And the winner is...

A couple things before I announce the winner.

First, I LOVED looking at all the images that were uploaded, trust me when I say I looked at every single image and they were outstanding. Because of all the great stuff that was uploaded I think all future contests will include folks uploading (at least) one image.

Second, this contest was truly random. The name of each person who entered was dropped into a program called "The Hat" and it was used to randomly pick the winners name.

I just don't want folks to think that they didn't win because their mage "wasn't up to snuff" because nothing could be further from the truth. The one thing I DON'T like about contests like this is that I can't award prizes to everyone who entered.

I strongly recommend that everyone go take a look at the images that have been uploaded to our Flickr group, you'll see some real good stuff.

Now, drum roll please.... our winner is... JW Stovall!

Congratulations. If you send me an email with your snail mail address I will get your prize right out to you.

Below are a few of the images he entered and be sure to check out his blog and website to see more of his work.

Our next contest will be announced very soon, as we have some really good stuff to give away.

(click on any image to view larger and in a new window)

loving nature

Dragonfly

Dragonflies spend most of their lives in the larva stage (up to three years, depending on the species). The adult, winged stage only lasts a few weeks. Mating is the primary reason for their winged stage. So when you see a winged dragonfly, you know it's toward the end of its lifespan. Sad but true.

Though you can't see them all with the naked eye, the compound eyes of the dragonfly can contain thousands of tiny lenses. Because of their large, multifaceted eyes, the adult dragonfly can see nearly 360 degrees around it at all times.

Just 36 hours left...

Before the end of the world... no wait, that's not it... photo contest, that's it, just 36 hours left before the end of our September contest.

The winner will be announced on Friday (10/1).

To enter all you need do is leave a comment on any post and upload an image to our Flickr group (contest details here and joining Flickr here).

Below are more images uploaded by our talented readers and fellow Flickr group members.

(clicking on any image below will open it larger and in a new window.)

Lightening

Camera: Nikon Coolpix P80
Shutter Speed 8sec
Aperture f/3.5
Location: Sanpada, Navi Mumbai,India

Praying Mantis

photography by Thomas Philip

Did u know?
A Common name for the order is "Praying mantises", bcoz of its typical "prayer-like" stance.In Europe, the name "praying mantis" refers to Mantis religiosa.and  the most  closest relatives of mantises are the  termites and cockroaches. They are sometimes confused with stick/leaf insects and other elongated insects such as grasshoppers and crickets.An interesting fact about this insect is that, while they are mating, the female mantis eats the males mantis head.The female praying mantis "sexual predator or misunderstood"? still no one knows why?it maybe because of the protein in the male body that helps the eggs to develop. Praying mantis have excellent eye sight and they can view objects till 18meters.

Playing with content aware fill...

I was looking at an image shot with a point and shoot camera during our trip to Pennsylvania Dutch Country and thought "this would not suck as much of I cleaned it up a bit".

Again, it was taken with a point and shoot so there was a limited amount of pixels to play with so please be kind.

Below is the finished image, no fancy editing, for the things I wanted to remove I simply selected the item, hit the "Delete" key and then hit okay in the content aware dialog box. Only once did I "un-do" then "re-do" on one of the edits.


Here is the original image, see if you can find all of the things I removed. (kinda like a Where's Waldo hunt).


If you get tired of looking or just want to see the image with all of the items that have removed circled, follow this link.

(click on either image to open larger and in a new window)