About The Beauty of Plants

In association with BGCI

Achieving great images of plants and beautiful flowers requires skill, passion and commitment. This category celebrates the ephemeral beauty of the plant – from seed to compost. Plant portraiture is all about capturing the very essence, or character, of a plant. This could be a rambling rose, a humble bluebell, an exotic tree peony or the delicate flower head of a grass. A single bloom in isolation can be admired for its uniqueness or beautiful flowers celebrated for their form and colour. Take a closer look. The judges will be looking for spot-on technique and original artistic views of your subject.

For the purposes of this competition, the category also broadly includes the Fungi and Lichen families.

Insights

Achieving special plant photography isn’t easy but all winners share a few things in common. Firstly, they have spot on intentionality ie they knew exactly what they wanted to capture and why with clear creative direction and that’s really important as there’s really nowhere to hide with a plant portrait. Secondly, attention is always given to the background of the composition with flawless attention to detail of all elements in the frame; is there something which will distract from your main subject? Beautiful flowers need equally beautiful accompaniments. Thirdly, there’s always an element of engagement or impact that helps draw the viewer in – it could be an unusual specimen, have striking colours and textures or display interesting use of light. Push the genre and challenge the judges.

Wider benefits

Lead the visual conversation of plant life through the most popular IGPOTY category.  Your image will also be automatically considered for the BGCI Threatened Plants Photographic Award, which has special prizes on offer. So, brush up on your beautiful flowers and threatened plant species and use photography to share their importance with the world.

Prizes & Why should I enter?

Prizes

First prize:

By entering this category your image stands a chance to win the overall IGPOTY title and prize of £7,500! Please note - you cannot win this category prize and the overall prize.

£250 (GBP)
1 x prize copy of IGPOTY Book 12
Signed individual certificate
Your image goes on tour in the travelling exhibition!
1 year subscription to ImageRights Ascent – read more about this prize

Second prize:

1 x prize copy of IGPOTY Book 12
Signed individual certificate
Your image goes on tour in the travelling exhibition!
1 year subscription to ImageRights Launch – read more about this prize

Third prize:

1 x prize copy of IGPOTY Book 12
Signed individual certificate
Your image goes on tour in the travelling exhibition!
1 year subscription to ImageRights Pilot – read more about this prize

Entry benefits

Exposure, international press coverage, world's most prestigious photographic category for beautiful flowers and plants, opportunities for growth and feedback, become a stakeholder in conservation, cultivate your skills, reinforce or launch your photographic career.

Rules

General rules:

• You may not submit watermarked images with your name or website visible on the photo. Please do not frame your images with borders.
• Entrants may submit a maximum of 4 images per single entry token and a maximum of 6 images per portfolio entry token.
• For free-to-enter competitions you should enter 1 image per token given, upto a maximum of 8 images (8 tokens).
• Entrants' images must be .jpg or .jpeg format and of high enough quality.
• We recommend all images are output to 1920px on their longest side at 72 ppi. Any larger than this and you are supplying images bigger than they will be seen or used by IGPOTY judges; your files will take longer to upload and/or download to judges and viewers’ screens.
• The absolute maximum for each image must not be more than 7MB in file size and no more than 3000px on their longest side.
• All entrants must be able to supply a high-res image (300dpi) suitable for printing/exhibiting should the image be shortlisted. You may be asked for this when the time comes. We can help you with this if need be.

Competition rules:

Please see the IGPOTY competition rules.

Category rules:

Please see IGPOTY competition rules.