First place, in Group B, in the recent ‘Decay’ competition went to Denis Barry for his shot of a distressed window.

I first noticed this house one morning in early March at around 10am and the sun was shining on it just as it is in the photograph above. As I had no time to stop then, I called there later that day but the front of the house was now in shade. I preferred the earlier look and, confident that I might get a ‘Decay’ image from the building, I resolved to return on another sunny morning which presented itself about a week later.

As I am wont to do, I shot the building wide from all angles, slowly moving in until I got tight on the details. The more I looked at this particular window, the more it appealed to me. The net curtain hinted to the one-time human occupants while the advanced state of decay said those people were long since gone. The sapling growing from the window sill underlined the fact that life will cling on and prosper regardless.

While taking in my surroundings I noticed a small bird flying in and out of an adjacent window with nesting material. The pattern became clear as, on the way in, it would land on the sash, pause, then fly into the building. On the way out it would again land on the sash, pause and then fly on. I decided to try and make an image of it as it paused on the way out and, after what seemed like an eternity holding the camera to my eye, out it came and paused/posed on the sash as expected. I squeezed off half a dozen frames in high-speed release, more in hope than expectation, and luckily nailed one before it flew on about its parental duties.

When post processing, I made a selection of the bird and put it on its own layer before compositing it with the preferred window image thereby creating the final competition entry above. The fact that both images were shot, practically together and in the same light, made the compositing process that much easier.

Shot with a Nikon D300 and an AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens
Window image shot in Raw at 40mm, 125th sec, f8, ISO200, WB: Daylight.
Bird shot in Raw at 135mm, 500th sec, f5.6, ISO400, WB: Daylight.
Composited in Photoshop and post processed in Lightroom.

See also:
How I took that Shot – Karen Fleming
How I took that Shot – Joseph Keniry