DuPage photo contest winner
The power of a still image can be magical.
Almost any picture can be viewed on countless levels and provoke reactions and memories every bit as varied as the people who view it.
Take the winning entry in this month's Photo Finish contest.
When Bill Wiedel of Glendale Heights snapped the image of a neighbor girl digging down to his mailbox from atop a snowdrift after last month's blizzard, he thought it was an interesting enough shot to e-mail off to his three grown children.
He didn't think much more about it until he started hearing back from his kids.
“They told me, ‘God, you've got to do something with it,'” he says.
Happily, he submitted it to our contest. The truth is, it really is a cool shot of a little girl, the top of a mailbox post, a small American flag and lots and lots of snow.
But for DuPage Photo Director Scott Sanders, who helps pick our monthly winners, it was something more. It triggered a memory of another image, one you may have seen on TV or hanging in a museum or gallery.
It's a picture of astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin. The date is July 20, 1969, and he's standing on the uneven surface of the moon near his lunar lander and an American flag.
Two pictures. Two lone figures. Two desolate landscapes. Two unlikely settings for Old Glory.
Wiedel never imagined the comparison, but it was enough for him to capture first place in our contest and a $50 gift certificate from PJ's Camera, 662 Roosevelt Road, Glen Ellyn.
A retired operating engineer, Wiedel says he pursues photography “very casually.”
He entered a picture in our contest a few years ago of a Cooper's hawk on what turned out to be a failed hunt, but didn't try again until he glanced outside last month and saw 10-year-old Sydney Novak out in the snow that had drifted to roughly 4 feet at his mailbox.
“I bet you're having a good time,” he told her, and then snapped a couple quick shots with his Canon A1100 digital camera.
Wiedel, 68, says he's been shooting digital for years. For one thing, he says, it makes it easier to send his pictures to his children. Even better, he says, “you can put your stuff into a computer and fool with it.”
He says he already has his shooting eye firmly focused on his next target: a house near Cantigny Park in Wheaton that has a weather vane shaped like a P-51 Mustang fighter from World War II.
About our contest
Each week our Neighbor section includes at least one entry to our Photo Finish photography contest. Our photo staff picks one overall monthly winner to receive a prize. If you would like to submit a photo, e-mail it in .jpg format with at least 300 dpi resolution to ssanders@dqailyherald.com. Include your name, address and phone number.