Images: Photo contest finalists
Nick Lange, and his friend, Juddon Carter, shoot baskets in Round Lake as Lange goes up for a layup.
Linda Kutzora of Round Lake
Adelie penguins stand on the western peninsula of Antarctica last month with the ARSV Laurence M. Gould, one of the U.S. Antarctic Program research vessels in the background.
Amy Westman of Libertyville
A pelican rests on a post with the sun setting on the horizon at the Punta Rassa pointÊby Fort Myers, Florida in February. TheÊbridge on the left is the Sanibel-Captiva Bridge.
Frank Schachelmayer of Wauconda
A still life of period pieces duringÊa re-enactment of the 1900 American Chautauqua at Midway Village in Rockford last month.
Pat Turner of Arlington Heights
A cliff rose overlooking Oia in Santorini, Greece, in March.
Lauren Angotti of Arlington Heights
Fireworks explode in the night sky during the grand finale of the fireworks display at Glencoe Beach during the Fourth of July. Using a tripod, the camera was set on Bulb exposure mode for about 13 seconds with aperture 14 and ISO 100 to capture thewhole burst.
Samuel Adler of Buffalo Grove
This photo was taken during the Sleepy Hollow fireworks on July Fourth. Being active duty military and having served in Afghanistan for a year, I couldnt think of a greater time than celebrating Independence Day close to home. ÊI chose this image because of the colors — red, white and blue.
Steven Schuldt of Hampshire
This photo was taken before the 4th of July. I wanted to teach my grandchildren that in order to have a healthy crop of corn, it needs to be knee high by the 4th of July. My grandson, Jason, stood in the corn, and indeed it was knee high.
Elsie McConnell of Batavia
It looks beautiful and peaceful now, but cant you just imagine what it would be like to walk to this old schoolhouse west of Jamestown, North Dakota in the middle of January!
Tom Nicol of Geneva
This is a photo of the carnival at the annual Glendale Heights Fest. I experimented with the exposure times on shutter priority mode so that I could get various levels of motion blur on the two rides. I framed the photo so that I could get one ride in front of the other without them looking cluttered.
Angela Cichosz of Carol Stream
An unbelievable amounts of spiders in East Dundee.
Cynthia Huntowski of Bensenville