The Annual Lone Tree Library Exhibition was well received this year.  We had so many entries they filled the walls, a hallway and the community room!  It was exciting to see the images as they arrived, all framed and looking so good!

The Douglas County Library Staff reviewed all the images and voted for their two favorites.  At the end of the show, the votes were tallied and the winners are:

Santiago Moncayo with his Old Barn in Winter

Santiago Moncayo's Old Barn in Winter

Santiago tells the story behind this photo:

We had a big snow storm during the night of Sunday February 21, 2010. No wind…. just snow, lots of snow…. Early Monday I decided to go to Lookout Mountain to take some pictures. Blue sky, very quiet morning…. cold and perfect… I drove on CO 470 to find I 70 but like one mile before the intersection there was a traffic jam because of the weather, and the cars had to stop….. I looked to the west and there it was this scene… Rolled down the window and shoot this pic. This picture is one of my favorites.

Elane Comeaux's image of Grand Lake

 

 

Elane Comeaux’s image of Grand Lake took second place.

Here’s what Elane has to say about her capture:

The image seen here was taken at Grand Lake, Co.  It was a cold February morning and I was looking for a good sunrise shot in the area.  As I drove into town and down to the park, I saw that there was a real nice fog coming up off of the lake.  I made my way to several spots and took a few pictures here and there, but wanted a more interesting composition.  Driving over Rainbow Bridge, I found the spot I was looking for.  There aren’t many folks out at 6am on a Saturday morning, so parked in the middle of the bridge and unpacked my gear.  I had to get creative with the camera and tripod to position it between the support beams of the bridge to capture the angle I wanted; all the while fighting that fear of dropping everything in the lake.  Once I found the right spot, I started to experiment with my settings to get the image just right.  As the sun started to rise, I had to continuously make adjustments to compensate for its intense light to the left of the image.  But I also noticed that it gave a really nice, warm glow to the fog on the lake, which was very unique.  I’m not sure how many different versions of the same picture I took, changing from landscape to portrait and various degrees of exposure.  It was one of those mornings where being in the right place at the right time just pays off.

It’s one of my favorite images to date and most popular.  It was recently voted as a semi-finalist in the Smithsonian Channel’s Aerial America Photo Contest and drew second place in the Lone Tree Library Photography Show.