Since its inception in 1991, the Carl Zeiss Award has been awarded to the photograph or series of photographs that BBRC have judged to be the most instructive in their adjudications throughout the preceding year. BBRC members have always had a slight difficulty in deciding what exactly constitutes ‘helpful, interesting and/or instructive’ photographs when comparing the many hundreds that we receive, and this often leads to in-depth discussions and debates. This all helps the voting process of course, and ultimately it was a very personal choice for individual members, with previous winners including the Ascension Frigatebird Fregata aquila in 2014 and the Asian Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis daurica daurica/japonica in 2012.
Change of criteria for winning
At a meeting in November 2014, followed up at the AGM in March 2015, it was decided to slightly change the direction of the Carl Zeiss Award, starting from this year. From 2015 onward the award will be given to the best overall submission of the year. We hope that this will encourage those birders lucky enough to find or identify something rare to put that little bit of extra effort into their submission. Obviously, this could well include an instructive series of photographs, but will not be limited to such. Sketches, paintings, detailed notes and sound recordings may all form part of a good submission, as well as a good account of the circumstances around the sighting, and BBRC will judge each one on its merits.
