SEMIFINALISTS IN FOTO FEST CONTEST ANNOUNCED

Photos with great composition that show tender silhouettes and special moments with children were winners in the final week of the Foto Fest contest.

The winning pictures are published on page 8B of today's Southeast Missourian, and additional photos can be seen on the newspaper's Web site at www.semissourian.com. The pictures also are on display at Westfield Shoppingtown West Park.

Winners were Jeana Schoener, Marty Riley and Jan Chamberlain, all of Cape Girardeau, and Brigitte Loos of Jackson, Mo.

More than 320 photographs were entered in the final week of the contest.

Judges liked the composition and "innocence of a child at play" in Schoener's photograph.

The Cape Girardeau mother captured the moment almost by accident. She was trying to get her camera ready to photograph her daughters. They began to play while they waited.

"I just stood in the background and that's what I got," she said. The girls, now 13 and 6, were playing patty-cake and "just goofing around" while they waited.

Loos captured a "tender silhouette" in her photograph of a woman and baby shadowed by a setting sun, judges said.

The photo of Loos and her 1-year-old son was taken at sunset at the Denver Botanical Gardens while the Loos family was on vacation in Colorado.

"We had one picture left in the camera and the way we were standing, my husband just said it would be a neat picture," Loos said.

Marty Riley's photograph of a sleeping baby draped over a person's arm shows "strength and trust," judges said.

Finalist competition

The contest, sponsored by the Shoppingtown and the Southeast Missourian, was open to amateur photographers in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois. Other sponsors are Schnucks, Albertson's, Mac's Smokehouse, Cape Girardeau Regional Airport and St. Francis Medical Center.

Winners from the weekly entries will now be judged in a finalist competition. Six finalists will be chosen from the weekly winners. Semifinalists are eligible for a $25 gift certificate to the Shoppingtown, a 13-week subscription to the Southeast Missourian, a framed 8-by-10 copy of the winning photo and a comic umbrella.

The grand prize winner, to be selected from the six finalists, will receive a year's subscription to the newspaper, a night's hotel accommodation and a $50 Shoppingtown gift certificate.

All photos entered are eligible for a People's Choice Award, to be selected by ballots available at Westfield Shoppingtown. The People's Choice winner receives a six-month subscription, a $50 gift certificate and a comic umbrella.