One of the photo contests I often enter each year is targeted at black and white images. This year. I entered the first two images in this blog.  In my mind, the odds of winning a photo contest are slightly better than winning the lottery.  First of all, is number of images one is competing against ... in this case, there were over 8,000.  The next factor is the judges and their unknown likes and dislikes. And, lastly, the photo itself ... is it interesting, well composed, unique, etc?  

This year I entered the first two images in this post to the contest. They were both considered as "nominees" ... meaning they were included in the final selection of the judges. I think of this as the "Close but no Cigars" category!

Do you remember this image? It was featured in a post I did about a year ago of images taken in San Antonio. Its a picture of some old buildings reflected in one of San Antonio's canals. The cool thing about this image is that it was taken with an iPhone 6s.  It  is proof that you don't need a high-end camera to take a good picture ... the operator, more often than not, is more important than the equipment.

This image was also a "nominee". It is one of my all time favorite images of a thousand (or more) snow geese taking flight. It was  NOT taken with an iphone.

But the next two images were! 

Can you figure out what this is? Here's a hint ... it was taken at a restaurant.

And, lastly, another iPhone image ... balloons outside the entrance of a newly opened store in a mall.  To me, its a happy picture!

Well that's it for this post. And, thank you for looking ... a photo isn't worth much without an audience of some sort!!!

Oh, once last thing ... my friend Annie Katz got an outstanding achievement award in the wildlife category in this contest. You can find her image (and all the rest) here: http://www.thespiderawards.com/12gala/index.php

Bye for now,

Adam