Prize-winning Peninsula photos

When I was in college, I bought Sierra Club engagement calendars every year, because of their remarkable photos. In between my scribbled, highly crucial appointments ("Meet Ed at flagpole," "Drop wretched statistics class") were pictures of curious birds and glinting snowscapes -- and autumn. What was autumn? I pondered this, peeling off another wool sweater in California.

When classes were dull, I flipped through the calendar pages and gazed into nature. It sure beat statistics. Funny how when you're a French minor you dream of going to Europe, and you miss the loveliness of Utah, which somehow seems so much more foreign.

The photographers who won the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District's photo contest surely don't miss what's close to home. First-place winner Randy Weber found autumn right here, in his "Fall Colors at Purisima Creek" (pictured above). Our California fall -- be it ever so subtle.



I was especially drawn to the second-place photo, "Foggy Descent" (above), because of its storybook quality. The writer's mind starts spinning: who is that person, why is he/she walking alone, where is Heathcliff. The photographer, Karl Gohl of Los Altos, also had other images get honorable mention. This one was shot at Windy Hill. Gohl says: "I was enjoying the moody light created by the fog, the pattern of the oak limbs and the lichen on them and I got that 'Oh, wow' feeling that makes me want to capture the moment in a picture."

Third place went to aeronautics/astronautics Stanford grad student Alex Stoll for "Sunset from Russian Ridge." Click here to see his pic and the whole contest photo gallery, which also includes a picture of a fetchingly pigeon-toed bluebird carrying a centipede, by photographer Jacob Osborne.

Winners of the open-space district's photo contests, past and present, also get a bonus: Their works will also be considered for the coffee-table book that the district plans to publish in 2012 for its 40th birthday. Photo submissions are no longer needed for the book, but the district is still seeking original poetry and other works of art, such as drawings and oil and acrylic paintings. Let your hikes inspire you.