Images: Photo Contest Finalists
This photo was taken while visiting Matthiessen State Park at 6:30 a.m. It was just me sharing the view with a swarm of mosqitos. The beauty was worth all the bites.
Tony Pocewicz of Carpentersville
On a recent motorcycle trip out west, I stumbled over this lone tree along North Dakota route 36 west of Jamestown. Theres just something about the simplicity of the scene and the beauty of the sky that appeals to me. It was one of very few days it wasnt raining.
Tom Nicole of Geneva
Water pools at the end of the pedal on a lily after a brief watering last week in Fox Lake.
Shawntell Marak of Fox Lake
A young child waves at Maasai warriors as they hike in Tanzania, Africa.
Tara Gille of Mundelein
A western lowland gorilla plays with the paper and eventually wraps it around its shoulders giving the appearance of wearing a robe at the Brookfield Zoos Tropic World last year.
Bill Merrick of Elk Grove Village
Peggy´s Cove in Canada is a picturesque place in April 2007.
Roy Lobenhofer of Mount Prospect
A foggy morning at a vineyard in Oregon.
Liz Buckley of Mundelein
A display featuring golden lamps in Anthropologies shop in Woodfield Mall.
Julie Lynn Ivens of Palatine
I was in Holland Michigan last week and walked by a lily pond several times a day. Each time I would take a photo with my Nikon Coolpix, but was not satisfied until a mostly cloudy day. The photo almost looks like an impressionistic painting. I love the slight reflection of the clouds.
Jim Plueddemann of West Chicago
This is after a new snowfall out here in beautiful Telluride, CO with its spectacular sunsets.
Cathy Godfrey of Wheaton
This photo was taken at the Carol Stream carnival 2011. I cropped the sides of the photo down to make it a vertical photo so the main focus would be the ride itself and not the other distractions in the background. I used a tripod and put my camera on shutter priority mode to capture this long exposure shot, which was a 4 second exposure at ISO-100. I photographed most of the rides on long exposure mode, but I liked this photo the most because of the color and composition.
Angela Cichosz of Carol Stream