Dominion Energy GardenFest of Lights Instagram Contest
Dominion Energy GardenFest of Lights has come to a close for the season and that means its time to announce the winner of the GardenFest Instagram Contest!
Looking through your submissions, we couldn’t help but smile. This year’s submissions were vibrant, beautiful and full of energy. Some of you showed off this year’s theme, Naturally Ever After: Stories in Lights, while others submitted photos of their family exploring the garden hand-in-hand. Who could resist the photos you submitted of your adorable fur-babies glowing in the lights from our GardenFest for Fidos nights? A few of you even braved the freezing temperatures to capture gorgeous shots of the snowy days in December (before we closed). Thank you to everyone who submitted photos this season — narrowing our Instagram contest finalists down to 16 was not easy with so many great photos to choose from!
Instagram Contest Finalists:
Congratulations to our GardenFest Instagram Contest finalists (listed from left to right and top to bottom) — @our21stcenturyodyssey, @jen_snoddy, @dabbs.a, @heatheronthego,
@sherip99, @kreese143, @a.terr, @sonofafritz, @garritos, @geoffgreene, @fotoschmotogyrl, @marthaann_artandlife, @falco_kapowski, @francoisthefrenchbulldog, @lauraflora63, @mattbruning.
Congratulations to Garden Member Geoff Greene, our first place GardenFest Instagram contest winner.
We judged the photos on creativity, fun and photographic composition. This year’s winner exemplified all of these qualities and also showed off one of our favorite stories from GardenFest…can you guess who won?
Congratulations to Geoff Greene for the fantastic photo of his daughter underneath our real-life interpretation of Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree.
Greene and his family have been Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden members for several years and he said going to GardenFest is one of the highlights of the season for them.
“We are continually amazed at the GardenFest display and have a great deal of fun exploring the garden to see what new things there are to discover,” Greene said. “We really enjoyed the children’s story theme this year since it ties into so many of the stories we’ve been reading her lately.”
For second place, we couldn’t pick just one winner — so we picked two instead. Congratulations to both David Fritzson, whose photo of his brother with his brother’s girlfriend underneath the “peacock tail” light tunnel left us in awe, and Alex Terry for capturing the starry-eyed look of wonder that GardenFest visitors, young and old, experience.
GardenFest has been a yearly tradition for Terry and his family, as well, but this year was even more special because he was able to bring his almost 1-year-old son for the first time.
“Ever since he was born he has been mesmerized by lights. So, you can imagine his excitement when we walked into the gardens,” Terry said.
“We will be back next year and many more years to come,” said Alex Terry, second place winner of the #GardenFest Instagram Contest. This year was his son’s first year visiting GardenFest and he loved all of the lights! Image by Alex Terry.
David Fritzson took many pictures at GardenFest, but this one, of his brother and his brother’s girlfriend standing under the lighted archway, was particularly special. Image by David Fritzson.
Like Terry’s son, our other second place winner, David Fritzson, was also a first-time visitor to GardenFest.
Fritzson and his brother live in Northern Virginia while his brother’s girlfriend’s family lives in Newport News. To celebrate the holidays, the two families wanted to find an interesting central location to meet and Lewis Ginter turned out to be the perfect spot. The two families enjoyed a dinner at the Robins Tea House and then spent hours walking around and taking in the light displays.
“When I saw my brother and his girlfriend together, I knew I had to take photos of the two of them, as it was the one night they were together during the holidays,” Fritzson said. “The two of them consistently go on adventures together and I feel fortunate to have a venue like this to represent what lies ahead for them in their bright futures.”
Congratulations to our #GardenFest Instagram Contest winners and many thanks to all of our runner-ups and contestants for sharing your photos and memories with us!
Geoff Greene, our first place winner will receive…
- A Supernova family membership to the Science Museum of Virginia including admission for two adults and children under 18 in the household free access to exhibitions and daily live science programs, plus discounted rates for all Dome Features in the 76-foot Dome Theater. Also included: four guest passes for both the exhibits and the Dome.
- A family four-pack of tickets to the Science Museum of Virginia including access to three floors of interactive and hands-on exhibitions and our daily live science programs.
- Tickets for 12 to come back and enjoy the Garden during the day, passes are good for one year, so come in the spring, summer or fall with 11 of your closest friends. Or come back to see Butterflies LIVE!
Second prize winners received a family 4-pack of passes to return to the Garden with family or friends.
We also want to share with you a few of our favorites video submissions from this year. Enjoy!