OK, I’m a sucker for contests since I won free movie tickets when I was ten by coming up with a marquee combination of “Bird on a Wire”, “Shoot to Kill” and “Duck Soup”, so I have to enter Gardening Gone Wild’s June contest.
Clematis on Trellis
Frankly, Josh McCullough’s theme, Frames, is pretty challenging, and I am not sure that the title really gets at what he is asking for. He wants to see our best work but my definition of best depends on the situation. I thought about taking his title literally and found some great shots that had internal frames like this clematis, or where one rare tree framed the other in a botanical echo.
I was really bummed when Rob Cardillo didn’t choose my Geranium renardii even for his commentary. When reviewing my images for this challenge, I concluded that not only must an image be well executed for focus, exposure and composition, an image really has to make you gasp, and those are hard to come by.
Wollemia nobilis in the Miller Garden
In the end, it each person’s experience that affects how ‘good’ an image is considered, and that is something you just can’t control.
I have to come back to my monochromatic favorites of green images. This one is all about the texture of the three different mosses on the branches of Parrotiopsis ‘framed’ by Trachystemon orientalis. I liked the drama of line of the branch through the background. This combination was found at the splendid Miller Garden, which you simply have to visit.
Parrotiopsis with Trachystemon orientalis
Very cool shot, artfully executed and interesting to look at. This WAS a challenging contest, and I can relate to the disappointment of not having a picture even deemed worthy of mentioning in a contest. I sort of had a melt down on that one. . .but I have recovered and reassessed my reasons for entering, etc.
Whatever the outcome, you have had an opportunity to look at your own work using a different sort of criteria, and I think your choice is beautiful. I am a sucker for mosses and lichens, however. . .
Best of luck in the contest! And thanks for sharing your beautiful photography with us.