Photo Contest: Hot Pics for May

Yurika says: "I took this photo on a recent visit to Israel and just got lucky with the sunset lighting. I used a Sony Cybershot DSC-T100 and I could not for the life of me get a better shot even with my much more expensive Canon 30D!"

Russ writes: "I took this shot of the launch of STS-123 with my Pentax K20D and a Pentax 50-135 zoom lens. I had set the lens around 50mm to get part of the crowd into the shot. I think they give it more of an 'event' feel, versus the typical journalistic shot of a shuttle launch."

Kristy writes: "I took this photo while on vacation last summer near Page, Arizona. On this particular day, it was magic hour and a small thunderstorm was brewing about 10 to 15 miles away. I set up quickly--while trying to keep my knees from knocking at the edge of this cliff face, which drops off to over 1000 feet below." (Kristy used an Olympus Evolt-E410 DSLR and a Zuiko 7-14mm ultra wide angle lens.)

Dave writes: "I took this photo at Farmington Bay, Utah, where every winter the parks services poisons the carp to help the eagles eat as part of Utah's wildlife preserve program. I used a Canon EOS 20D with a 400mm lens, pushed to 800mm thanks to a 2X extender."

Alex writes: "As I was traveling along the New York throughway, I saw this eerie sunrise scene out of my car window. As I looked skyward, it looked as if I was under water. I grabbed my Sony H1 and quickly snapped this photo."

Bob says that he captured this door knob in Bodie, California, a ghost town in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Robert says that he took this photo about 25 miles northwest of Roswell, New Mexico while standing on top of an SUV. He used a Canon Rebel XTi.