Picture This Photo Contest Winner

– Posted in: Garden Photography

We’re thrilled at the tremendous response we’ve received for our first Picture This Photo Contest. Each of you have brought a unique element to this informal native plant gallery.  And as several of you told us, it has been both informational and alot of fun looking at your peers’ photos.

Our judge, Saxon Holt, has made the final decision for the winner plus a list of runner ups.  Here it is:

“Well, for this first time contest, with all of the kinks that needed to be ironed out,  we were amazed and gratified to receive so many fine entries.  It may be a cliché to say it was hard to pick one winner, but it was.  None-the-less, there is only one prize of the Agastache collection from High Country Gardens.

And the winning photo is:

Pam Penick "Coneflowers and yucca"

Pam Penick "Coneflowers and yucca"

Pam Penick’s entry is a well composed photograph using the entire frame of the camera with several native plants and is clearly in an inviting garden setting.  The  composition has nice “movement” as the eye carries through the photo the bench and is anchored at the bottom with a nice bold form.  Notice there is no wasted space in the frame, and she uses several native plants.  Congratulations Pam – the Agastaches should do great in Texas !

First Runner Up

Hoe and Shovel for her photo called Resurrection Fern

Second Runner Up(s):

Clay and Limestone: photo labeled A Golden Wildflower

Town Mouse and Country Mouse: photo of Bee Bliss Salvia

East Side Patch:  photo of Mexican Feather Grass

Garden Amateur: photo chock full of Australian natives

Links to every participant’s photo are listed below (we hope), in no particular order. If we’ve somehow left you off the list, or if you have a photo of a native plant that you would like added to the gallery even though the contest is over, leave us a link below and we’ll be glad to add you to the list.

A special thanks to our friend and colleague, David Salman of High Country Gardens, who so graciously donated this special collection of eight superb agastaches. If you didn’t win this month, don’t give up. Try again in the next contest!

hcg-collage1-resized

Fran Sorin

Fran is the author of the highly-acclaimed book, Digging Deep: Unearthing Your Creative Roots Through Gardening, which Andrew Weil, M.D., recommends as "a profound and inspiring book."  

A graduate of the University of Chicago with Honors in Psychology, she is also a gardening and creativity expert, coach, inspirational speaker, CBS radio news gardening correspondent, and Huffington Post Contributor.

Learn more about Fran and get free resources that will help you improve your life at www.fransorin.com.

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Fran Sorin
19 comments… add one

Leave a Comment

Chookie April 27, 2009, 6:18 am

Fantastic photos, all of them!

Chookie-I agree and am glad you enjoyed! Fran

VP April 27, 2009, 6:57 am

Congratulations to Pam – a lovely shot to be proud of.

wiseacre April 27, 2009, 8:16 am

Pam’s rustic bench is as inviting as the coneflowers luring me into the garden

Wiseare- Good point. And it does really set the tone of ‘inviting us’ into this area of her garden. Fran

Pam/Digging April 27, 2009, 9:28 am

Wow, thanks! The agastaches will be a welcome addition to my new garden. I’m thrilled!

Pam-
With pleasure. Saxon, our judge, thought your photo was the best. Congratulations! Fran

Gloria April 27, 2009, 10:58 am

Congratulations Pam, that is one from many beautiful photographs seem regularly at Digging.
Not only are your gardens lovely you are talented at showing it to the rest of us.
Everyone’s photo’s were well worth cruising around to see. It is so good to see natives being excepted as garden worthy.

Gloria-
And thank you for being a part of the contest. I hope you’ll continue to participate as well! Fran

Country Mouse April 27, 2009, 11:37 am

That winning photo is clearly a beauty – beautiful color, texture, everything! And I’m thrilled to be a second runner up I have to say! It’s been great to see all the different shots – Competitions are definitely stimulating as well as fun. I’ve been out in my garden trying to figure out how to take better garden photos ever since submitting my shot. Thanks to all for the effort and talent required to put it together.
Country Mouse

Country Mouse-
You should be proud of being 2nd place. There was so much good competition. Will look forward to your participation in our next contest! Fran

Mr. McGregor's Daughter April 27, 2009, 11:52 am

Pam’s entry is a worthy winner. I’ve long admired her photography as well as her designing. Congratluations, Pam!

MMD-
Thanks for being a part of our first Picture This contest. Please continue to participate! Fran

Nicole April 27, 2009, 12:30 pm

That was a fun contest and Digging is one of my favourite blogs. I enjoyed viewing the entries, which also led me to blogs I didn’t know of.

Nicole-
Am glad you enjoyed it and that you learned about other blogs as well. I hope you continue to participate! Fran

Gail April 27, 2009, 1:28 pm

Pam’s photo is beautiful…You made an excellent choice! Thanks for the opportunity to get my feet wet~~ gail

Gail-
And congratulations to you for being a second runner up. I loved your photo. Fran

Nancy Bond April 28, 2009, 12:23 am

Congrats to Pam and all the winners!

Hey Nancy-
Thanks for your kind words. Hope you’re having a good spring! Fran

Sylvia (England) April 28, 2009, 6:54 am

When I saw Pam’s I thought it would be a contender. Thank you Saxon for explaining why Pam won – it will help us all understand what makes it such a good photo.

Looking forward to the next contest. Best wishes Sylvia (England)

Sylvia-
Always good to hear from you. And thanks for your kind words to both Pam and Saxon. I love the gallery of native photos that we now have posted. There are so many good ones! Fran

Wildsuburbia April 28, 2009, 4:16 pm

Hope you will do this again – I kinda missed the deadline. Anyway, enjoyed seeing the wonderful pictures of all of the great gardens out there. Thanks.

Barbara/Wildsuburbia-
We are planning to do another contest. So, please keep your eyes open and participate in the next one. Am glad you enjoyed the photos from this month’s contest. Fran

healingmagichands April 28, 2009, 6:19 pm

I hope you’ll do it again too. How interesting that a person who is a professional landscape designer won.

HealingMagicHands-
We are planning to do it again. If you think that being a professional landscape designer and being a fine landscape photographer go hand in hand, you’re mistaken. It just isn’t so…as I can attest to. Some of the finest gardeners/garden designers that I know are mediocre photographers at best. So, the fact that Pam won has nothing to do with her skills as a professional garden designer. She just happens to be a very good photographer.
I do hope you continue participating! Fran

Jamie April 28, 2009, 9:33 pm

Well that was fun, and I agree, Pam’s photo is a very deserving winner. I’m always visiting her blog, and her standard of photography is consistently great. I also found it interesting to discover the regions where the various plants were native to.

Jamie-
Great point about finding our more about the regions from where plants are native. And it was as much fun for us doing it as it was for all of those who participated! Am looking forward to the next one! Fran

Grace April 29, 2009, 12:16 am

Beautiful photo. The photographer definitely deserves the prize.

Grace-
The choice was a difficult one for our judge. But certainly the one chosen was a beauty! Fran

Heirloom Gardener April 29, 2009, 6:16 am

This was such a great post/contest and I’m sorry that I didn’t get around to entering on time. Here is a better late than never post of a Cornelian cherry dogwood from my garden:

http://heirloomgardener.blogspot.com/2009/04/gardening-gone-wild-native-plant-photo.html

Heirloom Gardener-
How sweet your photo of the soft yellow Cornelian cherry dogwood is. Am going to add it to the list of natives right now. Thanks for participating…Fran

Meems @Hoe & Shovel April 29, 2009, 8:00 pm

Have just had the chance to get back over here to check out the winner. Congratulations to Pam… a winning photo indeed. I always love Pam’s photography and this one is no exception.

This was fun to participate in and I especially appreciate Saxon’s critique… very informative and nice to know what can be tweaked to make a better photo.

Meems-
Couldn’t agree more about Pam. Am glad you got something out of Saxon’s critique. Fran

Shady Gardener April 29, 2009, 10:11 pm

What a beautiful photograph!!! Wouldn’t that be a wonderful place to have a cup of iced tea?? 🙂

Agreed Shady Gardener-
Especially after a long day of working in the garden…a wonderful respite for the weary! Fran

MacGardens April 30, 2009, 8:43 pm

A great choice! The Echinaceas are an excellent focal point. Talk about a welcoming garden. I think I’ll just sit on the bench for a while and think about what to plant next…

MacGardens-
Am glad you agree with the choice. There were so many great photos from which to choose but Pam’s was one of the stand outs. Fran

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