Photo Competition August 2022 - Small but UGLY
I know that “ugly” is a very subjective concept and we could all disagree on exactly what constitutes ugly in the small world, BUT, a blue jumping spider could never be even close to ugly (William), neither could a beetle that looks like a bunny wabbit (William) or a well groomed ant (William). For future reference - this is ugly…
“Kissy Kissy” a dragonfly, up close
Another great month of entries and one I thought was going to be a real challenge to judge, until I saw the winner. And that was that. But before we get to that, I would like to introduce you to the six honorable mentions/runners-up. They are presented in ascending order based on my mysterious and overly complex scoring system.
Special nod to Steve’s teabag! That was too funny - I was already reaching for my field guides to figure out what kind of bug this was (Steve 1 : Allan nil). There were some other very ugly critters that lost a point or two for various offenses from poorly groomed hair to unretouched artifact. The usual stuff.
Three images tied for 4th place with the same composite score of 8.5…
Robert Storrost’s (somewhat ugly) silverfish critter - 8.5
Toothed hypostome - a tick - 8.5
Gordon Greens (only slightly) ugly scorpionfly - 8.5
There were a pair of thrid place ties …
Bill Wheeler’s (sea salt encrusted pointy headed) stink bug - 9
Job3141592 submitted this fantastic image of a beetle rotting (see below)
From a purely aesthetic point of view, this rotting beetle was my favorite image of the month. Despite a couple of minor technical issues, this is a very powerful image and the color palette is near perfect. This is a clever and powerful image - Kudos to Job3141592!
All alone in second place with 9.0 points this lovely shot…
Robert Storrost’s ugly red milkweed beetle
But with his third entry of the month, Robert Storrost must also walk away with the bragging rights for this stunningly ugly spider…
Brilliantly, hysterically, and perfectly hideous, Attila-the-spider (see below)
Congratulations Robert! This is a breathtakingly ugly creature and you have managed to make it even more so with your clever framing and excellent choice of lighting - this one actually made me gasp out loud with its purely malevolent stare and bizarre haircut. No other entry stood a chance after I set eyes on this Lovecraftian horror. This one will be showing up in a nightmare before long!
Congratulations to everyone who entered last month, some very nice images and some very nice chuckles. Next month it is back to beauty and a difficult challenge to test you all The theme for September 2022 is…
But I will accept related organisms, like lichens and slime molds. A few examples of things that will not be acceptable fungus picture entries would be sports cars, hamburgers, televisions, skin disorders (non-fungal), and shopping carts. If you are still unsure whether or not your entry will count, check with my secretary.
Thanks everyone, for making this such a fun and interesting competition. Now why don’t each of you apply some gentle pressure to one or two of the other folks you know to submit a fungus picture as well. If we can get some more people getting into the spirit of things, I can start giving out some prizes. I can’t go to a sponsor to get some decent prizes donated without some more folks getting involved. My goal is 50 people submitting one or more images in that month - every month we can get 50 folks to throw in an entry, I promise there will be a prize!