Photo Competition Winner: The Robin
Created | Updated Jul 6, 2004
WINNER: A gleeful robin, taken by Adrian Cockle, Surrey. |
Our Judge, Martin Freeman, had this to say about our winning entry:
I really like this picture. In the context of thinking about what we'd miss, then wildlife of any kind has to come pretty high up the list. And the day we look up and don't see any birds, is the day we know we are in trouble. I think they represent so much to us, freedom, song, flight – all things that consume and fascinate us. I love the movement of the robin's leg as well, as if it we've just caught it before it flies off, another reminder we don't own it. The image is fleeting, as is wildlife itself, especially if we don't take care of it.
Adrian himself explains what inspired him to take the picture:
I took the photo in a small village in Cornwall called Bodinnick (I was sitting on the steps of a friend's house there). I'd been watching the robin fly around the Rhododendron bush for a while, so grabbed my camera and took a few photos of it. I picked that shot to send in as it captured the moment of a sunny British afternoon, sitting around doing nothing during a week off work. Those are the times and places that really need saving...
For the h2g2 Editors, this was a quirky and lively picture that we imagined must have been quite difficult to capture. Whenever we showed it to the people around us, they all had a different take on it. It's difficult not to anthropomorphise, but many people have commented that the robin could easily be dancing the Macarena here. Whatever, we just love the joy and deceptive simplicity of it.