Drum roll please, because after six weeks of gorgeous photographs taken during the Caribbean Garden Photography Contest, we finally have our two Grand Prize winners. So without further ado I give you:

The Sense of Place Grand Prize Winner: Mika Sato’s serene shot of the Aquatic Plants Gallery

NYBG Caribbean Garden by Mika Sato

The Macro Grand Prize Winner: Barbara Reiner’s technicolor shot of a Passionflower

Passionflower by Barbara Reiner

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Boy, you guys were really saving up your most tropical shots for the last week, weren’t you? There was so much color and drama in this week’s entries, it was really difficult to pick. But pick we did. So without further ado; the last weekly winners in the Caribbean Garden Photography Contest!

Sense of Place Winner, Week Six

{ Tropical Medley } by helenefeng

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As we get down to brass tacks in the Caribbean Garden photography contest, our partners across the pond are already stumping for their next round of entries. And with the caliber of winning participants recently unveiled, those looking to become the next International Garden Photographer of the Year find themselves up against stiff and startlingly talented competition.

2011′s IGPOTY proceedings pulled skillful nature photographers out of the woodwork. Be it through painstaking preparation or the luck of being in the right place at just the right moment, many of the images captured by the multinational list of participants are almost unconscionable in their beauty. Gritty, ethereal, preternaturally real–the winning selections call up these descriptors among others. It’s a smorgasbord of aesthetic eye candy reaching toward the peak of the artform.
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It’s the second-to-last week of the Caribbean Garden Photography Contest, and the images keep rolling in in all their beautiful, creative glory! There’s still time to submit your photos, though it’s now too late to take new pictures. Full details are here. Without further ado, here are this week’s winners!

Macro Winner, Week Five

Secret Life of Ferns 5 by Michael Pasqua

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What started out as a trickle has surged into a flood, and now, in the final week of the Caribbean Garden photo contest, we find ourselves with piles of inspired photography to wade through. Despite the challenge of trying to ferret out the best photos in each category among a disagreeing cadre of jurors, we’re nonetheless having fun with it. Just seeing each of our competitors returning week after week to scrap for the proverbial crown is immensely gratifying. And the photos themselves trump all!

But as the last of this year’s Caribbean Garden events approach, the mood around here is bittersweet. Even with salsa classes bidding a fond adieu, and our photography workshops packing it up until next year, the momentous transition to the flamboyant wonder of Patrick Blanc’s vertical gardens fills the gap in fine form. Beginning Saturday, March 3, we fling open the doors of the Conservatory to unveil the 10th anniversary Orchid Show. Until then, you’ll be catching glimpses of the goings-on under the glass dome as we festoon our displays with the final, all-important touches.
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Sunny mid-week greetings to you friends! The weather is just glorious here at the Garden, which might make it hard for anyone visiting to justify spending time inside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory today. But, I’m here to announce this week’s winners in the Caribbean Garden Photography Contest, which should provide some motivation to wander the lush galleries of the Conservatory, snapping shots in an effort towards winning one of our two $100 Adult Education gift certificates! This week’s batch of photos came with numerous rounds of  rapid fire tie breaking. Congratulations to the winners!

Note: Due to a violation of the date restriction in place for this contest, the original winner of the Sense of Place category has been disqualified. New winners are below.

Sense of Place Winner, Week Four

Caribbean Garden 9 by F-Sharp Photo

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Last weekend’s predictions for snowfall missed the mark by a mile, so we’re spending today confident that the last white of winter is well behind us. Or that’s what we’re telling ourselves. Because without the snow, it makes spending a day at the NYBG a piece of cake, and the trains (usually) tend to run on time. With the Caribbean Garden winding down in preparation for the opening of this year’s Orchid Show, there’s also more motivation to come pay us a visit!

If you’re one of the lucky New Yorkers to have a full three-day weekend to enjoy, we’re even going to open the gates on Monday to make the most of it. We don’t exactly do that every week. And with the kids out of school, you might consider this an example of opportunity knocking–how often do you get to spend a day with them while out and about, anyway?
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Exploring the Conservatory during Caribbean Garden weekends becomes a study in the music of the islands. While you walk along the paths beneath the palm fronds, see if you can spot the “living instruments” that create the rhythms of salsa, a Caribbean tradition that springs from the very plants growing around you!

Drums, or congas, are traditionally made from the wood of the versatile mahogany tree (Swietenia macrophylla). Be on the look-out for a perfect specimen of this warm climate hardwood as you enter our Tropical Rainforest Gallery on a tour of the exhibition.

While you’re there, perhaps you can also find the gourd-bearing trees known as calabash (Crescentia cujete), the fruit of which was once dried and used to create food and water vessels. But cultivators also use it for other purposes, many of them far more creative.
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The competition is really heating up! We had a record number of entrants last week, and expect even more this week. Do you have what it takes to win a $100 Adult Education gift certificate? Prove it! It’s easy to enter, and fun to boot.

Macro Winner, Week Three

Passion Flower by Barbara Reiner

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It almost felt like winter this week. Almost. With a breezy evening of light flurries in the city (I actually had to use my ice scraper for once) the temperatures dropped just enough for us to pretend we weren’t leapfrogging one of the year’s most obvious seasons. And this weekend’s weather report suggests more of the same.

Now going into our third week of the photography contest, the competition is picking up the tempo. The first week’s competitors were joined by several more talented shutterbugs this time around, and all together the group produced a stack of fantastic pictures that had us poring over the results for some time. Turns out that the more brilliant pictures you have to shuffle through, the longer it takes to come to conclusions on who won–it’s worse when the judges can’t seem to entirely agree! It was like Twelve Angry Men in here. But we came up with a fresh batch of eye candy we think will inspire you to try for yourself.
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