We have nearly 2,500 photos in the contest already. What a HUGE success!! I can't wait to dive in and look at them.

You have until tomorrow THIS evening at 6:00pm Central time (midnight UTC) to get your photos entered. Then immediately thereafter the voting will begin. So if you didn't have Friday night plans, you do now!

When voting begins you will see that you can enter each category and view all the images. For each image there will be a star that you will click on to "favorite" the image. That is NOT a vote. It's just marking it as one of your favorites, so you can later narrow it down.

Once you've starred your favorites, then at the top of the page you'll see a link to view the page with only your favorites shown. From there you will cast your vote for the 3 that you like the best.

Repeat that for each category and you'll be done.

We will have 4 full days to vote on the main contest entries, and then we'll spend one final day on the best of show voting.

Just to clarify, entry ends tomorrow rather than today?
Before you said it would end today, Nov 7th at 11:59pm UTC. I just want to make sure I have the right time.
I really hope it did get extended a day!

Thanks much!

Oops!! You're right, it's not tomorrow, it's tonight! I've edited my post. Thanks!

Thank You!

I love that you have it set up so we can narrow things down before voting on our top 3. I can't wait to get started.

valleylynn said:I love that you have it set up so we can narrow things down before voting on our top 3. I can't wait to get started.

I wondered how we would wade through all the photos in each category and remember which ones we wanted to vote for!


Less than 6 hours until we get to see all the entries. I hope my dh doesn't want to go to the movies tonight

I am getting way to excited about seeing all the photos. Going outside to make the time go by faster.

11:59 p.m. UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is 6:59 p.m. here in Daytona Beach and I'll be at a college basketball game so I won't get to view the gallery of images until we get home @ 9:30 ... can't wait!

Fun! Beautiful pictures.

It's too hard to choose

I've just been looking through the pictures with leisure. I'm starring just a few. Great fun and I'll be more thorough tomorrow. My hat is off to everyone who participated.

I started selecting my favorites last night and then began again around 8:00 this morning ... I finally just finished voting but it certainly was difficult selecting just three favorites in each category because there are really some awesome entries ... great job everyone!

As I was narrowing my votes down to 3 in each category I kept thinking there should be an "honorable mention" for each category as well but there are just so many really gorgeous photos it would be just as difficult to pick one.

I spent from 10 am - 3 pm voting. Mind you I went at a leisurely pace (showering and doing laundry in that time too). But still, it took me a long time. But it was a most enjoyable day! I was surprised that the hardest category for me was Bugs and Birds. I kept wanting to throw a tantrum and say NO! I WON'T CHOOSE JUST THREE!

I just finished voting but am certain I will check my votes again and perhaps make some changes. I am anticipating the next contest although I know it will be sometime in the future. I've still been prowling through my folders and finding photos that I should have entered. Oh well, there is a limit. We all hope to win but that obviously isn't possible. Will I be disappointed or have resolve to get out there and find some great subjects and take better pictures. It would be fun to have a Multi-plant photo.......perhaps I will suggest it.

I thought there was a lot of room for additional categories, hopefully we'll have more frequent but smaller contests to coordinate with the plant weeks. I personally don't give a rip about prizes - I suppose they are a good marketing tool for the companies who participate, but don't know how much time was involved getting that piece of the puzzle organized. Beautiful photos -- I tried to focus my votes on well composed photography rather than the prettiest plant, although it was certainly difficult to just choose three. Good luck everyone!

Bonehead said:I thought there was a lot of room for additional categories, hopefully we'll have more frequent but smaller contests to coordinate with the plant weeks. I personally don't give a rip about prizes - I suppose they are a good marketing tool for the companies who participate, but don't know how much time was involved getting that piece of the puzzle organized. Beautiful photos -- I tried to focus my votes on well composed photography rather than the prettiest plant, although it was certainly difficult to just choose three. Good luck everyone!

Composition made the deciding votes for me several times

Since this is a photography contest, I looked for the artistry of the photo. I looked for things like composition, lighting, color, interesting techniques, focus. Whether are not the flower was pretty was really a minor consideration.

This so fun but also so difficult.
Great entries, good luck and thank you to all who share their (these) beauties w/ us!
Shaw

You were right @dave, you made it incredibly easy to look at all the pictures in a short time. Thanks, you are indeed a genius at this!