Photo by Kristen Taylor
Just in time for Valentines Day, Mike found something sweet on the Chicago Botanic Gardens website. It’s a seasonal photo contest . Wow – they’ve been running this for a year and we just saw it now. Well, not exactly ‘now’. Let’s say a few hours ago. Since then I’ve been oohing and ahing and downloading. Sweets for the sweet – and these pictures are sweet.
If you would like to enter the winter contest, there is still time to get to Chicago Botanic Gardens to take some pictures. Entries need to be submitted by March 23rd. This part is sweet too — You can win a Chicago Botanic Garden Membership. What is even sweeter is that you become famous. Well, not exactly ‘famous’. But your entry does go on their website; its complete with your name attached, and may even be downloadable.
If you saw my recent pictures from Morton Arboretum, snowy vistas can be beautiful. I’m probably the only person in Chicagoland hoping for another snow – I want to go to Chicago Botanic Gardens and take a picture to enter.
Photo by Colin Michaelis
They even make it easy for us by providing a staff photographer for a free monthly photo walk on the first Saturday of each month. Photo walk participants meet at the Alsdorf Auditorium at 9 a.m. for a brief talk, and then tour the Garden to take pictures of what’s in bloom. Pictures taken by photo walk participants are posted on SmugMug and most of those were suitable for downloading as a desktop wallpaper.
Photo by Fernand Baros
For now, I am happily viewing entries from each of the 4 contests – spring, summer, and fall of 2011, plus the current entries for winter 2012. Some, like this hawk by Fernand Baros, are sharp enough for a desktop wallpaper. I don’t know that I can use it as as a wallpaper though. Its so realistic, I’m afraid he might eat my sweet new wireless mouse.
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