The Art of Bonsai Project

This thread is for discussing the feature gallery "Bonsai Today / Art of Bonsai Photo Contest - Judging Results"
http://www.artofbonsai.org/galleries/winners.php

Heartiest congratulations to all who won, and also to all who entered. It was a grand array of bonsai images.
I remember when all the entries were in, and the contest was closed. I was looking through the professional category and when I saw the entries of Walter and Budi, a famous line from the Dante Alighieri epic poem,"The Divine Comedy" came to mind: "Abandon hope all ye who enter here". Gentlemen, you have raised the bar, and we must all reach higher.
Very Sincerely
Mike

...and congratulations to you, Mike, for winning the Landscape/Penjing category. Your rock planting was spectacular.
Attila

Congratulations to the winners,nearwinners and
all participants.
The contest was filled with quality entries and I
enjoyed to see the works of very talented people.
Thank you also to AOB and Bonsai Today for making
it possible.
With my best wishes,
Dorothy Schmitz,Florida

Congratulations to all the winners and participants!
Nice specimens........and as Mike had said we must aim high to attain a certain level of standard. The accomplished artistes will of course keep influencing and motivating us with their wonderful work.....to create something of our own worth participating.
To Paul and the AoB guys..... since many near winners had lost by marginal points only, wouldn't it be nice to display their bonsai too, which will give us an opportunity to see their work too.
Another suggestion...........as the bonsai movement is spreading worldwide, can we know, from how many countries the 200+ entrees were from?
Shaukat

I agree! I've put together a gallery of my favorites, along with brief comments on each. Paul is in the process of putting together the html layout, and we'll post it shortly.

Good idea. I'll tally that tonight.
Best regards,
Carl

Each and every person that entered this contest is a winner in my mind.
It takes true courage to post your work for viewing by your peers and to do so in a venue that had submissions from some of the biggest names in bonsai plainly shows that this is a community of true professionals. I applaud you all.

I wasn't too surprised by the quality of the bonsai entered in the professional category, but I was outright amazed at the quality of submissions in the non-professional category! If some of these people turn professional before our next contest, I think we will be seeing some major upsets and Cinderella stories!

This contest has allowed me to see for the first time the work of many bonsaists from around the world. I have been inspired by it and I have learned from it, what else could a person ask for?

Once again, I wish to thank all of you who entered this contest, you all deserve admiration and praise.

Note to all the winners:
Please see the instructions at the bottom of this page http://www.artofbonsai.org/galleries/winners.php for claiming your prizes and having your winning entry published in Bonsai Today.

Will Heath

Shaukat,
Will Heath compiled some statistics about the contest and sent them my way.
We had 224 entries from 17 countries, with 28 entrants not specifying a country of origin. By country:
USA 106 entries
Germany 21 entries
Denmark 11 entries
Indonesia 8 entries
Czech Republic 7 entries
Brazil 7 entries
Australia 6 entries
India 5 entries
England 4 entries
Mexico 4 entries
Belgium 4 entries
Austria 4 entries
Portugal 3 entries
Italy 2 entries
Spain 2 entries
South Africa 1 entry
Puerto Rico 1 entry

This is a great turnout. Bonsai has become a truly worldwide art form, and I delight in the increasing internationalization of our own discussions of that art.
With my best regards,
Carl

Wow, what a great job.Thanks to all from AoB and Bonsai Today for organizing this superb competition. The staff at AoB are real web wizards and figured out a great way to run this event. My hats are off to you.
Speaking of hats off, throw mine into the rink for Walter's hat trick. Not only did he enter great trees but his photography skills bring out the best in the them. Good job.
And congratulations to the other winners. I'm humbled that my trees made it into the selection process

I heartily agree with Will, it takes courage to put your bonsai in front of so many critical eyes.
Judging was very difficult. In most cases after eliminating some very worthy bonsai for minor defects, I was still left with 7 or 8 in each category that I felt deserved to be chosen. I would let the decision sit for a few days and hope that some light would go off when I returned for another look. Finally, I just went with something like intuitive flashes (or something like that) and sadly eliminated trees that I really liked.
So thank you all for your patience and understanding and for making the contest a success. And stay posted for some future contests.

Oh... and hats off to Will and the folks at AoB for their hard work and lively spirit in making the contest a success.

There was work involved in this? I must say I thoroughly enjoyed looking at so many great entries and was honored to be part of the event. Everyone has reason to be extremely proud of their efforts. Great stuff that inspires world-wide!!!
Bonsai is great, isn't it?
John

Carl,
Thank you very much for putting up the pictures of the other entrants, which I really enjoyed seeing.
Your statistics on the participants from different countries was very helpful indeed. And I look forward to see entrees from additional countries next year. Thanks again for the inputs.
One question to the judges:
in the 'overall category', all the 3 winners were by Walter Pall whereas in the 'professional category' the 2nd place was Budi's Pemphis acidula and Walter's red Acer palmatum was 3rd. Is it by some mistake that Budi's tree was left out in the overall category? Would be happy to get the judges views on this point.
Regards,
Shaukat