@dave

Since I noticed you already set up some Specific Plants: and the name of the plants cat. (Irises, Daylilies, Roses and Lilies) can you set up some other ones too?! These come to mind.....

Specific Plants: Salvias
Specific Plants: Agastaches
Specific Plants: Echinecea
Specific Plants: Heuchera

Marilyn, Dave answered a similar request earlier. He stated this year's categories are set and he'll revisit changes for next year. I agree with your suggestions and hope we do have different categories next time around. So many other choices to spotlight.

Indeed there are so many excellent potential categories besides Irises, Daylilies, Roses and Lilies!

Here is a half-baked idea to consider for the future...if we continue to have weeks dedicated to various specific plants/plant types maybe we could have photo contests associated with those along the way and then the winners or the top three of each or something could be entered in the grand best of show contest later...
I'm thinking that if we did something like that it could help to include more options for specific plants/plant types and cut down immensely on the time investment both for submitting entries and for viewing/judging said categories as far as the final contest...

Mostly, I don't have enough spare time right now to go through my own pictures let alone all the submissions there will be by the end.
Sad but true!

I like that idea, Dirt! Spread out the fun, acorns for prizes, easy-peasy.

I like the idea, too, and will consider it for 2015.

It would certainly be a kinder, gentler, more manageable way to have a photo contest. With the number of members here, and the 16 categories open, adding the 5 per category limit, we could be sorting through nearly 114,500 pictures....

Great idea, Dirt!

Jean, Oh my, that is a daunting thought!

Bonehead said:Marilyn, Dave answered a similar request earlier. He stated this year's categories are set and he'll revisit changes for next year. I agree with your suggestions and hope we do have different categories next time around. So many other choices to spotlight.

I didn't see (read) that.

My hope for categories going forward is to have fewer categories, and more general ones, not more specific. After all, there are thousands of different kinds of flowers, plants and trees.

I don't think, for example, that a picture of a Salvia flower needs to only be judged against another Salvia. I think a rose bush picture can be judged against a buddleia bush picture. A garden scene from Seattle can be judged against one from Florida, even though the plants are very different. Here's why:

Since it's a Photo Contest, we are supposed to vote on the merits of the picture itself, not the subject matter. Composition, lighting, framing, angle, originality . . . so many other factors make a great photo, but not necessarily the flower, plant or tree, bug or animal in the picture.

For example, I spent a ton of time on the Daylilies forum the last few months. The flowers are absolutely stunning, and the array of colors, forms, markings, sizes and shapes is mind-boggling. But most of the excellent pictures on that forum are geared towards showing the details of the flower so they are well lit, full frame, flower face to the camera. To me those aren't the kind of photos you would enter in a photo contest. They'd be impossible to judge because even though the flowers are different, the photos are too similar. A whole clump of Daylilies is a more apt subject because it gives scope to the photographer's talent.

Thus, you'd be better to put Daylilies in a "Perennials" or "Single plant" category and then a daylily clump picture could be judged against a clump of . . . Cannas? Daisies? Salvias? Agastaches?

Elaine I think you've made an excellent point !

I was viewing a photo contest a few years back that was divided into 5 groups each with 3 categories. Red, Blue, Yellow. Green and Orange were the groups and Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, the categories. Entrants could have 3 photos in each group, 1 in each category....No color filters or digital enhancement. And, the subject was not necessarily the main color...no Green dogs or the like. One was a huge Mastiff loping across a green meadow. The photographer was at ground level so the majority of the background was the green grass... and the happy dog... the judges chose 1 winner in each category within each group and from those 15, a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. It was very interesting.

Elaine. Since this is the first photo contest, I am glad there are so many categories, but as I was going through my daylily pictures, they all seemed so similar that it is hard to choose. I can see where a group shot would look better than a single bloom, but unfortunately I don't have too many pictures like that.

Isn't it great that now we have digital cameras and can shoot as many pictures as we want?

So, for next year's daylilies (and the rest of the garden) you'll just have to remember to not just shoot the individual flowers, Vickie. After you take your flower feature shots, back up and 'compose' a few clump, flower bed and garden scene shots with light and shade and interesting backgrounds etc. for the Photo Contest.

The more pictures you shoot, the better chance you have of hitting a gorgeous winner.

Come to think of this, I guess those of us down here in the warm winter areas have a bit of an advantage because we still have lots of material to photograph at this time of year. Although, autumn leaves, seed pods, dry grasses and declining plants can be wonderful subjects too. It's all in the composition.

I could totally be alright with one category--enter your five best photos and be done with it!
But, as a ponder the situation a little more, it occurs to me that the ideas are not mutually exclusive. In that we could still have mini-contests associated with each plant/plant-type week and we could have an annual grande finale wherein it may make sense to have just a few categories based on distance like macro, cameo, tight-scene, and wide-scene... although I do find the concept of the contest that moonhowl describes to be rather compelling

As always, some great ideas coming from the membership. Let's try them all!

Thanks, Elaine. I agree about the composition. Composition can make the difference between just another picture and a work of art!