Lina Li
Ventura Botanical Gardens Annual Photo Contest
by Nancy Kettner
Another year in the Ventura Botanical Gardens has been showcased in submissions to the Annual Photo Contest.
This year’s winners captured images from our South African, Chilean, Mediterranean and California Ramble collections. Winning entries included intimate portraits of plants and flowers as well as momentary glimpses of the natural world within the Ventura Botanical Gardens. As Chris Nova says of his photo in the Karoo Garden, “This picture only exists because of a small act of fate brought about by a head-turning chirp, a break in the clouds at sunset, the aloe perch and a ready camera.”
In a world often distanced from connections to the natural environment, taking time to observe and capture a photo provides an opportunity to reconnect with other forms of life and consider our shared environment. Regular visitor and photo winner Dan Harding said, “Sue and I go often and enjoy the dramatic seasonal and subtle weekly changes we find on our frequent visits.”
With more than 80 entrants submitting over 230 photos taken over the last year, our judges found a wide variety of subjects and photographic styles in the collection and were challenged to select the best of the submissions as winners. Rather than rank the winners, Judges chose a “Best Overall” winner and placed the remaining unranked winners into three categories: “In the Gardens”; “Birds and Bees”; and “Botanical Closeup”.
Returning to our Judges panel this year were Monica Furmanski, Assistant Professor of Photography at Ventura College; and Stephanie Hogue, Owner of Latitudes Gallery. Rejoining the panel was Phil Ranger, commercial photographer and photography instructor.
To view all the winning photos, go to https://venturabotanicalgardens.com/in-bloom/
Winners in the Judges’ Choice by category were:
Best Overall: Lina Li
Birds and Bees: Kristine Behrens; Lina Li; Matthew Bear; Samantha Warren
Botanical Closeup: Ekaterina Taganova; Josh Kaplan; Kyle Svenningsen; Lukas Liebischer; Michell DiGuilio
In the Gardens: Chris Nova; Dan Harding; Lee Mooney; Lou Matz, Samantha Mellinger-Hutchison
Winners in the Peoples’ Choice were: Aleli Evangelista; Andrew Waud; Matthew Bear
