Daily Herald photo contest finalists
As the winter sun begins to settle below the horizon, the frosty snow white moon begins to take its place above the twisting iron sculptures at the Morton Arboretum.
Terry Eggert of Glen Ellyn
This was the first snowfall this year in Itasca and my daughter convinced me to go for a walk that morning. Everything was so clean and peaceful from the freshly-fallen snow.
Eileen Schultz of Itasca
Photo of a clock hanging off her screen porch.
Laura Timko of Geneva
This photo was taken on a rural country road in Hampshire, Kane County on a December morning. I like the contrast of dark shades and light shades in the photo.
Debbie Gross of Hampshire
This photo was taken of my oldest three of five grandkids playing and hiding in a large backyard pile of leaves at my daughterÂ’s home in Simpsonville, S.C. I took my kids and grandkids from Illinois to visit their sister and her family for Thanksgiving.
Daniel Janssen of Elgin
A cardinal rests on a branch as a light snow falls on Christmas Eve at the Nature Center in Wheeling.
Mike Zarnek of Mount Prospect
The reflection of the trees moves in the waves of the water in the fountain in the English Garden at the Chicago Botanic Gardens last summer.
Jeff Ivens of Palatine
A bush is encased in ice outside a home in Des Plaines after the first hard freeze this year in the beginning of December.
Butch Law of Des Plaines
A deer stands in the snow in a back yard of a house in Green Oaks.
Grayson Ryan of Green Oaks
A Siberian cat named Nikita watches a ladybug on the window at a Grayslake home.
Debbie Mumm of Grayslake
A hot air balloon ride magically rises from the sand at dawn in Namibia in the Sand Dune Sea.
Judy Sugarman of Vernon Hills