Photographic Competition
The three judges, Julian Winslow, Steve Blamire and Dr Rachel Flynn have reached their decisions on the winning entries in the six categories.
The prizes were presented to the WINNERS by Julian Winslow, who also gave an insight into the judging process and tips for taking a winning photograph. Friends and Members attended the prize giving and enjoyed a glass of wine in the Gallery while they viewed an exhibition of the winning entries.
The prize winners in the various categories are: –
Best Overall: – 1st – Ian Pratt, 2nd – Olivia Williams, 3rd – Ian Pratt
Plant Portrait: – 1st – Ian Pratt, 2nd – Ian Pratt, 3rd Lynda Richardson
Landscape: – 1st – Jonyth Hill, 2nd – Lynda Richardson, 3rd – Bridget Sibbick
Abstract: – 1st – Bridget Sibbick, 2nd – Bridget Sibbick, 3rd – Ros Whistance
Wildlife: – 1st – Ian Pratt, 2nd – Ian Pratt, 3rd – Ian Pratt
Under 17: – 1st – Olivia Williams, 2nd – Olivia Williams, 3rd – Ariela Richardson
PLANT PORTRAIT
- Winner & Overall Winner
- Second Prize
- Third Prize
LANDSCAPE
- Winner
- Second
- Third
ABSTRACT
- Winner
- Second
- Third
WILDLIFE
- Winner
- Second
- Third
YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHER
- Winner & 2nd Overall
- Second
- Third
Competition Details
The photographic competition “A Year in Ventnor Botanic Garden” announced in the last ventnorensis is happening from 1 April 2016, the closing date for entries is 31 March 2017.
Photographs for the competition must be taken in Ventnor Botanic Garden, there are four main categories: – Plant portrait, Landscape, Abstract & Wildlife, entries can be in one or more categories and detailed on the Entry Form.
There is also a Young Photographer category for entrants under 17 years old.
Each entry, consisting of three photographs, costs £10, £5 for Members of the Friends, you can download an entry form here. For the full competition terms and conditions please click here.
The competition judges will be Julian Winslow and his photographic partner, Steve Blamire, both successful Island photographers, together with Dr Rachel Flynn who is Exhibition and Collections Coordinator at Dimbola Museum and Galleries, the photography museum and house of the pioneer Victorian photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron.
The overall winner and two runners-up in each category will have their images professionally printed, mounted and hung in an exhibition at The Gallery in the Garden. The Exhibition will be publicised on both in the Garden and Friends’ websites, as well as The Isle of Wight County Press. The images will also, naturally, be featured in future editions of ventnorensis.
In addition the Friends intend to use a selection of the images in a calendar which will be available for sale at The Garden Shop.
More about our Head Judge: – Julian Winslow
Julian Winslow couldn’t be better qualified to judge the inaugural VBGFS Photographic Competition. He has been a full-time professional photographer for over a decade, but before that he was a gardener at Ventnor Botanic Garden and he was instrumental in setting up the Garden in its new guise after the 1987 storms that flattened it. He was deeply involved when Chris Kidd rebuilt the greenhouse, the Mediterranean Garden, the Japanese Terraces and the Australian Garden.
Julian says that the diversity of the Garden is going to aid entrants to the Photography Competition: “It gives you an opportunity within the UK to take photos without going anywhere. The Garden has a much wider range of flowering plants than most gardens because of the micro-climate, which gives the opportunity to shoot cacti – even flowering cacti – against a blue sky rather than against a greenhouse. There are a lot of plants you won’t find outside in the rest of the UK, and rarities too which you wouldn’t find elsewhere. A lot of the plants are grouped as you’d find them in nature – which makes it very interesting.”
“I’ve always maintained an interest in photographing plants. I try to treat them much as I would the subject of a portrait. I will photograph what draws my eye to a particular part of the plant, such as just where a petiole comes off the leaf where it joins the stem.” Having an awareness of the end use of a photograph, such as where text might be overlaid in a magazine, has made him aware of the negative space as much as the positive as he is shooting.