Congratulations to Ron Marusak of Dallas, the winner of the Flickr Photo of the Week contest! This is Ron’s first victory in our contest. He follows our previous week’s winner, David Hobson.

If you would like to participate in the Flickr Photo of the Week contest, all you need to do is upload your photo to our Flickr group page. It’s fine to submit a photo you took earlier than the current week, but we are hoping that the contest will inspire you to go out and shoot something fantastic this week to share with Art&Seek users. If the picture you take involves a facet of the arts, even better. The contest week will run from Monday to Sunday, and the Art&Seek staff will pick a winner on Monday afternoon. We’ll notify the winner through FlickrMail (so be sure to check those inboxes) and ask you to fill out a short survey to tell us a little more about yourself and the photo you took. We’ll post the winners’ photo on Wednesday.

Now, here’s more from Ron:

Title: Great Horn Owl In A Waning Moon
Equipment: Canon PowerShot S2 IS with its integrated 12X zoom and a tripod
Tell us more about your photo: I heard about this owl in a nearby park, which happens to be Winfrey Point on White Rock Lake, site of the controversial, proposed parking lot for the Arboretum.  I wanted to see the owl, but I also wanted to document area wildlife to counter future attempts to develop the site.  One site plan showed a greenhouse where this tree is located.

My equipment is really underpowered for birds.  Typically, photographing wildlife requires long, fast lenses to capture small, moving animals at a distance.  The photographer and birding enthusiast who showed me the owl that morning had one of those lenses, and crisp, clear images of this owl are around.  But I take pride in making do, and the handicap forces me to get creative.  I am also an amateur but enthusiastic artist with an interest in the artistic aspects of photography.

I went back to the park after sunset when the owl would become active.  I waited, hoping to at least hear a hoot, when it flew out of the trees.  I maneuvered to get a decent photo, but it was really too dark to even focus.  Then, from the back of my mind, a lesson in lighting from a recent art photography class took over, and I lined the bird and moon up.  Serendipity.  Came out much better than I could have hoped.