This is a super-important reminder, everyone: you have one more day! That’s all that remains of your window to submit photographs to the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition before the judges close up for deliberations. And if you can’t have your submissions in by Friday, November 30, you’ll find yourself waiting at least another anxious year before you have an opportunity to win over $18,000 in prizes, international recognition, and your work in a professional exhibition!

Even if you can’t find the time to hike outdoors in search of that perfect shot, there’s no reason to give up hope–IGPOTY accepts old photos, as well. Just head over to their official competition page for guidelines on what to pull out of your portfolio. In the meantime, here are a few winning photographs from past years to jog your inspiration.
read more »

Anna Omiotek-Tott — Amber Ant

Not everyone has the patience–or the real estate–for large-scale gardening. Honestly, it’s probably not even on the radar for someone who can’t keep a pot of English ivy alive on an office desk. But if you happen to have a knack for beautifying nature through your lens, rather than your trowel, the garden can still prove itself a source of spirited inspiration! That’s why the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition takes place annually. With the prizes just announced for this year’s competition, now is the time to pack up your tripod and do some fieldwork.

With nearly $8000 in cash being awarded to the top winner of this year’s competition, and thousands of dollars up for the taking in the many individual categories of the contest, IGPOTY’s prestige among nature photographers is well-earned. And there’s an added perk for friends of the Garden: as the exclusive U.S. partner of the IGPOTY competition, The New York Botanical Garden is offering an additional purse of $1000 as part of the lead-up to our 2013 summer exhibition exploring the healthful benefits of the plant kingdom. Winning photos in the Wellness category will not only take home some of that cash, but also the opportunity to see their photographs hung in the Ross Gallery as a part of the long-running exhibition. Think of it as your stepping stone toward IGPOTY glory.
read more »

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.
read more »

Mandy Disher - "The Beacon," First Place in Plant Portraits Year 3

Every day at The New York Botanical Garden offers countless opportunities to snap the perfect shot. A red-tailed hawk making pre-flight checks, a maple seed as it whirligigs from an overhead branch–each event happens almost casually, yet the challenge of capturing nature in just the right light, at the right time, is something our visiting photographers crave.

But there’s motivation beyond the thrill of capturing the perfect picture, thanks in large part to the nearly $8,000 in grand prize funds handed out through the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition. For the last five years, the contest has provided amateurs and professionals alike with an outlet for their photographs, and in turn earned the winners not only a check, but global recognition for their work. And with an entry fee of only £10 (around $16), there’s no reason to sit this year’s competition out.
read more »

Mario Batali and Kids in the Mario Batali Edible Garden at NYBG

Please join Mario Batali, The New York Botanical Garden, and the International Garden Photographer of the Year contest in celebrating the joy of youth gardening! The prize for this special monthly photography contest includes a selection of products from Mario Batali!

The rules are simple:

- Enter up to five photographs of kids gardening, or photographs taken by kids in the garden

- The photos do not have to have been taken at The New York Botanical Garden. They can be from any garden anywhere in the world.

- The photos do have to be placed into the NYBG Flickr Group Pool

- Please tag your photographs with nybgigpoty3

Judging will take place at the beginning of September and one winner will be chosen by a panel of judges, and winners will be announced in September.

Please let us know if you have any questions in the comments below!

Butterfly by Heather Lang

A huge congratulations to Heather Lang for winning our first monthly NYBG-IGPOTY photography contest. The panel of NYBG judges felt that Heather’s photo of a butterfly (on what looks to be an ornamental sage) was the tops in capturing the June theme of “Picturing Summer.” Heather will receive a NYBG swag bag, which includes two All-Garden Passes, a $25 credit towards the Adult Education class of her choice, a catalog for the Library exhibition Historical Views: Tourists at the Alhambra, and the catalog from Hirschfeld’s Broadway Scrapbook. We’re also working on getting copies of the photography book, Better Plant and Garden Photography, written by IGPOTY founder Philip Smith, over from the U.K. as well. Congratulations Heather! Please send us an email with your contact information through this form (select website from the pull-down menu).

Coming in a close second is this photograph by Patricia Gonzalez which, humoursly (and literally) captures the theme with a pair of shutterbugs snapping away in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden.

In the Rose Garden by Patricia Gonzalez

In third place is this iconic NYBG image of a lotus taken in the Conservatory courtyard pool by Elizabeth Mueller.

Lotus by Elizabeth Mueller

We had 35 photographs entered into this first contest, and the quality was really high. It was difficult settling upon a winner, so congratulations to Heather, Patricia, and Elizabeth!

For the July contest we have picked the theme “American Beauty.” Stumped? Don’t be! Be creative! Pictures needn’t be patriotic, or all red, white, and blue. Perhaps you snapped a shot of Benjamin Franklin’s choice to be our national bird–the turkey–walking around the grounds, or maybe you took a plant portrait of a rose with an all-American name. If you’re afraid we might miss the point of your photo, please include an explanation in the description area. For the July contest, please use the tag nybgigpoty2.

And let’s simplify matters a bit this month, too. Why doesn’t everyone just limit themselves to five photos. Don’t worry about entering one per week. Feel free to plop them all into the group, en masse. And as always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Congrats again to the winners!