AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST NEARS FINAL WEEK FOR ENTRIES

The local KINSA contest enters the final week for entries. The last date to submit a snapshot for consideration is Friday.

KINSA, Kodak International Newspaper Snapshot Awards, is the world's largest annual amateur snapshot contest.

Four additional semifinalists in the local competition have been named: Larry Blattel of Scott City, Robin McQuay of Jackson, Vivian Gay Caldwell of Thebes, Ill., and David Baltzell of Cape Girardeau.

On Halloween 1996, Blattel took a picture of his three daughters, Emily, Nicole and Elaine, admiring their jack-o'-lanterns.

"It's on our front porch," he explained. "They had their heads down by those pumpkins, and I thought that would make a good picture."

He went inside and got his camera and snapped a photo.

The result surprised Blattel. "I very seldom take pictures," he said.

Caldwell loves to take pictures of her grandchildren, Krystal and Austin Caldwell.

"I just snapped this one for no reason," she explained. "They were out on our farm, just playing in the pretty yellow flowers."

Caldwell takes rolls and rolls of pictures. Almost all of them are of the grandchildren. "They're my only ones," she said.

McQuay took her children on a vacation trip to Sea World and accidentally took a prize-winning photo of her daughter, Kaitlyn.

"We were under the tunnel with the sharks," McQuay explained. "It was so neat there I just decided to take a picture."

She takes a lot of pictures of her children, but none compares with the image that resulted from the aquarium.

"This is one of the neatest pictures I've ever taken," she said.

Her daughter encouraged her to enter in the KINSA contest.

Baltzell and his son traveled to Mill Stream Gardens last March to watch the kayakers test the whitewater rapids.

"I took my camera and decided to take some pictures," he said.

He found a spot below a drop off where he was able to get out on the rocks, close to the action.

"This was definitely the best shot of the day," he said. "It's hard to catch just the right moment."

Newspapers from around the world are invited to sponsor local contests. The Southeast Missourian's contest is open to residents of the Missouri counties of Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Scott, New Madrid, Stoddard, Perry and Madison and the Illinois counties of Alexander, Pulaski and Union.

In all, 24 semifinalists will be selected by a panel of community judges. From those, eight finalists will be forwarded to the international competition.

Entries will be accepted at Schnucks, Southeast Missouri Hospital's Generations Center, Target, Western Sizzlin, and Delmonico's.

Entries also will be accepted at the Southeast Missourian offices in Cape Girardeau and Jackson and the Banner Press office in Marble Hill.

Entries can be mailed to Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701, Attention: KINSA.

For information, contact Joyce Hunter at (573) 335-6611, ext. 150.

KINSA entries

Deadline for entering photographs is Friday.

Entries are accepted at the following locations: Schnucks, Southeast Missouri Hospital's Generations Center, Target, Western Sizzlin, and Delmonico's.

Photographs also will be accepted at the Southeast Missourian offices in Cape Girardeau and Jackson and the Banner Press office in Marble Hill.

To mail entries, send them to Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701, Attention: KINSA. You can call Joyce Hunter at (573) 335-6611, ext. 150, for more information.