Greetings all, I just ran across this site and am surprised I'd not found it before. I've been photographing southern IL for several years now and I encourage you all to take a gander at my gallery at:

http://tkr2099.smugmug.com

For the current scenic contest, I would like to enter the following:

http://tkr2099.smugmug.com/photos/188226603-M-1.jpg

http://tkr2099.smugmug.com/photos/153697280-L-1.jpg

http://tkr2099.smugmug.com/photos/144725509-M-3.jpg

Welcome aboard tkr2099. Those are some nice pictures.

great shots..

Marvelous work...you are going to put us all to shame....I am a photographer also...and the info here is invaluable! Welcome! Guys...this one's going to whoop me in all the contests....LOL
BTW are the first 2 shots HDR?

These are sweet... and you are gifted...
I just gotta ask... were they taken between July and now?

Forgive me if so, but, Just that you're sorta new, and the focus here is to take and show timely pics. (I think it says that in my weak set of rules someplace.) If so you're a tough man to beat.

Still, I enjoyed your site, and all your pics....I'll be back.

the center pic is GOG I was there last winter when it was like 10 degrees out and the wind was like 40 MPH and it was blowin snow....

Great stuff over at SmugMug..nice looking site design as well...I couldn't seem to get smugmug sorted out to suit me...maybe I need lessons from you! I've taken to using Pbase and BP instead...

Marvelous work...you are going to put us all to shame....I am a photographer also...and the info here is invaluable! Welcome! Guys...this one's going to whoop me in all the contests....LOL
BTW are the first 2 shots HDR?

They're not exactly 'HDR.' I exposed once for the sky and once for the foreground and then merged them by hand in Photoshop. It's slower, but if done right it yields much more realistic photos than HDR. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the 'look' of HDR.. some of it just looks plain bad, sort of plasticy, with unnaturally grey skies and halos and weird colors. If done right, it can be really cool.

These are sweet... and you are gifted...
I just gotta ask... were they taken between July and now?

Forgive me if so, but, Just that you're sorta new, and the focus here is to take and show timely pics. (I think it says that in my weak set of rules someplace.) If so you're a tough man to beat.

Still, I enjoyed your site, and all your pics....I'll be back.

Thanks Bob - the first was taken a little over a week ago, the others were pre-July I believe. So, I'll revise my entries to the first one and this one, which was taken within the past two weeks:

http://tkr2099.smugmug.com/photos/188227231-M.jpg

the center pic is GOG I was there last winter when it was like 10 degrees out and the wind was like 40 MPH and it was blowin snow....

The star trails photo above was at GOG in the middle of the night.. it was quite cold and windy then too (which poses problems when you're doing 10 minute exposures)

Great stuff over at SmugMug..nice looking site design as well...I couldn't seem to get smugmug sorted out to suit me...maybe I need lessons from you! I've taken to using Pbase and BP instead...

I've had good luck with smugmug. I'm not sure what sort of problems you had, but basically all I did was change the theme. I'm not sure what BP is. My only issue with Pbase is I don't like the way their compression makes photos look. I also put my photos on flickr, since it's free and it's so popular you get quite a bit of exposure.

http://tkr2099.smugmug.com/photos/144725509-M-3.jpg

NICE WORK........shawnee is at my backdoor.....

this photo looks like what might happen if you fall off......lol......they say you see the light...lol.....j/k

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o122/bambam203/9n.gif

Oh, and Bob, this is what I saw in your rules thread that made me think it could be any photo from this year..

"You can submit as many photos as you like as long as they fit in one of the 3 categories. The photos must be taken in our wonderful home state of Illinois in the year 2007."

Really nice pic's tkr, welcome aboard!

I know I'm not too clear all the time... but I don't have a panel of lawyers to cover every possible scenario...LOL

I know below is clear as mud..., but that is what I meant by timely pics....

"Each of the categories will have 4 contests throughout the year corresponding with our seasons. Jan-Mar; Apr-Jun; Jul-Sep; Oct-Dec."