KINSA CONTEST CLOSES WITH NEARLY 1,500 ENTRIES

The last four semi-finalists have been chosen for the 1997 Kodak International Newspaper Snapshot Award contest have been chosen.

"This was the very final week of the contest," said contest coordinator Joyce Hunter. "We had over 400 entries for the contest for the last week, which is really-record-breaking."

Judges pored over almost 1,500 entries in the six-week contest, Hunter said.

"The most overwhelming the judges felt was they had a very difficult decision to make. It was all such high quality," she said.

Winners for the sixth, and final, week were:

-- Peggy Luehrs of Jackson for "Water Lilies," a tranquil scene of the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis.

-- Pat Renner of Cape Girardeau for "Baby Floating," featuring her granddaughter taking a cooling dip on a hot day.

-- Jean Doyle Miller of Cape Girardeau for "Mother and Child," a tender moment between a mother and baby, and

-- Aleda Phillips of Jackson for "Girl on a Swing," a nostalgic photo of a young girl gleefully winging on a garden swing.

The judges now face the task of picking eight winning photos from 24 semi-finalists to advance to Kodak's international judging.

Those winners' photos will be published in a special keepsake edition in the Southeast Missourian on Aug. 24.

All of the photos submitted will be displayed at West Park Mall Aug. 26 - Sept. 2. A people's Choice Award winner will receive a night's stay in St. Louis.

-- Peggy Luehrs snapped her winning photo on a day trip to St. Louis at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

Her photo features a tranquil close-up of a grouping of water lilies in bloom on a still, clear pond.

"We saw the water garden at the Climatron and thought it was really pretty to see the water lilies in bloom."

It was Luehrs' first trip to the gardens.

"Of course it was the hottest day of the year," she said.

Luehrs said she takes "quite a few" photos of "just whatever catches my eye."

She said she's been taking photos for several years.

"I had a little Brownie camera and just progressed upward."

-- Pat Renner's photo of her almost 2-year-old granddaughter, Jourdan Marie Renner, was described as "just a slice of life."

"It was at her great-grandma and grandpa's pool, my parents' pool," Renner said.

Jourdan Marie, decked out in sunglasses and a shady hat, is kicked back and relaxing in a float toy in the photo.

She is Renner's only grandbaby, and her favorite photo subject.

"When she was about 4 months old, I got a camera for Christmas and started taking pictures. She's the only thing I take pictures of. I can't think of anything better," Renner said.

-- Aleda Phillips' photo of a girl on a swing was a natural, judges said. "Girl's smile makes winning photo," one judge wrote.

-- Jean Miller's photo touches the heart and "captures adoring mother's love for child," a judge wrote.

Miller could be reached for comment.