And The Winners Are...

The winners of the first annual Washington Gardener Photo Contest were announced at the Washington Gardener Seed Exchange last Saturday in a presentation by our judge, Josh Taylor of Archiphoto Workshops. There were many 'oohs' and 'aahs' as Josh first showed the entries he had narrowed down to his first cut of about 60 images. This was done as a moving montage to music. Then he presented our 17 winners and described why each was chosen and what minor tweaks they might have done to possible take them to the next winning level. As a garden photographer myself, I found that portion of the talk most educational and enlightening. I have so much more to learn!

If you missed this presentation, note that Josh will be presenting a garden photo workshop this June to the Silver Spring Garden Club. He has been asked to show the contest montage and winners again as part of his talk there. They meet the 3rd Monday of the month at 8:00 pm in the Brookside Gardens Visitor Center, Wheaton, MD. It is free to attend.

The winning photos will also be published in the March/April 07 issue of Washington Gardener Magazine along with additional details on the entrants and their images. You can subscribe to the magazine for just $18 a year and receive that issue in the mail. Or purchase the single issue directly from us for $4.99 (postage included) when it comes out on March 1. Or buy it for the same price ($4.99 plus tax) at local Borders, Barnes & Noble, or B. Dalton book stores after March 3.

Finally, you will be able to view the winning images IN PERSON at an art show! The opening reception is Friday, March 23 from 7-9 pm at the Adams Bank Lobby in the World Building on Georgia Avenue in downtown Silver Spring, MD. You are all invited. If you miss that evening, come by and view the photos anytime during the normal bank hours. They will be up through May 25. We expect a good deal of press coverage of this art show, so be looking out in the local papers. We will, of course, send you another invitation closer to the event date with full details.

Yes, we WILL be having a 2nd Annual Washington Gardener Photo Contest, so start gathering your images now and throughout this year. We will keep most all the entry rules the same as this year, but are looking at adding a few more categories. (Suggestions are welcome!) We will again accept the entries during the first three weeks of January with the winners announced at the annual Washington Gardener Seed Exchange, which next year will be January 26, 2008.

One of the Honorable Mention winners in the "Small Wonders" category is pictured above. It was taken by Evelyn Jacobs and is brreath-taking. Obviously, a low-res, blog-friendly version of the image does not do it justice.

The complete the list of winners will be posted to the Contest page of our web site shortly. Congratulations to them all! We had such a marvelous crop of entrants that were truly daunting and inspiring. I was awed by the level of talent out there.