Ocean Exposure photo contest - does that mean it's summer?

You know how, in the summer, it's so hot you feel like you're going to melt into the sidewalk and the sun is shining so brightly that you feel like your eyeballs are going to get burnt out of your head, even when they're shut? How, no matter where you look, everything is sparkling because the sun is just that brilliant? How looking at the ocean feels more like looking like looking at a field of diamonds?

Well we don't have that up here in Sointula. Currently it's foggy and gray and rainy and it's looking like it'll stay that way for while yet. (I'm hoping you're having better luck wherever you are).

But you know the worst part?! It's too gray to take any really great ocean pictures! If I wanted gray, foggy oceany pictures I would have taken them in the winter.

So we need your help! Living Oceans Society is hosting its second annual Ocean Exposures photo contest in order to get some great ocean photos. We want to show everyone how beautiful this big ball of blue is and you know what they say, a picture is worth a thousand Tufted Puffins…or words, depending on where you're from.

Your photos can fit into one of two categories: Ocean Ecosystems or Working on the Ocean. Check out last year's winner in the Ocean Ecosystem's category below.

Pretty skookum, eh?

But I haven't mentioned the best part yet: this isn't a something-for-nothing deal, it's a contest, and contests equal prizes. That's right, the first place winner in each category is going to get a Nikon Coolpix L24 digital camera. And second place will get one of our very own Seahugger T-shirts (then you can be cool like us too).

So visit the Ocean Exposures homepage and get all the details you need to enter. I'm counting on you. You're my only link to this elusive thing called summer.

No purchase necessary. Contest open to Canadians excluding Quebec residents. There are two first place prizes: two Nikon Coolpix L24 cameras, retail value $110 each, and two second place prizes: two LOS Seahugger T-shirts, retail value $25 each. Contest closes on September 30, 2011. The winner will be announced on October 18, 2011.

Yvonne Etzkorn is the Living Oceans Society Donor Relations Coordinator. Normally she can be found working happily in the garden or cooking delicious things or hiking with her husband. However, current weather conditions have forced her to take to an early hibernation.