---

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=travel&contentId=A5724-2002Aug11

---

Photo Contest Winners 2002
A Few That Clicked

---

Each year, as the entries pour in for our annual photo contest, certain themes tend to emerge. Last year we received scads of Adorable Street Urchins, with a smattering of Grizzled Peasants. The year before that, it was Meat (don't ask). This year, it's Animals on Steroids. Think we're kidding? See the photo gallery below.

But one theme remains constant: the wonderful and unexpected way in which our readers view and document the world. This year, we were especially hard-pressed to choose the winners from among the many hundreds of photographs we received. No, really. It was quite painful. But our panel of judges -- Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor for Photography, Joe Elbert and several judgmental Travel section staffers -- eventually winnowed down the 50 or so finalists to the winners you see in this issue. We think it's our best collection yet.

Oh, and don't obsess ober the fact that three-fourths of our top winners are in black-and-white. That's purely a coincidence, we swear. It doesn't matter what format you use when you document your travels -- as long as you surprise us with a winning theme of your own next year.

---

Oddities : Schifferle's photo, taken at Playa Jobos in Puerto Rico, deserves inclusion here solely because of what happened next: "Trying to catch the spray of the ocean, I advertently photographed a sudden tidal surge the exact moment it struck my fiancee, Lisa, and dragged her 100 feet across the rocky surface. After several stitches, Lisa recovered quite well."

---

2nd Place, Monuments
What is it about national monuments that inspires ordinarily sensible people to surrender their dignity so willingly? This shot of the Taj Mahal is pure fun.

---

1st Place, Monuments
This statue in the main square of Lugano, Switzerland, doubles as a jungle gym. Zucchi's artful cropping and composition take what could have been just another snapshot to another level.

---

2nd Place, Portraits
Desai photo - graphed this young monk at sunset in Bagan, Burma, "where horse-driven carts still travel the flat, red-dirt roads through the maze of 2,000 stupas (temples) built in the 11th century." We loved the photo's rich colors and textures, the subject's lanky yet graceful pose and his open expression of curiosity.

---

1st Place, Portraits

We swore, no more meat photos. But we couldn't resist Mabbs-Zeno's shot of beef and its formidable vendor at the Green Bazaar in Almaty, Kazakhstan

---

1st Place, Animals

These undulating zebras, photographed in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Crater, almost seem like one giant pattern, broken up by flashes of yellow.

---

4th Place
All photographers attempt to capture moments. Most fail. Danville's photo of an encounter with a statue in Covington, Ky., on the day after Thanksgiving illustrates a wonderful and curious moment.

---

3rd Place
Ridzon spotted this harsh concentration of afternoon sun while wandering around the labyrinth of covered alleyways of Dubrovnik's Old Town, then waited for his subject to hit the splash of light. A beautiful and simple photograph.

---

2nd Place
Elmore's photograph of two lovers on a bench, taken in Santo Domingo, D.R., could have been taken 100 years ago. Including the photographer in the frame was a brilliant stroke.

---

1st Place
Without the human element, this shot of the Namibian desert with its vanishing-point perspective would have been perfectly nice. With the leaping subject - and the sand flying behind the feet, the angles of the arms and legs, the figure just breaking the second dune - the photo becomes a winner: All the emotions of her trip to Namibia, says Weaver, are expressed in this shot.

---