Daily Herald photo contest winners for May 2024
May was a strong month for our amateur photo contest, and our readers submitted some memorable moments.
Taking top honors, Linda Benwitz of Mount Prospect entered a touching photo of a visit to the “The Wall That Heals” memorial on Memorial Day. “My wife and I recently took our three grandsons to visit the traveling Vietnam memorial at Randall Oaks Park. We wanted to do something meaningful for the Memorial Day holiday. It was a very teachable moment and the boys were very respectful,” Robert Benwitz wrote.
Second place goes to this picturesque image by Samantha Hatch of Warrenville of her young son Clifford surrounded by a field of flowers at the Midwest Tulip Fest at Kuipers Family Farm in Maple Park. Hatch writes, “I like it because it shows the wonder of youth in bloom.”
Aurora’s Robert Strutzel flies into third place for this photo capturing the iridescent colors of a broad-billed hummingbird. Strutzel said he photographed the tiny bird as it rose up from having breakfast. He points out that “a spot of nectar can be seen at the tip of his beak.”
Lynne Solway of Buffalo Grove wings it into fourth place with a close-up detailing the transparent vein structure on a cicada’s wings. “I found this cicada, along with all the rest, both fascinating and repulsive. A perhaps comforting thought is that, in 17 years when the next generation finds their way to the surface, I will be an old lady and probably either won’t be aware or won’t care!,” Solway writes.
An honorable mention goes to Emily Martillaro of Wheaton, snagging a photo of her young daughter breathing in the sweet fragrance of lilacs in bloom. Martillaro writes, “As a busy toddler, I was surprised she ‘stopped to smell the flowers’ long enough to snap this!”
Contest rules
The Daily Herald invites readers to submit their own photos to our “Your Images” amateur photo contest.
Once a month, we showcase entries, which feature one first-place winner and three runners-up. The contest is open to everyone in the Daily Herald readership area.
• To submit a photo of your own for consideration, email it in .jpg format at highest quality possible to yourimages@dailyherald.com.
• Include your name, mailing address and phone number, plus a description of your photo and what you like about it.
• One photo a week per photographer, but enter as many weeks as you’d like.
• First-place winners will receive prizes alternating between The Great Frame Up in Schaumburg and PJ’s Camera in Glen Ellyn.