Daily Herald photo contest winners for January 2026

The beauty of nature shines through in the images captured by our top finishers in January’s amateur photo contest

Tony Filippo’s entry tops this month’s photo contest with an image of Thor’s Hammer at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. The Libertyville resident writes, “A pre-dawn walk down the Navajo Loop trail into the Bryce amphitheater allowed us to catch the rising sun lighting up the formation known as Thor's Hammer.”

Barry Krzepicki spotted this unusual formation on a football field near his backyard. The turkey vultures remained there for about an hour and appeared to be searching for lunch. The Hoffman Estates resident, whose photo takes second place, writes, “Needless to say, I was pretty shocked to see these amazing birds with enormous wingspans right behind my house.”

In third place is Duane Perkinson of St. Charles, who spotted a fall sunset that appeared to be peeking through a tree in a local park.

Patty Zawis takes fourth place with a wintry view of her backyard, while thinking of spring. The Roselle resident writes, “An optimistic thought is it is only a little over a month until the first day of spring on March 20! Let the countdown begin!”

Contest rules

The Daily Herald invites readers to submit their own photos to our “Your Images” amateur photo contest.

Once a month, we showcase entries that feature one first-place winner and three runners-up. The contest is open to everyone in the Daily Herald readership area.

• To submit a photo of your own for consideration, email it in .jpg format at highest quality possible to yourimages@dailyherald.com. Please remove any date stamps on the photo.

• Include your name, mailing address and phone number, plus a detailed description of your photo. Remember to include a sentence or two on what you like about it and your hometown.

• One photo a week per photographer, but enter as many weeks as you’d like.

• First-place winners will receive prizes alternating between The Great Frame Up in Schaumburg and PJ’s Camera in Glen Ellyn.