If the photos must be current that will make it about impossible for us in cold zones as we would have little to photograph except dead plants, brown blooms and yellow foliage, so that would pretty well eliminate us from entering the contest.

I think current might mean 'this year's' as opposed to shots from 10 years ago.

I hope so Hetty. But it is going to be hard to tell when the photo was taken anyway, it would be on the honor system.

Not sure why it would matter when the photo was taken. For my own computer files, I strive for one closeup shot of the bloom, one of the plant emerging, one of the whole plant, and one at season end. I don't keep taking multiple shots of the same plant year after year, instead I try to fill in my holes. I do take long-shots of my garden beds several times per year, but mostly those are for my own mapping or planning use and are not often 'worthy' of a photo contest. That said, I'll roll with whatever is decided.

Does it really matter? A good photo is a good photo, regardless of when it was taken. Although we would want to exclude something that had already won another contest.....hmmmm....not sure how one could do that either.

I'm don't think winning another contest should be a disqualifier -- if one has a really nice photo that won a blue ribbon at a local fair or on another web site, why not submit it to this contest as well? Seems the goal is to simply share beautiful plant photos.

I agree with Deb. A win in a previous contest somewhere else should not disqualify a photo.

New site, lots of new members, I know I would love to reshare some of my favorites.

I really would like to have the "When taken" clarified.
I have some really nice pictures that I took from a trip--but it would be from 25 years ago.

Never entered anywhere before. Gita

How about a simple disclosure of the when/where taken. My garden in Washington, June 2007. XYZ Display Garden in New Mexico, August 2014. That would also give a bit of perspective to the photo, particularly the landscape ones.

I think these contests are best when the photo owners are anonymous. "My garden in Washington" would not be completely anonymous.

True, hadn't thought of that. Not sure how these things work, but perhaps the where/when info would only be displayed after voting? Or maybe it's just not necessary.

I don't understand why it matters when a picture was taken, or where for that matter. I nice picture is a nice picture, no?

This is a contest for having fun. I agree with Kent and I also think it's enough if a photo fits the specified categories and if it was taken by the one who posts it. If we start making tons of rules we'll lose the element of fun.

I'm excited about this. I think it's gonna be a ton of fun.

Couple of thoughts... If I Ran the Circus:
I'd create a couple of auxiliary exhibitions (threads) that ran in parallel with the photography contest but were just that - exhibitions - for exceptional (read exhibition/contest-worthy) shots of plant-related things that were not part of the contest. The two categories would be:

1) Stuff that doesn't fall within the bounds of the contest - garden gnomes, grandkids and other gremlins, photobombing pets, wildlife, etc.

2) Stuff that's more than a year old. If this is going to be a rather annual thing, it makes more sense to me to adjudicate stuff that was shot within the "fiscal year" of that given contest. (If it's a one-off, this line of thinking doesn't apply.) -- for a lot of reasons (one of which is the front-loading of the innagural event...which could have unintended consequences for subsequent events). I suppose if this became a hard/loud point of contention one way or the other, I'd be inclined to enter the discussion on the pro-annual side.

I think the contest is a wonderful idea and I'm really looking forward to seeing everyones' best shots. (Not only do I love the art, but I learn so much looking at good work.)

That's my .02 on the thing. Nothing wrong with being inclusive (within the bounds of the original idea) and providing an outlet for other exceptional (plant-related) art.

I think a good photo is worthy no matter when is was taken. Not sure why that would matter

As much as I don't like limitations, I do support the idea of a few for a photo contest.
I really like the idea of concurrent exhibition threads to share and see contest-worthy photos that don't fit within the rules.
i.e. I'd love to see a fantastic 10yo picture featuring someone's barn with a beautiful sunset behind it, some striking plants around it, and a handsome goat trying to eat them seriously! That's good stuff
And yes, a nice photo is a nice photo and worthy of placing in a contest no matter when it was taken. If we only had the one contest it really wouldn't matter.
Looking ahead though, if the goal is to have an annual photo contest, I agree it would be wise to limit the entries by some measure of "current" like this season's photos. I can see that it could matter --if the same great 'old' photos were submitted every year, or if entries had to be restricted because Sue's old picture of Zuzu's rose kept winning every year...stuff like that.
Also, an annual contest requiring current photos would necessarily stimulate the taking of fresh photos which is fun to do and I would think good for the site.

Maybe not for the photo contest, but I would think pictures of plants taken when planted and then years later and as they progressed would be very interesting.

I'm thinking the main rule on timing should be that it has not been entered in the ATP photo contest before. That would mean the first contest is wide open and then next year you simply can't enter it again.

On the other site, at first I had to go back and scroll through all previous entries to see what I had entered before, then I got smart and made folders labeled with the contest year and copied each photo into them.