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The bats take flight
The bats take flight
kanaj


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Photojournalism VI (Standard Editing)
Collection: Portfolio
Camera: Canon PowerShot SX540 HS
Location: Austin, Texas (USA)
Date: Jul 26, 2025
Aperture: 5.6
ISO: 800
Shutter: 1/25
Date Uploaded: Jul 27, 2025

 This is a familiar scene to anyone from the Austin area. Each night, thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats emerge from beneath the Congress Avenue bridge downtown. Dozens--sometimes hundreds--of people line up along the bridge at sunset to try catching a glimpse of the spectacle.

Here, I tried to editorially frame the action in a way that tells the human interest angle while still making the bats the immediate focal point. Voters may ding me for the use of color stylization a bit here, but I felt the choice gave the appropriate nod to sunset while making the bats "pop" a little more against the sky. To me, this feels like the sort of headliner picture you might put in an ecology or tourism magazine with a feature story about the Austin bats and their connection to the city.

Statistics
Place: 4 out of 18
Avg (all users): 6.5625
Avg (participants): 6.2727
Avg (non-participants): 6.7143
Views since voting: 140
Views during voting: 70
Votes: 32
Comments: 6
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
 08/04/2025 10:27:06 AM
This is amazing... very impressive view!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/04/2025 12:36:45 AM
the silhouettes of the people ground this nicely.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
08/03/2025 11:29:27 PM
lovely sense of motion and time. 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/03/2025 11:18:28 AM
Surprisingly effective for a silhouette and a top pick for me. I think it works for both photojournalism and art (which is kind of unusual).
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/03/2025 10:40:29 AM
Winner winner!! I can appreciate how hard this is to capture. Very nice.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/29/2025 02:26:07 AM
well framed
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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