Garden Photographer of the Year Awards

A late heads-up, but worth it:

The International Garden Photographer of the Year 2008 awards were announced yesterday, 22nd May 2008, at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Coinciding with the opening of the accompanying outdoor exhibition in the Gardens, the winners were presented with prizes of cash and vouchers worth over £30,000. Awards represent the very best in garden photography from across the world, both amateurs and professionals.

The overall winner of the £5,000 prize for the best single image is Australian, professional photographer, Claire Takacs for Kenrokuen Gardens, Japan. This evocative photograph of the famous Japanese gardens in a flurry of snowflakes was selected from the Garden Views category.

Read the complete press release here.

Desolate

This is one of those chance discoveries- we were cruising around the countryside with our new Nikon D70 looking for photo ops. We chanced upon this house, well encroached by trees. I stopped, and either I or my wife took the picture - one of the problems with sharing a camera, hopefully now resolved with the purchase of a new D80! However we have no record of the location, or even of who took the picture. She has gracefully allowed me to claim it, an emotion stirring record of neglect and forgotten lives.

Medicine Lake

The lake that vanishes. Long known by the aboriginal people of the area, the mysterious annual disappearance of this lake caused them to look upon it as ‘bad medicine’. The Lake that disappears. The lake is fed by the Maligne River and during times of high river flow, the valley fills up, only to drain away slowly through a massive subterranean river system. Looking at this photo at higher magnifications you can see that a slight amount of camera shake has accentuated each golden high-light - one of the few times a defect can actually bring a picture to life. More abstract Medicine Lake photos here.

Female Warrior

A front row seat at a Beijing Opera performance combined with permission to photograph resulted in this image. In this opera a Song Dynasty female warrior, Liang Hongyu, prepares to lead the Song army to repel an invasion by the Jin tribe who are crossing the Yangtze River. The image reveals the power and elegance of the performer, who, despite the encumbrance of her magnificent costume, was able to perform her fighting routines with grace. See this picture and the rest of the gallery here.

forthcoming…

….a blog devoted to the images I love, the images that move me and rise beyond their pixelated existence - images that flirt with the emotions in ways not always fully comprehensible.