See the winning images from our weekly photo contest
I took this photo of the Cicero BNSF rail yard for a research project for my thesis at Harvard. The Chicago skyline is visible in the background.
CHRIS BENNETT of Naperville
I took this photo of our black lab, Bulldozer, after he devoured a five pound bag of flour.
Cindy Renner of Geneva
This picture was taken this summer in NYC at one of the Sept. 11 memorial reflecting pools. There were so many people like this young man, pensive and reflective standing around this amazing memorial.
Wendy Gruber of St. Charles
A mother swan and her cygnets swim on Channel Lake in Antioch on June 6.
Jim Huskey of Libertyville
Two chairs are just beyond the outdoor tasting patio and are available for relaxing and enjoying the beautiful view of the vineyards at Trump Winery in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Julie Fabrizius of Arlington Heights
Three-year-old Avery Burt hugs her one-year-old brother, Carter, at their home in a true expression of love.
Doug Fulford of Inverness
Matt Trush, 17, enjoys the sunset in Ephraim, Wisconsin in Door County in June 2015.
Karen Trush of Third Lake
It is a colorful, vibrant sky as the sun sets over Diamond Lake.
Sue Matsunaga of Mundelein
Jimmy Tinaglia creates a giant spray as he enjoys water skiing while the sun sets in Princeton, Wis. over the 4th of July weekend.
Christine M. Solum of Arlington Heights
I took this photo of a butterfly as it perched on a flower in my garden.
Lora Price, of West Chicago
This started out as an experiment. The camera was set on a tripod with a cable release, to open and close the stutter, in total darkness. With a 24 mm lens at F2.8 focus set to infinity, the shutter was held open for 2 minutes. This long exposure captured the stars and the house and the reflection. Not happy with the status quo I shot 4 more exposures 2 longer and 2 shorter in length. After loading these into the computer, I loaded all 5 exposures in to my HDR, High Dynamic Range, software and combined the 5 images which allows me to tweak the shadows, highlights, shadow highlights and contrast, color saturation and numerous other color adjustments to arrive at this. Time spent shooting 15-20 minutes, time spent post producing about 2 hours.
David Neesley of Naperville
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