Cactus Island

By Matt Young

Photograph by Alan Rice.
Photography Contest, Winner.

33 votes were cast for the 5 finalists. Mr. Rice’s splendid picture of Cactus Island won by a nose (or perhaps these days we should say by a wheel diameter) with 13 of those votes and therefore is the winner of the 2018 contest. He will be awarded an autographed copy of Why Evolution Works (and Creationism Fails) by Matt Young and Paul Strode. The runner-up, with 12 votes, was Mark Sturtevant’s photograph of American rubyspot damselflies; Mr. Rice's Sturtevant’s photograph will be displayed in 2 weeks.

Cactus Island
Isla Incahuasi (Casa del Inca), informally called "Cactus Island." The photographer writes, "The Isla Incahuasi sits near the center of the of the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, the world's largest salt flat. The predominant large cactus is Echinopsis atacamensis, which is native to Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. The Island is many kilometers from the nearest mainland and hosts an interesting subset of the local native vegetation. Despite its isolated location and scant rainfall, it is dramatically covered with abundant plant life."