Landscape and horticulture expert

Life in the lens of Tracey Rich

Making a living as a photographer these days is quite a competitive business. If getting the shot right isn't hard enough, selling the photographs afterwards needs another skill set too.

Tracey Rich is one photographer who has seamlessly blended her job as a horticulture and wildlife photographer, vastly increasing the opportunities for success.

Garden Photographer of the Year ramps up it's international status

Visitors to the www.gpoty.org website are probably wondering what is going on because of the error message and non display of the site, but I am assured by Jane Nichols, all is well and it is just a glitch (the domain will be forwarded on soon).

Gpoty has changed it's site address to www.igpoty.com to reflect, as Jane tells me, the international success of The Garden Photographer of the Year awards.

The site is now called 'International Garden Photographer of the Year'

Garden Photographer of the Year nears entry deadline

If you are planning to enter the Garden Photographer of the Year competition, you need to pull your finger out and get snapping.

Last orders are now being called for this years competition - you have up until the 31st January to submit your entry.

The Young Garden Photographer of the year gets £25,000 prize pool boost

I received an email yesterday from GPOTY with a list of prizes that have been put up for the Young Garden Photographer of the Year competition.

I must say, I am impressed by the value of what is on offer.

Hedera in full blood

I thought you might like to see this Hedera I encountered whilst out walking this morning.

The large leaves are in various colourful stages from dark green to full blood red. You can also see the veins very clearly as the sun shines through the back.

I don't know if the Ivy is reacting like this because of the very mild weather we are having (currently 13 degrees) but it is really putting on a show.

Cash prizes to be won at Garden Photographer of the year

If the title 'Garden Photography of the Year' isn't enough to stir your artistic passions then how would £5,000 help to get you out in the fresh air with your camera.

I have just noticed this from the GPOTY website:

"We are delighted to announce that the overall winner for the Best Single Image will be awarded £5000 cash and the title Garden Photographer of the Year.

My garden photography results are in

I was out before first light to try and put into practice some of the tips that I had gleaned from Clive Nichols book The Art of Flower and Garden Photography.

It was rather too foggy with no real strong sunshine to capture the first rays as the sun came over the hill so I thought I would just experiment a bit.

The Art of Flower and Garden Photography

I have to admit to being a little excited.

I have just taken possession of The Art of Flower and Garden Photography by Clive Nichols.

I have briefly flicked through the photographs and read through some of the text. I do not want to get a head of myself so I put he book down, cooked a chili con carne for for my family and poured a glass of the regional Rosé.

Dawn Light

How many of you that go out and buy a new toy, a television perhaps or a new computer and rush home from PC World and hurriedly plug in all the cables using the 'trial and error' method only to sit down' exhausted and frustrated, then read the manual before calmly completing the set up?

That description has summed me up and I have decided to take one chapter at a time and explore the possibilities.

Dawn light, according to Clive Nichols is the best time to take outdoor garden and flower shots.

I have just read a quote alongside a dawn photo taken at West Green House Gardens in Hampshire.

" For drama and emotion there is nothing to beat the first rays of golden morning sunshine flooding into the garden. No wonder my best images are taken at or just after sunrise!

Cool Photograph

I have been taking a tour to see what the net has to offer in the way of garden photo's.

There is a lot of extraordinary talent out there for sure.

This picture explodes in your eye. It is the visual equivalent of eating a fresh fruit cocktail. So may tastes and so many sensations all rolled into one.

Garden Photographer of the Year

Some hard lessons have been learnt at GPOTY and it has been decided, after an erroneous email was sent out telling the wrong people they had won a signed copy of Clive Nichols book, that all winners will be notified via telephone and not email in the future.

In the meantime the Garden Photographer of The Year competition continues. Yesterday, I received an email telling of half price entry into the 'MY Garden' category but you have to be quick.

To qualify for the half price deal you have to register before midnight on the 31st August 2007 - if you pop in this promotional code : MGAL0807 you will qualify for the reduced deal.

Garden Photographer of the Year organisers ruin a few peoples day!

Whoops a daisy!

Can you imagine how pleased I was yesterday to learn that one of my pictures had been selected to hang in the Gardener Photographer of the Year gallery and that I had won a signed copy of Clive Nichols book: The Art of Flower and Garden Photography?

Unfortunately for me and a quite a few others it seems the email I received was a monumental cock up and I had not been selected at all.

The email should have been sent to Richard Crompton, Jacky Parker,Colin Campbell,Raymond Liversidge, Debra Feinman, Kevin Schafer, Jeff Overs, Charkes Hawes, Joanna Penn. John Gibbons, Henrique Suoto.