Announcing the winners of the 2005 photography contest!!

With 4,245 pictures posted in dozens of judging categories, we have finally gotten the results in and the winners have been announced!!!

To view the winners of each contest, go here:

http://davesgarden.com/contest/2005/

Click on the category, then click on "Click here to view the winners"

There were so many pictures, and so many beautiful ones, that it would have been impossible for just a small panel to come even close to doing an accurate and fair judging. By including the entire membership in the judging process, I am confident that we have really nailed down the very best pictures. Heartfelt congratulations to the winners and for everyone who showcased their work!!

We learned some things about the process this time, so I'm looking forward to the 2006 contest, which will be even better!!

dave

Interesting results. A lot of my favorites didn't make it. I wonder if people were really judging the photo instead of the subject.

Congratulations to all the winners!

OH BOYsers !! ...

- Magpye

Congrats to all who entered, as well as the winners. Many of my favs didn't win, too, but they remain my favs. We are all awesome garden photographers here at DG!!

boojum - you won so many prizes and deserved every one of them!

Dave: can you establish a separate forum for professional gardens in the next contest, please?
How are we to compete with gardens in Thailand, etc.?

There are a lot of wonderful photos missing, but all of the ones that won I can see why every one of them won! I am with Arlene it is very hard to compete with public gardens. Now that I know the types of picks that win I am going to take more photos of more like this type of stuff for next year!

This was my first year to enter. I went kind of nuts. I entered way too many, some of which shouldn't have been. I still learned something. I wish my camera could take some of the fabulous macro shots I saw. I'm honored to have won a category but it wasn't my personal favorite pic. I really enjoyed this and really enjoyed some great images. Thanks everyone.

-Ron-

I entered a lot this year (first year to enter) and it turned out to be a good idea because I don't always know what others will like. Best to enter a variety I found. What strategy worked for you? Maybe we should do a post of personal favorites that weren't chosen!

Very big congratulations to everyone who won and a huge Thank You to everyone who entered and voted, and to Dave for doing it at all. I think that the winning photos were great and that quite a few that didn't win should have. Some of the categories were just near impossible to judge because of the massive entries. And some had so many beautiful entries with just a single category.
I too would like to see photos of public gardens put into their own place. I didn't think that was fair for an ordinary person to have to compete with something that hundreds of people worked on. And for fuscias to have their own category when there were only, what, 6 photos of fuscias? Thought that was strange. Anyway.......
But hopefully over the year we can all come up with better categories and suggestions. Dave, you did a wonderful job, and this was a lot of fun and awesome seeing everyones photos.

Cool, I got 1st place in "other" for my lucky shot of an Iowa Pella Tulip event Dutch brother & sister, they were insanely cute --- I was there at just the right time as their folk's were snapping photo's as well. Thanks everyone for the votes AND congrats to all! All the photo's were GREAT!

I had so much fun this year gardening and taking lots of pictures. I am so thrilled to have won so many on the brug and rose forums.

Everyone is such a winner here.

Today it is so cold and so stormy, I am looking at the photos in disbelief that the world was ever so beautiful. Oh spring get here soon!! In the meantime I am going nuts on bareroot roses and brug seedlings to get me thru.

Thanks Dave for some added fun over the holidays. Such pretty pictures sure liven up winter blahs.

I just want to congratulate everyone who won and also congratulate those who participated.
Hugs&blessings ... and a happy New Year to all ... elaine

I was surprised to see two of my photos won. Made me very happy that other ppl liked them . I enjoy my camera a great deal but I still lack a lot of the talent I see others show in their photos.

There were so many to choose from I know for myself it was sometimes difficult to pick a favorite in some of the categories.... sort of overwhelming when you're trying to vote. Some catagories I had to return to a few times to look and re-look at the pics I liked best to make my choices. A lot of great photos and even more hard choices to make.

I think everyone who submitted deserves a big thankyou for sharing with us all !!

~Julie =0)

Well color me surprised......two of the pictures I entered won. A 3rd place in Garden Art, and a second place in Wildlife....thank you all who voted for those pictures...

Deann

None of my pictures won, but it was SO much fun looking at everyone else's!!! And SO hard trying to decide which ones to vote for!!! Thanks, Dave. I'm looking forward to next year's contest already. :-)

~ Marylyn

I was so honored that my picture won second in the winter category
thanks !
Laura

I just loved all the photos of Barnyard animals - this was a fun event. Bet 2006's will be even better :)

Dea

keyi don't blame Dave, i asked for a fuchsia category because i thought they were as specialist as morning glories or irises. I didn't realise that no-one else would be entering them, I thought there would be loads, but it seems they are not as popular as they are here. Thanks Dave for putting in the category, and with plenty of preparation time for next year, just maybe we might have a few more? They are a class of their own.

While I am at it, I would like to give a big thank you for the votes for my pictures, I hope it has given pleasure to many as it gave me much pleasure taking them. I am not a professional, have only had a digi camera for a few months, and just went mad with it. The sharing to me was more important than winning, I guess it is an individual thing.

Janet

Boojum asked, "What was your strategy?"
Over the Summer I had a thread going at another site about why so few pics of fruit and veggies were posted. There was such a category here and I submitted a few pics in there. Best chance to be noticed I thought. It worked, my Blackberries won! Thanks all. Sure started my New Year off in the positive.
This was my first photo contest and I learned a lot.
I'm already working on next years submissions, lol.
Such lovely pics, I contacted many friends to tell them to look at them all just for the pleasure of it.
I also think that the largest categories could be broken up. B, B, B and B was too big.
Birds and Butterflies should each have a category of their own.
It was a great experience and congrats to all the Winners and Entrants.
Andy P

Andy P, I agree with you that several of the largest categories should be broken down next year and have already written down suggestions for the Administrators which I will send to them before the 2006 contest. The Admins and Members may then state their opinions about my suggestionsI think they will make it easier to view the entries and choose the winners. One suggestion was what you suggested ... having the B, B, B, and B Category broken down into more main categories so that all of the bird photos would be together ( voting for best closeup, best hummer, best action shot, best baby), all of the butterfly and moth photos would be together (voting for best butterfly, best moth) and all of the bee photos would be together. A separate main category for bugs and caterpillars could be created and members would vote for best catepillar, best dragonfly (there were quite a few photos), best other "bug" and best overall. The tropicals category could be separated also into more main categories for judging: palms, bananas and alocosias woud be pulled out of the tropicals category and grouped in one main category; hibiscus would have its own category also; under the tropicals category could be orchids, gingers, plumerias, heliconias and other tropicals with members voting for the best photo of each type. Instead of the pet canine, pet feline and pet bird photos being in the pets category, each could be in a main pet category of its own so that all of the photos of each would be together. The main pets category then could be broken down into voting for best frog/toad, best turtle, best reptile, best fish and best other. The cacti and succulents could be separated into 2 main categories. Trres and shrubs could be separated into 2 main categories. The morning glories category could have added voting for best closeup, best whole vine, best bloom group and best individual bloom. The dahlia category could have added voting for best mixed grouping, best grouping, best closeup, best single colr and best bicolor. I have some other ideas as well. I believe that this separating of the categories would make viewing and choosing winners more easily achieved; plus, there would be more winners and possiby more entries.

Andy you are a mind-reader. Something about fruits and veggies just don't seem to inspire people to photograph them the same way as flowers do. (I don't know why - many of them are just as gorgeous subjects as any flower!)

I do hope (hope, hope, hope, hope) that some of these winning photos will find their way over into PlantFiles (assuming their ID is known, of course ;o)

Congratulations to all - it was hard to pick favorites among so many gorgeous images!

It was kind of fun. A friendly competition among fellow gardeners, but it was very hard to choose who has the best pics. Congrats to all the winners and many thanks to those who choose my photos. I hope next year it will break down to even more categories. It's very challenging to judge two totally different plants in the same category like "tropicals".

Terry, can't you approach the photographers about plant files? Do you have to wait until they are volunteered?