ENTRY DESCRIPTION
Technical details:

Date: 1 June 2013
Place: Kiskunsag National Park, Hungary
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: 15mm f/2.8 D
Shutter: 33s
Aperture: 14.0
ISO: 1600

Description:

The picture was a real technical and ethological challenge for me. This photo is the product of several years’ preparation, 74 nights spent in the hide, and a lot of technical experimentation. I picked on a hide where I had seen birds at night time in the previous years. The image was shot manually, with a camera set onto a frame, not by remote control, thus special care was needed while being in the hide, as the minimum light or sound effect would have scared the herons away. Grey heron is one of the shyest species in the area where the picture was taken, and for this reason it was difficult to shoot them from fish-eye perspective from less than a one meter distance. The greatest photo-technological challenge was that the stars and the bird were not in the same depth of field, so I needed a home-made equipment constructed specially for this purpose.

AUTHOR
Bence MÁTÉ (b. 1985) is a Hungarian wildlife photographer. At a young age, Bence spent most of his time in the nature, trying to figure out how he could take even more expressive pictures. He started collecting the pieces of his photo equipment step by step, meanwhile, the acknowledgement of his work began, he took part in Hungarian and international contests. His award “Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year” in BBC’s worldwide contest in 2002 was followed by numerous others, competing in the “youth” and later the “adult” categories. With his innovative ideas and technical solutions he reforms the practice of bird photography. Following his techniques, the approach of taking action photos and capturing typical behaviour of birds, gains ground widely. Owing his works and the accuracy and preparation behind, in 2011 he gets the Eric Hosking award 4th time, cutting with this the record of Vincent Munier, held for 9 years. In 2005 he is chosen the „Bird Photographer of the Year” in Europe, in 2010 he is awarded with the “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” (Marvel of Ants), aka the Oscar of photography. Though, being awarded numerous times, he keeps finding new projects, builds hides for rent, shares his adventures in a book, presenting, and shooting a film on his work process. But foremost, Bence takes pictures of wildlife. Despite his still young age, by his dedicated work, he became Hungary’s most recognised and successful wildlife photographer by now.

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