FIRST PRIZE – ‘The Unexpected Snow’ – My Secret Garden blog
And the winner is …. Gardening Gone Wild, because we get to host this bit of fun and bring all these photos together. The loser is me for being forced to limit the winners. But I expected that, I have judged enough of these to know it is a tough call, and know most of you enter just to be a part of the party.
Thank you all for entering, sometimes forced to do it twice because our new design was limiting the ability comment with multiple url attachments. I need to say at the outset though, several photos were not correctly attached and I could not retrieve them, and one was too small to be judged. In the future I would urge you to check on your comment once it is received here to see if the links are working.
But on to the judging. When I saw tanyasgarden photo (above) I knew it was the winner. An exceptional photo that would win many contests. It is beautifully and carefully composed. The abandoned summer chair in a snowy winter garden telling a story in itself – but with the orange color ?! Wow. I wish this were my photo.
This happens often when I run my workshops or judge a contest – I see images that I would not have seen and am glad to see gardens in different ways. Let’s look at a few I can’t resist sharing even though they did not quite get a prize.
I doubt I would have stopped outside the garden and allowed the entry to frame the red, both above and below it in this fine picture from Zuibaichi garden in Shanghai from aperture green. Nice job Lindsay, though I would like to have seen more perfect balance of the white walls on either side of the door and a wee less cobblestone, perhaps to match the space above the wall.
I asked that you select an entry that tells a story.
Pam at Digging shows her daughter walking away during a trip to New York Botanical Garden, yet still connected – a leaf in her hair. A sweet little story in the garden for sure, but if only she were not wearing such dark clothes that take up so much of the frame.
I decide to award three honorable mention prizes because it was too hard to narrow down these next three. And since the honorable mention prize is one of my single lesson iBooks, it doesn’t cost Gardening Gone Wild a thing to award more prizes, and I get more garden bloggers to go to my site. Sly dog, me…
Don’t you just love the story of ducks sent by The Shovel-ready Garden.
A badelynge of ducks – Bella Madrona garden
I can see why this badelynge of ducks became a hit during the bloggers Fling! in Portland last year, a tour guide as Caroline chased them. And yes, I had to look up “badelynge”.
I don’ feel quite the same human story idea from this photo from Gardenbook but what a fine composition.
Honorable Mention – Annie’s Annuals Display Garden
Yes Kathy, you certainly did fill the frame, but also gave us some depth and story beyond the Yucca. (I’m guessing ?) Or Beschorneria ? or Agave ? could be any odd thing at Annie’s. 🙂
I love these Ipheion in the lawn at Chippokes sent in by A Tidewater Gardener.
Honorable Mention – Ipheion flowering in the lawn at Chippokes
Les had to ‘get down’ for this one and it pays off. I am a sucker for any sort of alternative lawn shot and this tells a great story. I want to go there just to see this.
So now we wrap it up with the second place winner who gets a month membership to my PhotoBotanic Garden Photography Workshop (which equals the first four lessons).
Any number of stories might be behind Gravy Lessons garden photo. She asks her readers what caption they would give to this well composed photo:
SECOND PRIZE – ‘A Dane in the Life of my Garden’ from Gravy Lessons blog
What fun to see Mr. Barnaby staring out of the shrubbery. I did a double take thinking it must be a statue. And yes, Laura that is the perfect caption.
And what fun to see all these fine photos in one post. I am so glad to have the excuse of launching my PhotoBotanic site to revive the Picture This contest here at Gardening Gone Wild. I hope the contest grows to attract even more garden bloggers, not simply because it helps me connect with the other garden photographers, but I sincerely believe we improve everyone’s gardening by showing successful gardens – beautiful ones that help others to know what is possible.
Thank you all who participated. Come back again. Let’s make this a showcase of the best photography that garden bloggers can show. We will run this contest quarterly.
One last time, the first prize of my eBook Good GardenPhotography goes to Tanya at My Secret Garden:
FIRST PRIZE – ‘The Unexpected Snow’ – My Secret Garden blog
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