Our photo contributor Jacky Parker has taken top honours in the RHS Photographic Competition 2008, sponsored by Medici, and was named RHS Photographer of the Year, winning first prize in the Plant Portrait Category.

Jacky’s striking image of Rudbeckia hirta ‘Marmalade’, was selected from over 4,500 entries, from across the UK and around the world. Click the winning image above to go through to the image page on Fotoviva.

This year’s judges included renowned garden photographer, Tim Sandall, Deputy Editor of The Garden, Chris Young and television gardener and lecturer, Matt James.Assessing the entrants’ technical ability and the composition of the photographs, all the judges were impressed by the standard and quality of this year’s entries. Matt James explains, “To receive 4,500 entries completely exceeded our expectations. It just proves the enthusiasm people have for their gardens and gardening. Every picture we received had something to offer and it was incredibly hard to choose the final 18 prize winning images.”

Here is the link to the RHS website RHS Photographic Competition 2008.

Our specialist flower photographer Jacky Parker has just had her wonderful ‘Rain Bells‘ image awarded 1st prize in the Plant Portrait category of the prestigous Royal Hoticultural Society Photography Competition. It took the panel of judges two days to decide on the 19 winning photographs in the six competition categories but Jacky’s beautiful shot deservedly came through on top.

The competition is sponsored by the Medici Gallery in London, where it will be on display in the middle of January 2008 for one week and also in the RHS gardens Wisley spring through to autumn next year.

You can find the winning photo in our Floral Category and it is available to buy as a gallery wrapped canvas picture, acrylic mount or ready to frame fine art poster print.

Congratulations to Jacky!

As the Fotoviva online gallery progresses, we invite new photographers to submit their artwork and we are very happy to announce Jacky parker as the newest contributor to our team. We are sure you will be amazed at some of her lovely photographic work and her images will compliment our existing image collections perfectly.

Jacky Parker lives in Buckinghamshire and discovered her passion for plant and flower photography whilst studying for the Royal Horticultural Societies Diploma in horticulture three years ago. After seeing some of her photographic images we knew she would be perfect for the Fotoviva Art Prints image collections, and we were very happy when she agreed to join the Fotoviva photography team. Currently she uses a Nikon D200 and macro 105mm lens for close up work and certainly has an eye for that perfect shot.

You can find her first print editions in our Flower Pictures section. Plenty more of her superb pictures will be uploaded in the coming weeks so please check back regularly. Until then, here is a selection of more of her print work, just click the images to find more information or to purchase a print. Each image can be bought on canvas, poster or acrylic and they are offered in a range of sizes to suit your wall space.