The best of DCR's Point-and-Shoot Photo Contest

The votes are in for our January Point-and-Shoot Photo Contest, and we've put together a showcase featuring the winning photo and our two runners up, based on votes of our forum members. In the interest of showing off more of the great photo submissions we received, however, we've also elected to feature the top vote getters representing a few different approaches and styles as our "Editor's Choice" picks.

While the photos in this showcase represent the best of the best, the overall quality of the images we received truly exceeded expectations. To view all of the photos from the contest, visit the Point-and-Shoot Photo Contest Gallery.

Grand Prize Winner

As we announced at the close of the contest, forum member bonnying's "Yosemite Falls" garnered the highest vote count and our grand prize.

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Capturing the depth and scale of the scene, "Yosemite Falls" was taken with a Kodak DC280 digicam, showing just how much can be done with 2.3 megapixels.

Runners Up

Finishing in a close second place, theluckytj's "Lake Louise 07" does a nice job of balancing interesting foreground textures with a sweeping background scene.

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The image was captured with a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W50.

Equally impressive is the third place finisher, Deeb's "A Beautiful Day to Fish."

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The colors in this shot, taken with a Minolta DiMAGE A2, are truly stunning, and the reflections of mountains and sky create a nice effect.

Editor's Choice Selections

All three of our top-voted photos were landscape shots, but contest submissions ran the gamut – from macro images, to night-scene shots, to the intentionally witty. Based on votes, member comments, and some difficult decision-making on my part, four additional favorite images were selected for our "Editor's Choice" section.

"Thirsty Bee" from member jciv received some praise and several votes for its excellent detail, and earns a spot in my book as the top macro image of the competition.

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The shot was taken with a Canon S5 IS.

Several great, well-received night scenes were submitted, and it was hard to select from among the equally ranked contenders in this category. After some careful evaluation, the Editor's Choice pick goes to usapatriot's "Carnival Colors."

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Taken with a Fujifilm S9100 on a tripod, the motion and color evident in the scene make this a fun image.

Animals were a favorite subject among contest entries, and bTaryag's "Will You Please Take the Picture Already?" captures a singular moment and a great facial expression.

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The little bit of kick and sparkle in the eyes makes for a compelling shot. A Canon S5 IS was used to capture the image.

Finally, a few of the images submitted were unique in presenting a humorous take on a particular subject. The favorite example is caloy119's "Pure Frustration."

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The title alone really says it all for this shot, captured with a Canon Digital IXUS 30 (SD200). Nicely done.

As noted, there were many other great images submitted this time around, and we could only show off a few of them. Visit the gallery to see them all.

Congratulations to our winners, and thanks again to everyone who entered or voted in the contest.