POLL - IGPOTY, the right result?

[Damien_Demolder]

I bumped into the mother-of-the-bride the other day, and inevitably we got chatting about the forthcoming big day.

She’s the sort of mother-of-the-bride who has thought of everything - including having a rose bush refrigerated to ensure the garden will be in top form for me to photograph the blushing-one and the father on the morning of the big day. It’s a stroke of genius, and when she told me it reminded me how important our gardens are to us.

As areas for relaxing and socialising, private gardens are extensions of our homes, designed to one extent or another, and decorated with the things that make us happy. Parks and the gardens of homes and palaces open to the public are like great halls for indulging each of the senses and given to natural spectacle.

There are few better places to practice photography, not only from the point of view of accessibility and proximity, but also for the constant change from season to season, month to month, day to day and hour to hour.

No wonder gardens are a popular photographic subject, and no wonder they produce images as astonishing as those that won this year’s International Garden Photographer of the Year.

To take part in this week's poll Do you agree that the winning IGPOTY picture (AP p28) is the best of those shown? head to the homepage.

If you haven't bought AP yet this week see the IGPOTY website

Thanks for taking part.

damien

[Hotblack]

Like Big Will and not being a big fan of 'ferkin flowers' I think that the winning image is stunning. Better than the others IMHO so I could only vote 'yes'.

[Terrywoodenpic]

The only picture that stood out.
Quite a fairy like effect and the framing was perfect.
So I vote Yes...

[Learning]

I thought the framing was almost Victorian or at least resembled the effect one got of those 1990s unix programmes that slowly envelopped your screeen with foliage. The use of IR was just 'look at me, I'm clever'.
The real stunner was the picture of the damsel flies. Try as I might in my miserable old git mode I cannot find anything wrong with it. On the goodside however it just shouts 'I wish I had taken that'. Even that one fly not quite at the right angle says this is real, it ain't a photoshop job. That photograph is just perfect.

[Zou]

It does absolutely nothing for me. I'll not vote until I have seen some of the others.

[Benchista]

I like it. It does look Victorian, as Learning says, but I like the use of IR to give an ethereal image. I think it's a good thing to go for something different as the prizewinner, TBH.

[Lazza]

It's a very interesting capture granted, I'd like to know more about the details of shot, method, post capture editing.

I do feel it's a very sad day though when an (IMHO) overdone cartoon HDR shot like this is even deemed worth of being runner up, sorry but it's a sad day for photography:- http://www.igpoty.com/competition02/.../image6_XL.jpg

[APchris]

Whilst I think it's a very good IR shot with a wonderful ethereal quality to it, I find the inclusion of the woman a little odd, as though she's been cut and pasted from another image - the scale seems all wrong

I prefer several of the images in Sebastian Kaps portfolio and Kat Waters' Cherkley Court

[Terrywoodenpic]

Peoples comments are interesting...

It seems some recent competition winners and headline published work are stretching the boundaries of what traditional photographers find acceptable.

I think digital photography in particular has introduced both many new photographers and a new way of looking at photographs.

This has of course opened the eyes of some old timers, but mostly has influenced incomers to the craft who are not brought up in the more hidebound traditions of club judged work, and who do not have any Idea that some things are not acceptable; especially to those photographers who have gone through the mill of beginner, intermediate and advanced competition.

At last... I think Photography is being judged on how the image effects the viewer emotionally and artistically in much the same way as other Arts are received; with out the usual condensation that it is "only a photograph". This must be a good thing for the future acceptance of photographic images at both the popular and artistic level.

[Wheelu]

An interesting composition and good technique, I can see where the photographer and judges were coming from. However it's not to my taste, there's too many confusing elements, and I don't like the IR treatment. I prefer some of the other images posted in the competition, some of which appear to be superb.

This is probably why I don't win competitions

[Learning]

However it's not to my taste,

and therein lies the weakness of any artistic, and hence subjective judgement.

[sey]

However it's not to my taste,

and therein lies the weakness of any artistic, and hence subjective judgement.

Not so. Personal taste has nothing to do with good or bad art.
What does have everything to do with objective judgment is intellectual honesty. One does not need to 'like' a work to be able to appreciate it's attributes or pitfalls.

Personal taste may simply lead to one making totally invalid judgments, either positively or negatively, thus personal like/dislikes should play no part in the judgment of a work and if they do then those judgments are superficial and invalid.