There is a contest in my hometown for the best photo taken of this monument on the 4th of July. The monument is the Soldiers and Sailors Monument and is used in all the county images, logos, etc.



I awoke early on the 4th (5:00 am) to go take early morning shots of the monument, figuring later that night it would be very crowded and difficult to get a clear shot. It's actually extremely difficult to get a clear shot anyway. There is a major construction / bridge building project just behind and to the right of the monument. There are also trees, traffic lights and street lights to deal with. So about 5 minutes after I got there, this huge pick up with a storage trailer behind it pulls up right in front of the monumnent! At 5:30 am! grrrr....He was unloading and placing all the extra American flags you can see in the daytime shot. They wanted it all to look festive for the ceremonies later in the day.



So, I worked around him a bit. The monument faces due east, but there was NO morning sun at all through the thick cloud cover and totally washed out sky. I was glad to get the shot with the early blue color, but the daytime shot has the sky "doctored" to give some interest.



Which one of the four do you like best? There's no limit to the entries, so I'm putting in all 4. It's a $500 first prize ($350-2nd, $150-3rd) so I think it's worth it! Comments appreciated.