Tanarra McDermott takes first place and the “fan favorite” with the “Leaning Pine”
Lisa Ackerman chosen for runner-up with “Fire on the Mountain”
Third place goes to Douglas Sciorra for “The Newt and the Acorn”
By Andrew Harris
The suspense is over, the painstaking judging process finally reached a decision, and we’ve chosen the top submission for our 2025 End of Summer contest.
Our gracious panel of local photographer geniuses, Melanie Hunt, Dan Jordan, and Chris Mattison poured over dozens of submissions. Images from all over Western New York, the Finger Lakes Region, and the Southern Tier region made this a very difficult decision for our panel. We think you’ll agree these are some great “captures!!!”
Our 3rd Place Winner is a Steuben County photographer who often lends his talents to our cover photo with a wide range of landscape, wildlife, and nature shots. This image is not just fun to look at but fun to think about!! What does a newt say to an acorn as he saunters by?
Douglas Sciorra has a gift certificate from our friends at the Stillwater Pizza & Grill on Main Street Wellsville!!
The second-place image really proves the power of the moment when taking great shots. Lisa Ackerman of Hammondsport NY grabbed her camera just in time to catch this fireball erupting over the hillside of Keuka Lake. Our second-place winner is lucky to have a $50 gift certificate from our pals at Hornell NY hotspot Racalto’s Restaurant!!
Our contest winner is an experienced photographer who has been published over 200 times before today!! Seasoned as she may be, Tanarra McDermott was thrilled to hear that she was the winner of the 2025 End of Summer contest when we called; “you made my day!!”
Her picture that we named, “Leaning Pine” not only was the overall first choice of our panel, but also the overwhelming fan favorite. Her winnings included a weekend stay at Hickory Hill Camping Resort in Bath NY enjoying one of their deluxe log cabins. On top of that, Tanarra has a $25 gift card from Giant Food Mart, which she can redeem at either Wellsville or Cuba stores.
Congrats to all our winners and all who participated in the contest. A big Thank You to our professional panel of photographers, Mel – Dan – and Chris put their trained eye and artistic intuitions to good work.
The sponsors of this event were very generous to provide these great prizes for great photos! Thanks again Hickory Hill, Racalto’s, Stillwater Pizza and Grill, and Giant Food Mart!
Last but not least your partners at MysticMedia.com for helping us with all things technical to make this easy to enter and manage!!
