Something is wrong with this picture. One person winning the majority of the categories? Even the comments, allegedly by different people, are exactly the same????

Nothing is wrong with this picture. Have you looked at all our past photo contests? Talented photography get votes, they are all entered anonymously so nothing wrong there. Comments can get copy and pasted by a member as they apply to what they feel about each one and didn't feel like typing anything differently, nothing wrong with that.

For you to imply that this wonderful contest, with so many garden loving talented members, is rigged shows that you know nothing about the NGA owner, this site or it's members.

You are right on some points. I know nothing about the owner. I am under the impression that it is a non-profit organization, therefore there is no ONE owner. I have not looked at past photo contests but I did look at each photo in this contest and submitted my votes. I use the NGA site a lot to ID plants and recommend it to others on FB. I accept that members may copy and paste remarks. However, there are ways to bypass anonymity and it is statistically impossible to have one person dominate the winnings with so many (hundreds and probably more than a thousand different photographers) submitting photos to this contest.

@dave

Not all are my personal choices, I do recognize a professional camera use that most of us do not have. Perhaps a category of amateur vs professional photos could work?

Regarding specific plant categories, perhaps it might be a good idea to be allowed to add photos only to those we have participated in those specific forums in somewhat reasonable fashion?

There were a bit over 3,000 entries in the contest with a large number of photographers competing in several categories within the contest Poodle so your dubious claim of "probably more then a thousand photographers" submitting images is just plain wrong. So many members compete in 3, 5, 6 or more categories with up to 5 entries in each. My impression is perhaps 200 members +/- submitted images. I have no idea of actual numbers but it does not matter how many compete. We don't compete for blood or for money, we compete for fun.
What gets me is that for your tenure here, in over 5 years now, you rarely participate in this site or it's forums. But yet you manage to gripe about something. Something that you do not know much about it seems to me. How many images did you submit this year?

Pardon my French but you have no clue as to what you are talking about. There is only one owner in spite of what you think. And he runs the site as he sees fit. If you don't like what you find here, don't hang out here. No one is forcing you to. It is just that simple.

I think that Facebook is calling you!

This site is about gardening, not griping. They both start with the letter 'g' but that's where the similarity ends.

At the top of the category list:
3,154 entries from 180 people were submitted

The winner for Best in Show, pikaia, had only entered 12 photos, previously it was in 2019 with 22 entries.
Another one of our members who takes gorgeous shots, Dirtdorphins, entered 85 images and placed first in nine categories, second in eight categories, third in five categories, fourth in five categories, and fifth in six categories. She gets high votes for her wonderful shots every year and has been entering since 2014.

Wow. And go ahead and say it out loud. You're talking about @dirtdorphins.

She's not a professional photographer. She just started shooting nine or so years ago and works really, really hard at improving. She enjoys the contest and enters lots of photos each year...and her output just gets better each year. Further, she's won at least one category since 2014 (apart from 2017, when the contest obviously wasn't "rigged" for some reason).

She's contributed more than 2,000 pics to the database...and lots to the community.

So before you go calling her out, without the courage to name her, look at her history on the site and closely at the history of her photo contests. To wit:


Further, if you're going to assert "statistically impossible", show your work. And please: include "normal range" in your work (accounting for 2017).

Finally, I won the contest last year and only entered two photos. I'd love to hear your math on that.

I'm angry. And I probably shouldn't have posted this. But you don't know how hard she works. How long she spends in her gardens. And with her camera. How self-critical she is with her work. How much she's improved through the years. And to have assertions, without any foundation (especially with the math that you obviously do not understand) really, really, really frustrates me. You've got no business throwing shade like that.

Here here!!!

Poodlelover7 said: Something is wrong with this picture. One person winning the majority of the categories? Even the comments, allegedly by different people, are exactly the same????

I voted for a lot of those photos that won, because they were good. Although I see a lot of Dirt's photos on the Iris forum, I was genuinely surprised at how many that I voted for were hers. The only one I thought was hers was one photo of irises, and I only voted for it because I thought it had the best lighting, composition, focus and that "Wow!" factor. It was no matter to me who took it. It's not rigged, she's just a good photographer.

People who are good, win.
People who can't win complain.

Thank you for all of your comments, and I truly mean that. I see no need to respond as any response I provide will not alter what has been written previously. Happy holidays to you all.

Poodlelover7 said: Something is wrong with this picture. One person winning the majority of the categories? Even the comments, allegedly by different people, are exactly the same????

You obviously are a real sport!

kittriana said: Not all are my personal choices, I do recognize a professional camera use that most of us do not have. Perhaps a category of amateur vs professional photos could work?

I agree. Professional work isn't fair to amateurs or to people who can't afford it. I've wanted one of those 1,000+ dollar cameras that can take a clear picture of a gnat several yards away for YEARS because I love taking pics. But I can only use my poor phone though because I can't afford the privileges of a luxurious camera.

Oh please, no body here is a professional.

I take all of my images of my plants with a cell phone camera. I have an I-phone 11. But to get clear, sharp images, you need to know how to use it. You can pre focus, zoom in or zoom out, move in for close ups but it is far away from a professional unit.
A professional might be best defined as some one who derives a good amount of their income from photography. I really don't think that many, if any, people who submitted images meet that qualification.

If you can't take a quality image using just your cellphone, maybe an upgrade is in order. Or possibly some practice.

And as far as $1,000 dollar cameras taking sharp pictures of gnats is a silly statement in my opinion. I belonged to a Camera Club on Long Island for over a decade. I knew several people with $3000+ cameras and my cat Rosie could take a better image then these people. On a digital camera you absolutely have to depress the shutter button halfway for the auto focus to work. Then depress it the rest of the way to complete the image. Unless you shake, 100% of the images will be in focus. You have to know how to use your equipment!

To throw around insults and make accusations is just plain foolish.

Just for laughs, my camera body cost almost three thousand dollars, I have a lens that cost $6500 back in 2009! By your definition I must be an 'Uber Professional' just because I spent close to 15,000 dollars on my equipment. But if I can't use it properly, it makes me an idiot for blowing that kind of dough!!
It is not the size of the expense that makes a quality photographer, it is the quality of the photographer that makes the difference.

And just to expand your education on photography and good equipment, there are dozens of wonderful, all in one, point and shoot cameras in the $400-800 range. But if you can't use it properly, why purchase it.

I am a huge fan of beautiful shots since I am a "wannabe" photographer myself. I am happy that some of the photos I chose won. Some I didn't have any idea who was the photographer at that time. The ones who had great photos or flowers or subject got my vote.

For the forums I frequently visited I recognized some of the photos and chose them. I even voted for some of mine that I wanted to win

I entered a few photos this year not expecting to win. So, I got a kick that one of my photos taken using my very old cheap iPhone won. I take photos using my old iPhones and my latest being the iPhone 11 that I got "free" when I switched to a new MSP.

Congratulations to the top 3 winners and to all the winners! And @dirtdorphins you know I'm a huge fan and as we had previously chatted, just like you, gardening and taking photos of my flowers to share here in NGA is also my escape from stress. Keep gardening and taking photos. You and many others here in NGA are very talented. And I feel fortunate that we get to enjoy the photos of everyone's private collection for free. and thankful that NGA has this photo contest to show off my favorite photos. (I like going back to my favorite photos that I entered in the contest.)

soapboxes anyone? a bit of savage stay up with the Joneses?
I do NOT see professionals as only those who take compensation for their vested interests and done the effort, training, and expenses.
@dirtdorphins she has improved enough I feel quite comfortable naming her efforts as becoming professional. I agree, the split of amateur/professional would get to hairsplitting tediousness, and many vote from a sense of loyalty to someone, rather than critique what the picture in front of them holds. @pikaia I also term professional. Big Bill? did you contribute to the photo contest? my short term memory is awful after the stroke I had, sorry honest question no irony intended, but by your own admission you are possibly also considered professional level.
Hobby, put in the simplest language, is a pursuit we throw all our money, time, effort, and study into to accumulate experience. Professionalism is the degree to which we take those efforts. Talent is the skill each person has (also comes in varying amounts) that can evoke the emotion (wow!) that is needed to make anything stand out.
A picture has to evoke an emotion in me for me to consider it. Thats par to the perfection of the shot - background, focus, subject, color, placement. Recent cameras have all proven they do not see color as I do, something always a bit less than they show you. Hence the cellphone shots need experience to counter that less than accurate rendition. So are we actually judging the expense of the camera to take the pictures we choose, instead of the actual picture? Yes, if color is a part of the wow!
No, I did not contribute, the site is flooded with folks who have awesome pictures to share and I do not feel the need to compete for the sake of competing. Perhaps this is why we have so few donating pics to the competition?

Yes, I did compete, twice. 7 images last year. 5 orchid shots this year.

Yes, you could consider me a Professional if you want to. I don't mind. I have pretty good equipment but that doesn't mean that my images will be great or Professional. I have to know how to use the equipment! If I don't, not all images will be great.

But all 12 of my images that I submitted here were cellphone images. So that kind of diminishes the expensive equipment argument. I don't use images from my expensive equipment to keep things more on an even keel.