Debra S. Dorothy and the Canon 7D that wouldn’t quit: Our August POTD prize winners revealed!

awards canon 7d news photo of the day photography contest winners

posted Wednesday, October 5, 2016 at 3:50 PM EST

We're fortunate to have a wealth of fantastic photographers entering our Photo of the Day competition each and every month, but there are a few who have achieved outstanding results in the monthly voting over the years. Of this esteemed group, we've had no photographer entering our contest with greater success in the past five years than Debra S. Dorothy, and we're pleased to once again honor her with the First Prize for the month of August!

For anyone new to our competition, we receive hundreds of photographs each month and select the best of the bunch to be honored as a daily winner on our site, with that image proudly displayed on our homepage, our news page, and of course in our Photo of the Day gallery page. At the end of each month we print out the 30 or so images from that month and vote on the best, ultimately awarding three prize winners and two runners-up. The prize winners receive a gift certificate from our trusted affiliate Adorama of $300 for First Prize, $200 for Second Prize and $100 for Third Prize.

In the five years of competition dating back to September of 2011, Debra has won three First Prizes, five Second Prizes and three Third Prizes. This is some achievment! As mentioned, we've had a number of other photographers who have done quite well through this time, and yet none have come close to this level of prize-winning success. [Editor's note: We vote for monthly winners blindly, with no information regarding the photographer's name, the camera model nor any EXIF details. It's all based on photographic merit, image appeal and originality on voting day.]

Without further ado we present our prize-winning and runner-up photographs for August.

First Prize • $300 gift certificate from Adorama

First Prize • Let's Be Friends by Debra S. Dorothy • Canon 7D

As our core readers tend to be interested in gear, it's interesting to note that more than half of Debra's prize-winning images over the past 5 years were shot with a trusty Canon 7D, including this one, while a number of them were taken with a Canon 5D Mark II. We can't thank Debra enough for all the wonderful submissions she sends our way, and extend warm congratulations yet again!

Second Prize • $200 gift certificate from Adorama

Second Prize • Incoming by Michael Cummings • Nikon D300

(Outstanding image, Michael! Thanks for sending our way.)

Third Prize • $100 gift certificate from Adorama

Third Prize • The Magic of the Morning by Madeleine Guenette • Nikon D7100

(Ah.... tranquil, peaceful, sublime. Thanks, Madeleine!)

Additional Honors

First runner-up • Elephant Play by Deborah Seibly • Nikon D610

(Thanks much for this wonderful and playful image, Deborah!)

Second runner-up • Details in the Eyes by Shirley Freeman • Canon 5D Mark II

(A shot this good would be a prize-winner most months. Thanks, Shirley!)

For many years our winners' podium has been overwhelmingly populated primarily with Canon and Nikon enthusiast-grade DSLR's, a trend we reported about in this news article. For the past few years we've seen some mirrorless encroachment on this trend, and yet this month it's back to the status quo once again... all Canon and Nikon DSLR's!

For those of you wanting to know more about our competition please visit this news story, which describes our contest and also offers some useful tips to help you succeed, and this story that warns you of the best ways to NOT succeed. To see camera and exposure information for this month's winners please click any image above, and to see winners from previous months please visit our POTD winner's gallery.

[And if you're ready to enter now, just click here!]

On a related note, we've just started a new series of articles called "Reader Stories," where we turn the tables and let you, our readers, do the talking! We're interested in seeing more of the shots you're the most happy with, and in hearing just how you got them, or just hearing about your passions, interests and the gear you love! Intrigued? Please click here!