Protea Perfect 2019

Essence Of The Dragon is a photo competition hosted by Vertical Endeavour featuring images of the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains - showcasing their splendour & unique character, towards better recognition of their worth & enhanced enjoyment of those who explore them.

Vertical Endeavour has hosted these photo competitions since 2010. Visit our photo gallery to see all the amazing shots of the Drakensberg that have been collected during this time.

This is the official thread for Protea Perfect, which will run during the first half of 2019.

General rules and criteria that govern the competition should also be noted. Up to three entries are allowed by the same person.

Theme: Protea Perfect
Criteria: Entries should feature any of the various protea species growing in the Maloti-Drakensberg region
Album for submissions: www.vertical-endeavour.com/gallery/drakensberg/essence-of-the-dragon/protea-perfect-2019.html (entries must be posted on this thread and in the gallery with a proper
title and description)
Start date: immediate
Last submission date: 16 September 2019
Last voting date: 27 September 2019

My submission is called Perfection in Pink:
Gallery link

This Protea was shot in the Mlambonja valley on the way up Mashai Pass in the Southern Berg. I am no expert but I think it is a Protea dracomontana (Drakensberg Sugarbush) which is also a very short plant in comparison to the other species.

The intricate details and colours in this flower seem perfect in their way!

@AdrianT: thank you for your comments. Constructive feedback is always welcomed and taken into consideration. I'm open to looking at ways to make this easier and simpler for people. Some of the rules evolved over time and they were only formalised once we had real prizes up for the grabs, with the intention of keeping the process consistent and transparent. In several cases we have helped people with their submissions so that they fit in with the rules and guidelines, and in rounds where there are no real prizes things are more relaxed in that respect.

I have sent you a PM providing you with my email address, please feel free to send me specific ideas you may have.

From the forum discussions at the close of the 2018 rounds, we came up with the idea that bi-annual rounds should have more challenging themes, but no actual prizes. The two annual categories have much easier criteria, and those do have real prizes this year - we hope this gives many members the chance to win the prizes. The theme of this particular round might be one of those themes that proves a little harder to get submissions for. I'm hoping we can keep the submission period open to obtain a reasonable number of entries. Widening the criteria might be an option if need be. We could also re-shape it into a general Maloti-Drakensberg flower category. I'm very happy if members of the site want to shape and grow content on mountains other than the Maloti-Drakensberg and am open to this. It may be better to have a totally fresh round for this though.

Thank you to all who have submitted entries. We do have 5 entries which is sufficient, but I felt it may be beneficial to extend the submissions deadline to Monday the 16th of September. So if anyone else has a photo they would still like to submit, here is your chance!

Entries are closed and voting is open until Friday 27 September, when the winner will be announced. In order to vote click on the following link, which is the latest entry and thus is listed first in the gallery:
www.vertical-endeavour.com/gallery/drakensberg/essence-of-the-dragon/protea-perfect-2019/scarlett-o-hara-1664.html
Give each image a rating, clicking on "Next" to get to the following image.

In the screen-shot below you can see that you give the rating near the bottom of the page (note this was a screen shot from a previous round). If you move your mouse pointer over the stars you can give it a rating by clicking on one of the stars(1 star being the lowest rating, 5 stars being the highest). The actual rating result of the image is viewed near the top. If you move your mouse pointer over those stars you will see the exact score and how many times the image was rated.

Remember:
- the rating result is weighted (it takes into account the number of ratings as well as the average)
- you cannot rate an image more than once
- you cannot rate your own image
- you should rate all the images for the competition (not just your favourite one), the more each image is rated, the better

And the results are:
Scarlett O'Hara by Serious tribe 3.84 (6 votes)
Bold Perfection by Stekhorn 3.51 (6 votes)
Perfect in the Rain by Stekhorn 3.84 (6 votes)
Proudly Perfect by Sterkhorn 4.00 (6 votes)
Perfection in Pink by intrepid 3.37 (5 votes)

So the winner is Proudly Perfect. Congratulations to Sterkhorn!


Thank you to everyone for another round in our photo competitions which are nearing their 10th consecutive year of existence. Sometimes the themes are a little challenging (as this one appears to have been), but we always seem to manage to get great, quality entries, and my hope is always that these rounds remain fun and yet challenge everyone to look at the Berg through different lenses (pun intended!).