FOTOFEST SEMIFINALISTS ON STREAK

Cindy Huber likes to see old photos and has tried her best to recreate that atmosphere in the entries she submitted to the Foto Fest 2000 contest.

Huber, of Perryville, Mo., was selected as a semifinalist for the third consecutive week. She entered a photograph taken of her two children, Grant and MaKayla, playing with a baby stroller.

Each week of the contest, four winners are chosen as semifinalists by a panel of judges. Other winners were Jane Barks of Patton, Mo., Paul Legrand of Cape Girardeau, Mo., and Linda Burger of Scott City, Mo.

The winning photographs are published in today's Southeast Missourian, and will go on display today at Westfield Shoppingtown West Park, who is helping sponsor the amateur photography contest.

Other sponsors are the Southeast Missourian, Schnuck's, Mac's Smokehouse, Southeast Missouri Hospital and the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport.

Huber was surprised that she was selected as a semifinalist again. "My mother has been after me since my oldest was born" to enter a contest, Huber said.

She likes doing different things with photographs, using props and creating atmosphere. The photo she entered was used as a Christmas card one year, she said.

By using black and white film, Huber works to create a vintage look. "I've just always been intrigued by old photos and like really old, unique pictures," she said.

Jane Barks of Patton, Mo., found just the right moment for her photograph. She caught O.J., a Manx cat, nose-to-nose with her granddaughter, Molly Kern, 3.

Judges liked the expression on the child's face. "I just thought it was a cute picture," Barks said, so she grabbed a camera and took the snapshot.

The cat and child are buddies, Barks said, so there wasn't any fear on either one's part. Molly had been playing outside when the cat came over to investigate, Barks said.

Paul Legrand must have had his camera ready to shoot when he captured a polar bear rising from the water on film. Judges called the picture a "pause that refreshes."

Linda Burger's photo showed "a beautiful landscape in picture postcard quality," judges said. Burger, of Scott City, Mo., took a photograph of Caribbean sunlight streaming through a cloud while leaving port on a cruise last winter.

"I took about 10 pictures in each phase of the sunset because I knew I'd never seen one like that before," she said. "I thought I ought to be seeing an angel sitting on that cloud."

The contest is open to residents of Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois. The contest ends Aug. 11. There is no limit on the number of photos participants can enter, nor are there any requirements limiting the size of photographs entered. Color copies and reprints are also accepted. Photos entered in the contest cannot be returned, however.

Entry forms must accompany each photograph. Forms and official rules are available at each drop-off location, which include the Customer Service Center at West Park Mall, Schnuck's, Southeast Missourian offices at 301 Broadway in Cape Girardeau, 108 S. Hope in Jackson, Scott County Signal in Chaffee and the Banner Press in Marble Hill.

Entries can also be mailed to Foto Fest 2000; c/o Westfield Shoppingtown West Park, 134 West Park Mall; Cape Girardeau, Mo. 63701.