BSBI Photographic Competition 2023
The 2023 competition will have two categories, Plants and People and Plants in the Landscape.
Full competition rules can be read here. The closing date for submissions is Friday 20 October 2023.
BSBI Photographic Competition 2022
The four categories in 2022 were Flowers in the four seasons: winter, spring, summer & autumn. Our winners were Alwyn Craven, for their picture of Hogweed, and Gillian Elsom, with three fantastic photos of Wood-sorrel, Fly Orchid & Autumn Lady's-tresses. Winners were chosen by popular vote at the Scottish Botanists' Conference.
Thanks go to Summerfield Books for their continued support for the competition.
BSBI Photographic Competition on flickr
The photographs look great on screen - scroll through all the photographs for this year and all previous years on the BSBI flickr account!
BSBI Photographic Competition 2021
We had three winners in 2021; one in the Native category - Olesya Smart with her stunning Moss Campion (Silene acaulis) in Ross photograph and two joint winners in the Alien category: Roy Sexton with Pitcherplant (Sarracenia purpurea) on Rannoch Moor and Liz Downey's Seaside Daisy (Erigeron glaucus), Portland, who both received the same number of votes at the Scottish Botanists' Conference.
We are grateful to our Competition sponsors, Summerfield Books.
BSBI Photographic Competition 2020
The winners of the 2020 BSBI Photographic Competition were ‘Broad-leaved Willowherb (Epilobium montanum), Fife’ in the Native category by Alison Davies and ‘Canary Grass (Phalaris canariensis) at Port William, Wigtownshire’ in the Alien category by Alan Wake.
BSBI Photographic Competition 2019
Thank you to all those who entered the 2019 BSBI Photographic Competition. Thirty members contributed a total of 80 entries: 51 in the Native category and 29 in the Alien category. Natalie Harmsworth, the competition organiser, produced a dazzling display of the photographs at the Scottish Botanists’ Conference in Edinburgh in November 2019, where the two winning images were chosen by popular vote.
The winner in the Native category entitled “Marsh Cinquefoil (Comarum palustris) Millport” was by Heather Kelly. And the winner in the Alien category, entitled “Borage (Borago officinalis), Colyton”, was by Boots Hackman. Congratulations to both Boots and Heather for their winning images, but a special ‘well-done!’ to Heather as this is the third year in a row that she has won! The prizes are book tokens very kindly supplied by BSBI / Summerfield Books
BSBI Photographic Competition 2018
The winner in the Plants & People 2018 category was entitled “Learning from Mum - Hannah's meadow, Teesdale” by Heather Kelly. And the winner in the Plants & Pollinator category was entitled “Argogorytes wasp on Fly Orchid (Ophyrs insectifera), Wakerley Wood, Northamptonshire” by Pete Stroh.
Thirty-two members contributed a total of 74 entries 27 in the first category and 47 in the second. Natalie Harmsworth, the competition organiser, did a great job in printing and mounting the photographs on six A1 sheets. They formed a dazzling display at the Scottish Botanists Conference in Edinburgh in November 2018, where the two winning images were chosen by popular vote.
Unfortunately, we were unable to mount the Photographic Competition display at the Annual Exhibition Meeting at Ormskirk this year.
We are very grateful to Summerfield Books who provided the prizes, and to Natalie Harmsworth for organising the competition and preparing the fantastic display of photographs.
BSBI Photographic Competition 2017
The winners of the 2017 BSBI Photographic Competition were Chris Jeffree whose photograph of Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) at Lindisfarne was the most popular in the ‘Archaeophyte’ category and Heather Kelly whose photograph of Greater Knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa) on the Fife coast won the ‘Plants in the Landscape’ category.
Forty-two members contributed a total of 117 entries – 40 in the ‘Archaeophyte’ category and 77 in the ‘Plants in the Landscape’ category. Natalie Harmsworth, the competition organiser, did a great job in printing and mounting the photographs on eight A1 sheets. They formed a dazzling display that was first mounted at the Scottish Annual Meeting in Edinburgh in November 2017, where the winning images were chosen by a popular vote. The display was also mounted at the BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting at the Natural History Museum in London at the end of November where it was also much admired. For a bit of fun, we invited folk at the AEM to vote for their favourites, and by a remarkable co-incidence they chose exactly the same two photographs that were the most popular in Scotland. (Unlike last year when the AEM voted for two completely different images.)
The winners each received a book token kindly donated by Summerfield Books.
BSBI Photographic Competition 2016
In total, 112 entries were submitted to the BSBI Photographic Competition 2016 in two categories: 1) Rare species and 2) Common species.
The winner of the ‘Rare Species’ category was Norwegian Mugwort (Artemisia norvegica) on Cul Mor by Simon Harrap.
The winner of the ‘Common Species’ category was Tall Bog Sedge (Carex magellanica) in Mid-Perthshire by Bill Boyd.
BSBI Photographic Competition 2015
In 2015, the four categories were Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
The winners were:
Spring: Great Horsetail Equisetum telmateia at Pease Dean Woods by Sarah Eno.
Summer: "Hanging around" by Cathy McKirdy.
Autumn: Spear Thistle Cirsium vulgare seedhead by Ian Strachan.
Winter: Teasel Dipsacus fullonum, Dinnet, by Ian Francis.
