New Name, Same Great Photography Contest!
Posted in Exhibitions on January 18 2013, by Ann Rafalko
It’s back! Our annual winter photography contest returns to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory with the opening of Tropical Paradise Saturday, January 19! Tropical Paradise–a reinterpretation of the Conservatory’s lush permanent collections–is the perfect way to shake off the winter doldrums and exercise your photography skills.
In addition, glean inspiration from the award-winning photographers of the International Garden Photographer of the Year contest. Taken in gardens around the world, these prize-winning photos will be on display alongside plants from the tropics throughout the Conservatory. Enjoy the beautiful photographs and access additional information on the photographers, their inspiration, and the techniques they used to capture these stunning images by simply scanning a code on each sign with your smartphone. And on Sundays, join one of two accomplished photographers for a brief course on the basics of garden shooting.
2012 Sense of Place Grand Prize Winner: Mika Sato’s serene shot of the Aquatic Plants Gallery
The contest is run on NYBG’s Flickr Group Pool, and this year it’s easier than ever to enter because Flickr has launched a fabulous new iPhone app that allows anyone to enter seamlessly and easily. Grab your camera or your phone and head to the sultry warmth of the tropics, capture the beauty you find, and you just might win one of two grand prizes: A photography class taught at the NYBG!
Weekly winners will be chosen by a panel of NYBG experts from the photographs receiving the most praise from their fellow photographers in our Flickr group pool. Be sure to check out our dedicated contest page for all the details on how to get started.
2012 Macro Grand Prize Winner: Barbara Reiner’s technicolor shot of a Passionflower
The New York Botanical Garden is the U.S. partner for the International Garden Photographer of the Year contest–a globally recognized contest of photographic excellence–and we are absolutely ecstatic to be partnering with them again this year to help spread the joy of garden photography. We are hoping that you will use the Tropical Paradise Photography Contest as a way to brush up on your skills for the 2013 contest–for which IGPOTY will begin accepting submissions in mid-2013. Winners of each year’s IGPOTY competition earn worldwide recognition for their work and skill, and take home thousands of dollars in prize money as well. Think of our humble winter challenge as a springboard toward more worldly ambitions–a win in IGPOTY might just fund that mind-bendingly expensive telephoto lens you’ve been drooling over.
Do you think you have it in you to try your hand at our contest? We hope so! The more people snapping away, the more exciting the challenge. But even if you don’t feel like putting yourself in the spotlight, I still recommend coming for our Sunday afternoon mini-workshops. I’m a big proponent of “skill collecting”–as I like to call it–and that camera you got for your birthday could use a little attention. Who knows? Every now and then, moments like these turn into lifelong passions.
