We had 69 entries in our spring photography contest, with the categories "brazen," "future," and "illumination." As you might guess, that last one got the majority of the entries, and there were admittedly some struggles in making connections between the prompts and the pictures in the other two.

That's part of the fun of these contests, however. On these pages you'll find some of our favorites, with whatever commentary the photographer provided.

Thanks to all who entered!

Our winter photo contest - the first such reader competition we've held since 2008 - brought 80 submissions over three categories: attraction, resistance, and ambivalence. Thanks to all who entered!

In these pages are the top five finishers in each category as judged by the River Cities' Reader staff. We considered both the technical merits of the photograph as well as how well it fit or played off the category in which it was entered. Accompanying each photo is a short statement from the photographer. Click on the photo for a larger version.

While we restricted photographers to three entries, some entrants placed more than one photo among these top 15.

Ambivalence, First Place, Aric Keil

"This was taken along a fence line outside of Lost Nation, Iowa, in 2011. All of the goats (except one) seemed timid yet curious when I stopped to take the photo. They did not approach me or run away from me; they just stared ambivalently."

For our fall photo contest, we made your job easier, and ours harder.

We asked for photographs of babies and pets for this year's contest, and we received 166 entries.

For our fall 2007 photo contest, we asked our readers to submit photographs playing off the words "beginning," "middle," and "end." Here we present our favorites from among the nearly 100 submissions we received.