This picture was a commended photo in the Beautiful Gardens category.Image by Mark Bolton. Go to www.igpoty.com for more information about International Garden Photographer of the Year.
Yesterday the 2017 International Garden Photographer of the Year winners were announced and the results are truly breathtaking.
The competition exhibits garden, plant, flower and botanical photography and makes no distinction between professional and amateur photographers.
Five members of the Garden Photographers’ Association in the United Kingdom started the competition in 2007. After many requests from photographers outside the United Kingdom, the competition was opened to all countries and “International” was added to the title in 2008.
Photographers can enter in eight different categories. The categories are as follows: The Beauty of Plants, Beautiful Gardens, Wildflower Landscapes, Wildlife in the Garden, Greening the City, Bountiful Earth, Breathing Space, and Trees, Woods and Forests. The Greening the City category celebrates plants in urban environments. Breathing Spaces is sponsored by The National Trust and displays people enjoying green places.
The judges look for novel approaches to the photograph’s subject. Winners, finalists and highly commended photographers will participate in an exhibition that takes place at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, London.
The overall winner of the 10th IGPOTY is amateur photographer Lee Acaster, who also won the Trees, Woods and Forests category. Acaster will receive a prize of £7,500 ($9,384) for his shot of a birch tree in Snowdonia, Wales.
“It was a dark and wet morning in Snowdoina, but autumn always offers opportunities,” Acaster told The Courier Mail. “The dark water behind the lake helped to isolate the form and texture of the tree while providing contrast to the dazzling individual leaves.”
The judges called the photo “a stained glass window of nature, steeped in mystery and metaphor.”
Below is a selection of some of the winners, finalists and highly commended photos from this year’s submissions.
The overall winner of the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition.
Image by...
This picture placed first in the Breathing Spaces section, which is sponsored by The National...
This photo of wild Narcissus won first place in Wildflower Landscapes.
Image by Gianluca...
This photo won third place for the Bountiful Earth category and was taken in the mountainous region...
This photo won first place for the Beautiful Gardens category.
Image by Nigel McCall. Go to...
This photo was highly commended in the Beauty of Plants category.
Image by Rosanna Castrini....
"I wanted to show how it was possible to find natural beauty thriving in a city and close to human...
This photo is a finalist in the Wildlife in the Garden section.
Image by Minghui Yuan. Go to...
