Here are the finalists/winners in the annual Smithsonian magazine amateur photography contest. Great stuff! (Note: the thumbnails are not the pictures–you have to click on them to see the whole photo.)
http://photocontest.smithsonianmag.com/v5/finalists/people9.html
The grand prize winner:
Susan
Winner: Altered Images category
Miniature children playing in a drinking fountain
Anupam Pal (Kanpur, India)
Photographed December 2007, Chakdaha, India
The fountain was shot in Pennsylvania and the children (the photographer’s niece and nephews) in Chakdaha, India. “The person in the background is me,” says Pal. “The idea was to show the necessity of cleaner and safer water, not just for drinking but for everything.”
I enjoyed the pics too thanks. The cranes looked like a drawing. I can’t imagine what the judges went through.
This is my personal favorite (I’m a sucker for fog/mist photos–this one’s in Tuscany):
Susan
Are we really allowed to post these pictures, since they’re (presumably) copyrighted art? Well, I like this one:
HARE KRISHNA, HARE KRISHNA!!
In a world religion class we learned how in some parts of India, after a baby is born, often the entire village of women will rub cow feces all over the baby as a blessing. My entire class thought that was gross, but apparently the women think it’s beautiful. Maybe that’s why the baby is crying. 
Oh, I hope I don’t get hauled off to jail–I didn’t think about that. Maybe I shouldn’t have posted the actual photos. My apologies to Smithsonian magazine and the photographers. No more posting of the actual photos apparently, folks!
This is their copyright info: “By downloading, printing, or otherwise using text and image files from this website, users agree and warrant that they will limit their use of such files to fair use and will comply with all other terms and conditions of this license, and will not violate the rights of the Smithsonian Institution or any other person or entity.”
I don’t think we’re violating anybody.
Susan
I love the cranes. That one captures it all for me. 
Thank you for this - they really are great pictures. I liked the one of the lone boat on the river in China. My little brother was just telling me last week that his was one of 300 tourist boats travelling along the river the day he was there - so this photographer did very well to just capture one lone craft. That landscape is so often photographed and to get a new “take” on it is, again, a wonderful thing.
JW
Awesome. I always like the altered images the most, for some reason.
Although, the penguin chicks are pretty great, too.
Hey thanks for posting that!