Another Saturday visit to the local botanical garden and get this... no pictures. Seriously, I got nothing and I hung out for quite some time. Sure there was a shot or two of the Drimia maritima (Sea Squill) but they were no better than the pictures I took of the plant last week. In fact they were about same, under the same lighting conditions. Male Anna hummingbirds, Dusty and Not Dusty were no where to be found. I saw no hummingbirds, I saw very few birds, period. No rabbits, not even a ground squirrel. It's like all the critters got the day off, or something.
So... I'm going to use this time and space for something slightly different. A little more like a "Once Upon a Walk Report” with a detour. The detour was a photo "contest" I recently entered into with 9 photos. It was sponsored by a company both Docken and I have bought a significant amount of wildflower seeds from called, High Country Gardens (HCG). They also own another company (they seem pretty much a mirror of each other) called, American Meadows. Just to give you an idea of how much seed I'm talking about, here's a picture of our order from 2014. Those bags range from 1/4 lb to 1 lb. This order was from American Meadows. Granted, this was the largest order placed from here, over $200. I can't find the receipt. Anyway, bona fide customer, not that it matters?
After a delay of a week in HCG posting the contest finalists I got an email yesterday announcing the selected images. I wasn't one of them. I won't hide any sour grapes but let it also be known my general perception of photo contests. I think they are typically either a scam (usually in the form of an entrance fee) or there's some sort of inherent favoritism. I don't enter photo contests for these reasons. However, top prize here was a $100 gift certificate and it just so happens, shipping included I am planning to spend about that shortly before any fall/winter rains (fingers crossed) show up. Saving $100 is actually a much bigger deal for me than I wish it was. Okay, that's my bitch section but I also thought I'd get some mileage out of the images I selected and post them here. Remember this is basically a commercial for a seed/gardening company. I'll post a link to the contest finalists at the end of this post. Here are my images... I might have one or two of these mixed up because I'm still bopping between computers and sometimes I confuse myself.
These were definitely the first three, you could only submit three at a time.
The second submission is the one I'm not entirely sure about but it was either these three or resonable facsimilies.
EDIT... I think this photo may have been used instead of one of the two above.
And these were the final three.
Here's the HCG finalist page for people to vote on their favorite. I am planning to vote for one of the images but I'll keep my vote private.
Not sure my comment posted so will post again. Maybe I am biased but I think you are a fantastic photographer. While the finalists are all good, yours have more clarity and definition in my view.
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