*Travel/Places Category Winner*"This shot was half planned and half happy accident. I was on vacation in Cape May, NJ, last July, and found this lighthouse while exploring the beach. I knew I had to shoot it— just didn't know what I wanted it to look like. Then the idea of a composite came to me. I captured just the lighthouse one day, shooting close-ups and from a distance to cover enough angles to choose from. Then I went back the next day at roughly the same time to photograph the seagulls. The sun wasn't as much of a difficulty as you would expect—framing it behind the lighthouse, I bracketed all my shots so I knew I would get the look I wanted. The main problem was the mosquitoes. They were pretty terrible, so I had to work fast. I think I lost about a pint of blood on this shoot."*Tech Specs: *Canon EOS 5D Mark II, with Canon 35mm f/2.8 (lighthouse) and 70–200mm f/4 (seagulls) lenses. Exposures, 1/125 sec at f/11, ISO 100. Composited in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

Todd Mcvey