Hot Pic of the Week

Get published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality, and technique. Every month, the best of the weekly winners gets a prize valued at between $15 and $50.

Here's how to enter: Send us your photograph in JPEG format, at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480 pixels. Entries at higher resolutions will be immediately disqualified. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo along with a short description and how you photographed it. Don't forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering, please read the full description of the contest rules and regulations.

This Week's Hot Pic: "Summer Storm," by Merry Thaden, Atchison, Kansas

Merry says: "We moved here a year ago, and before this, I don't recall ever seeing such amazing lightning shows anywhere in the world. I took this picture from my bedroom window at 11 pm.

"It took about 200 shots to get this image. In fact, this was not the first night of shooting. I set my Canon 20D to an f-stop of 11, put the exposure time on bulb, turned off the flash, set it on a tripod, and connected a remote shutter release. I waited for several lightning bursts before I let up on the shutter (about three seconds) and repeated that process until I got what I thought was the perfect shot."

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