learn how the photos were captured.

Using photography for good has always been at the heart of both Excio and the Art of Birding Challenges. Therefore, using photography for wildlife advocacy was a great topic to get challenge participants thinking how they could share details about the animal through their images.

As we head towards the end of the year, it’s time to reflect on how far we’ve come by creating something tangible with our digital files. Art of Birding members were encouraged to create calendars or other tangible products to show off all their hard work.

Participants of the AOB challenges spent much of August developing their style by primarily working on still-life images, with the aim to have a triptych relating to a theme, ready to upload by the end of the month with weekly sparks to inspire and motivate, including macro, filters, and wabi-sabi.

In the July AOB challenges members were tasked with creating a photo series whilst watching for the best light of the day, noticing how the colours change from dawn to dusk, how shadows fall, and how camera settings accommodate these changes in light.

In June 2022 the theme for the Art of Birding Challenges was “making it real” meaning that participants were tasked with taking one of their digital images and getting it framed to hang on a wall. To get them ready for this, each weekly task pushed people out of their editing comfort zones to learn new skills.

AOB members have been getting arty with their photos, tasked with creating a set of related images that used an artistic technique to tie them together. Throughout the month, participants were sent a ‘weekly spark’ inviting them to try a new technique. Here we look at the best images created from the weekly sparks and the best sets from the monthly challenge.