We're happy to announce the monthly winners of our Photo of the Day contest for June, 2008. Here's a look at June's winners, along with some comments from the judges:

We see a lot of pictures of waterfalls submitted to the Photo of the Day contest, but a waterfall can be a tricky subject to get just right. Shutter speed is critical; too slow and you get nothing but a foggy blur, too fast and you get none of the sense of motion that characterizes the subject. Cliff Berinsky got it just right in his shot of Yellowbranch Falls, and a lot more besides. Exposure and white balance were perfect, and his cropping of the subject resulted in an interesting landscape photo with an almost abstract quality to it. The ultimate measure of its beauty is how often our eyes kept wanting to stray back to it for yet another glimpse.

Regulars to our Photo of the Day pages will recognize the name of this month's second place winner, Kyaw Thar. Many of Kyaw's photos have been daily winners, and he's been a monthly winner before as well. His efforts this month included this incredible closeup of a spider weaving its web. As with waterfalls, we see a lot of closeups of bugs, particularly spiders. What made this one stand out was the unusual bug's-eye point of view and the way the shallow depth of field emphasizes the structure of the web and focuses attention on the act of spinning itself. Really a stand-out photo, big kudos to Kyaw Thar for having the patience and photographic skill to capture this amazing shot.

Unlike the first two subjects, we very rarely see shots of the Northern Lights. We've never seen a shot of them like the one sent in by Gisli Kristinsson. Exposed perfectly, the scale of the Lights is established by the tiny lights of the town in the lower middle of the picture. Gisli did a great job compositionally, too: The clouds, the lights, the mountain, the town, and the water are all arranged in a harmonious whole. A great job with a very unusual subject made this one an easy pick as one of the monthly winners.

There you have it: 30 great Photos of the Day, with 3 exceptional ones capturing top honors. - So what are you waiting for? That could be your photo up there this time next month! Dig through your digital shoe boxes, pick your best and join the fun!