KINSA BRINGS OUT TALENT OF OUR READERS

When the Southeast Missouri decided to sponsor -- for the first time -- the Kodak International Newspaper Snapshot Award contest, there were a lot of questions:

-- Would reader take an interest in submitting their favorite snapshots?

-- Would the photos be interesting and demonstrate an artistic eye?

-- Could enough local residents be recruited to judge the entries?

Some of these questions had to be considered seriously, because the Southeast Missourian is the only newspaper in Missouri that is sponsoring KINSA this year. So thought also had to be given to limiting the geographic area from which photos could be entered.

All's well that ends well.

Yes, readers took an overwhelming interest in entering the costs. Through the six weeks of the contest, nearly 1,500 snapshots were entered.

Yes, the photos were remarkably interesting and artistic -- so much so that the weekly judges sometimes had difficult choices to make.

Yes, local residents were happy to contribute a couple of hours to choosing the weekly winners. The judges included individuals with photography expertise and art backgrounds as well as folks who just knew what they liked.

We hope the contest was fun. The judges now have the daunting of picking the eight finalists to be sent to Kodak.

Thanks for all the entries.