Taking to the tunnel with a 5D Mark II and claiming the $300 prize: Our May contest winners revealed!

posted Sunday, June 12, 2016 at 8:08 AM EDT

Another month, and yet another magnificent group of photographs winning awards and prizes in our contest. Unlike some previous months, there's no clear central theme to our award-winning images for May, just photographic excellence and an obvious dedication to the craft by all five photographers we have the privilege of honoring for you here.

And once again, the voting was oh-so-close, but in the end the judges felt that "Tunnel Vision" by Claudia Cooper rose above the rest for both composition and intrigue, a wonderful image. Debra S. Dorothy won the second prize with "Nature's Camouflage" - a delightful hummingbird image with marvelous colors throughout, another wonderful composition to add to her legacy of honors in our contest. And in third with a lighthouse image decidedly off the beaten path is Dan Girard with "The Light Behind The House" - a gorgeous, serene and timeless image and composition.

We're grateful to you all and to our runners-up this month, and appreciate everyone who supports our contest with their submissions. Congratulations to the honored photographers this month, and if you'd like to leave praise for any of them please do so in the comments section below this article! (Clicking on any image will take you to a page with more information about the exposure settings used.)

First Prize • $300 gift certificate from Adorama

Tunnel Vision by Claudia Cooper • Canon 5D Mark II

Second Prize • $200 gift certificate from Adorama

Nature's Camouflage by Debra S. Dorothy • Canon 7D

Third Prize • $100 gift certificate from Adorama

The Light Behind The House by Dan Girard • Nikon D7100

Additional Honors

First runner-up • Sew by Longsad • Nikon D700

Second runner-up • Nags Head Pier by Greg Miller • Nikon D810

Yet again, like most months in our contest, the battle rages in the competition of Canon vs Nikon. This battle has been so close at times we even penned an article about it! There are so many great cameras these days across all of the major manufacturers, but for whatever reason the contest winners and runners-up in our competition remain 99% Canon/Nikon loyalists.

For anyone wanting to know more about our competition please visit this news story, which describes our contest and also offers some useful tips to help you succeed, and this story that warns you of the best ways to NOT succeed. To see camera and exposure information for this month's winners or to see winners from previous months please visit our POTD winner's gallery.

[And if you're ready to enter now, just click here!]

On a related note, we've just started a new series of articles called "Reader Stories," where we turn the tables and let you, our readers, do the talking! We're interested in seeing more of the shots you're the most happy with, and in hearing just how you got them, or just hearing about your passions, interests and the gear you love! Intrigued? Please click here!