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Inside The New York Botanical Garden

NYBG-IGPOTY June Winners: The IGPOTY Co-Founder’s Perspective

Posted in Photography on July 12 2011, by Ann Rafalko

We asked Philip Smith, professional photographer and co-founder and Managing Director of the International Garden Photographer of the Year contest for his thoughts on our first NYBG-IGPOTY monthly photo contest winners. Here’s what Philip had to say.

Butterflies take a lot of patience and you have to get through a lot of shots before the right one appears in the viewfinder. The winning shot is a great example of the way photography is really about light and about ‘chasing the light’. To achieve the vision of light filtered through a butterfly’s wing is a testament not only to patience but also to Heather Lang’s skill.

Butterfly by Heather Lang
Butterfly by Heather Lang

The second placed shot by Patricia Gonzalez is actually my favourite–but then I am always attracted by humour and fun in images. This is a beautifully seen composition with the two photographers working visually in opposite directions. The foreshortening of the long lens makes them look as if they are close together, blissfully unaware of each other. This is a picture about passion and enjoyment–exactly what the category ‘Breathing Spaces’ in International Garden Photographer of the Year is all about. Patricia must have waited carefully for the exact moment when both photographers were looking through the viewfinder to create that sense of symmetry–very clever.

In the Rose Garden by Patricia Gonzalez
In the Rose Garden by Patricia Gonzalez

Can you get more photogenic than a lotus flower? The soft light falling on this bloom is exquisite. I think I might have wanted to shift position a bit to simplify the composition to exclude the foliage and maybe tell us a bit more about its context in NYBG, but there is a lot of atmosphere in this shot.

Lotus by Elizabeth Mueller
Lotus by Elizabeth Mueller

Thank you Philip! July isn’t even half over yet, plenty of time left to enter this month’s contest. The theme is “American Beauty.” Simply join the NYBG Group Pool on Flickr, and then tag your photo with nybgigpoty2. That’s it! At the end of the month we’ll convene a panel of photography experts and report back with the winners. Good luck, and keep snapping!

Comments

cindy said:

this was great! sometimes, i think i’m too quick to click, so learning about how someone with a trained eye (expert) looks at the photo as a whole is helpful. thank you!

Pat Gonzalez said:

Thank you Philip, for your comments. I feel honored to get a critique of my work from a distinguished photographer like yourself.

Your observation regarding Heather’s butterfly photo is spot-on. Yes, photography is about chasing light. And Heather’s picture is a testament to that fact.