Photo: #Joelle Linhoff, 18, of Minnetonka, Minnesota won the grand prize in the Smithsonian's photography contest for this photo taken while on vacation in New Zealand.
Photo: #Teng Wei, 40, of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia won the natural world category for this photo of a group of ants. While shooting photos of an ant colony, Teng picked up a branch and dropped a smaller ant into a group of larger ones. "The bigger ants started to stand up," he said. "For what reason, I don't know."
Photo: #Trey Ratcliff, 35, of Austin, Texas won in the Americana category for his photo of the July 4, 2006 celebration in Austin, along the Colorado River. "It was on the edge of a Texas summer storm, so there was driving wind and rain," says Ratcliff. "I happened to catch this one between wiping down my lens and stabilizing the tripod in the wind."
Photo: #Paul Hilts, 55, of Basalt, Colorado won the travel category for this photo, taken at the Wat Chetawan temple in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Hilts happened upon a monk ordination ceremony open to the public, and noticed one monk taking photos with a digital camera. The scene, Hilts says, provided an "interesting contrast between modern technology and the ancient ways of traditional Buddhism."
Photo: #Ezra Millstein, 34, of Washington, D.C. won in the People category. Millstein, who has been taking pictures since kindergarten, was on a year-long trip across Asia when he encountered this religious ascetic, or sadhu, begging in the streets of Madurai, India. "His patience and understated grace were in great contrast to the surrounding bustle," says Millstein, a grants officer. "He seemed almost frozen in time."
Photo: #The winner in the altered images category is Nicholas Edens, 28, of Toledo, Ohio. He took this photo of a white lion at the Toledo zoo. "For a majestic and strong creature to take on such a soft and humbled expression was amazing to see," says Edens. He selectively altered the lighting, color, softness and detail of the photo with computer software to further express that ethereal moment.
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Joelle Linhoff, 18, of Minnetonka, Minnesota won the grand prize in the Smithsonian's photography contest for this photo taken while on vacation in New Zealand. (Photo by Joelle Linhoff, courtesy of the Smithsonian)
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Minnesota teen wins national photo contest

June 13, 2007

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St. Paul, Minn. — A Minnesota teenager is the grand prize winner in a nationwide photo contest sponsored by Smithsonian Magazine.

Joelle Linhoff, 18, of Minnetonka snapped this year's winning image. It was chosen from more than 8,000 entries submitted from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and 86 nations.

This is the fourth year of the Smithsonian's photo contest, which recognized the best photos in five different categories: The natural world, Americana, people, travel, and altered images -- photographs that have been manipulated for artistic purposes by applying digital or traditional special effects.

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Winner in the Americana category

Linhoff's photo, which was entered in the natural world category, is a landscape of a New Zealand valley at dawn.

Linhoff spent three days vacationing at a camp overlooking New Zealand's Tukituki River Valley. Most days were foggy, says Linhoff, and usually there were no horses in the pasture.

On the day she took the winning picture, there were many horses, including a white one featured in the "Lord of the Rings" movies.

MPR's Tom Crann talked with Linhoff, who says she was just naturally inspired by the scene.

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