Buy our December 2024 issue here. Cover photo: Kathleen Bence
There’s a story—and a potential photo opportunity—in every corner of New Jersey, from the natural wonders of our landscape to the architecture of our cities to the characters who make our state unique. This contest celebrates all of it. Since 2018, New Jersey Monthly and Unique Photo have invited readers to submit their photos of New Jersey to our annual cover search, which is open to professional, amateur and student photographers.
The grand prize winner is featured on the cover of the December issue. This fall, the editorial team at NJM reviewed this year’s 1,451 submissions for originality, technical excellence, composition, artistic merit and relevance to life in New Jersey. We narrowed down the pool to 100 finalists for our expert judging panel* to review, using the same criteria. NJM, with Unique, then named the winners you see on these pages.
Through this process, we selected a grand prize winner, a runner-up, a student winner, 10 awards of excellence and 25 honorable mentions. We invited readers to vote online for their favorite image—the Jersey Choice winner. In addition to having their photos published in NJM, honorees received photo equipment and gift cards from Unique, and supporting sponsor Just Jersey provided additional prizes.
[RELATED: See All Previous Cover Contest Winners Here]
COVER WINNER:
Flock of Seagulls
Kathleen Bence
@kathleenjbencephotography
📍: Avalon
📸: Nikon Z6
With a family-portrait shoot scheduled on a cool September day in Avalon, photographer Kathleen Bence arrived a little early to spend time on the beach. “I love the beach, being from New Jersey my whole life,” says Kathleen, of Boonton. That’s when she saw this scene, the largest swell of shorebirds she’d ever witnessed, unfolding. “I said, ‘I’m not going to walk away from this. I see something coming.’” Kathleen loves the unexpected nature of this photo, as well as the playfulness that shines through.
RUNNER-UP:
Solitude
Sri Reddy
@klickzbysri
📍: Sandy Hook
📸: Nikon Z6 II
“Sometimes, disappointment leads to happiness,” Sri Reddy says of this photo, taken in Sandy Hook. He’d planned the drive down the Shore from his Princeton Junction home because “all my apps were showing a great sunset.” Upon arrival, and to his dismay, it was cloudy. But then Sri saw this minimalistic scene. He used long-exposure photography. Sri calls himself a “nature photographer at heart,” tracing his love of the outdoors to his younger days in India, when he was in the military and stationed in remote, wooded areas.
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE:
A Time for Celebration
Frank Little
@franklittlephotography
📍: Hoboken Waterfront
📸: Nikon Z8
A fireworks display is easy for any New Jerseyan to picture. What’s not so easy? Capturing a picture of the spectacle. Photographing a finale is even more difficult; with so much light, shots are often overexposed. Frank Little, who took this vibrant, colorful image during the Hoboken Italian Festival, specializes in fireworks photography. “It’s hard to get a good finale shot,” he says. “This time it, worked out.” He used a remote and clicked off shots. When photographing fireworks, “you really have to be on your toes. For 15 minutes, the adrenaline is running.” Photography has been a lifelong hobby and passion. A documentary short about him, called Frank Little, was released in 2020. Shown at several film fests, it won best documentary at his hometown Cranford Film Festival.
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE:
Lily as Moana
William Ludwig
@billylud
📍: Sandy Hook
📸: Canon EOS-1D X Mark III
A first visit to the Shore is a rite of passage for any New Jerseyan. Two-year-old Lilyana was lucky enough to have the joy of her inaugural trip captured gloriously by photographer William Ludwig. At first, Lilyana was timid and overwhelmed by her birthday jaunt to the beach, but then, “something just clicked that the beach is the best place to be. I feel the same way,” says William, a professional photographer of about 15 years and a friend of Lilyana’s parents. Here, Lilyana is dressed up as the Disney character Moana; for her first birthday, which William also photographed, she dressed up as Ariel from The Little Mermaid. William, born and raised in New Jersey, works at an e-commerce company running creative and taking photos, and also shoots weddings, maternity photos and family portraits. He lives in Parlin, Middlesex County.
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE:
Beauty in the Weeds
Lynn Heyns
@happycamperphotolady
📍: Holland Ridge Farms, Cream Ridge
📸: Nikon Z6
For Lynn Heyns, the title of this photo, Beauty in the Weeds, has a double meaning. “There were beautiful flowers in the weeds, and also beauty in the weeds themselves,” says Lynn, of East Windsor. She captured this photo while lying on the ground at Holland Ridge Farms in Cream Ridge on the last day of the annual tulip festival. She took it with the Nikon Z6 camera she received in 2022 as the grand prize winner of this contest for her image Art & Music in Asbury Park. Lynn is a licensed Realtor in Princeton Junction with a photography degree from Rutgers who previously owned two one-hour photo stores.
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE:
Hunter’s Feast
Daniel Rodriguez Gomez
@picturethat_dan
📍: Flat Rock Brook, Englewood
📸: Nikon D850
Daniel Rodriguez Gomez, an avid hiker and photographer, often visits Flat Rock Brook, a 150-acre nature preserve in Englewood. On the day he captured this photo, he was walking through the preserve’s raptor aviary, which provides refuge to birds of prey that can’t survive in the wild, and saw a great horned owl devouring an afternoon snack. Although many nature photos are peaceful, he likes that this one shows a different, yet equally real, side of the animal kingdom. “Nature isn’t always calm and serene; sometimes it’s violent, and there’s something beautiful about that, too.” Daniel, of North Bergen, takes photos in his spare time and calls it “my go-to whenever I have a rough day.” Daniel also uses photography as a form of expression.
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE:
Panache No More
Darren Sussman
wawarphotography.com
📍: Cape May
📸: Sony A7R4
When Darren Sussman caught wind that a sailboat had been abandoned off the shore of Cape May, he and his photography buddy Alex jumped in the car and made the two-hour drive there from Hamilton. The conditions weren’t great. It was the middle of winter, a freezing-cold day. Parking wasn’t available near the site, so the duo trekked through snowy sand to get there. It was a cloudy day, but right as they arrived, the sun began to peek through. Even so, the dark weather adds to the photograph, giving it a dramatic and almost gloomy feel. “If this had been taken on a sunny day, it wouldn’t nearly be the same picture,” Darren says. Strangely, just two days after Darren took this photo, the boat, called Panache, mysteriously went up in flames and was destroyed.
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE:
Last-Minute Adjustments
Miroslav Vrzala
photoartbymark.zenfolio.com
📍: NJ Lottery Festival of Ballooning
📸: Fujifilm GFX 50S
Miroslav Vrzala likes to show a different perspective of the giant hot air balloons so many of us love watching in the sky. He took this image at the New Jersey Lottery Festival of Ballooning in Readington in 2023, arriving at the fairgrounds at 5:15 am, in time to photograph the balloons being inflated. “I just stick my camera in through the openings in the balloons,” he says of his process. He walked or jogged from balloon to balloon and photographed as many as he could. He particularly likes the colors, designs and shadows in this photo; the balloon seen here is shaped like a birthday cake, and the red parts are the candles. Miroslav is an amateur photographer who retired from his painting business two years ago.
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE:
Fair-Weather Street Fair
Jaime Glover
@shangosoul
📍: Plainfield
📸: Sony A7 III
While rain at the end of August’s Queen City Street Fair may not have pleased the attendees experiencing their final moments of fun, it provided the perfect backdrop for this photo taken by Jaime Glover. As station manager of Plainfield Community Television, Jaime was out with a crew covering the fair. It had been forecast to rain all day, but the weather held out until 8:30 pm, as the festivities were winding down. As drops began to fall, kids and couples ran to get out of the rain, while others pulled out umbrellas or started dancing. Jaime started taking photos. “The sky opened up….It was a magical moment,” says Jaime, who took two shots—the first one blurry, the second clear. Jaime calls black-and-white photos with contrast “my thing.” We have to agree.
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE:
Morning Has Broken
Linda Powers
@lindapowers
📍: Hardwick Township
📸: Nikon D7500
Dawn is Linda Powers’s favorite time of day. It’s quiet, still and peaceful. “As the sun comes up, we’re all able to make a fresh start every morning,” she says. On a cold and icy winter day at dawn, she took this photo in tiny Hardwick Township, Warren County, at an old farm. “It tells the story of Hardwick,” says Linda. “It’s a rural, quiet community; they don’t even have a post office.” One of Linda’s favorite things about this photo: “If you put the picture upside down, it works,” she says, referring to the reflection in the water. “It works both ways.” Linda owns a small real estate company, but calls going out with a camera “therapy.” She mostly shoots nature, flowers and wildlife, or, as she calls it, “the beauty that surrounds us.”
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE:
Jersey Boys of Summer
Karlee Calamito
karleemariephotography.com
📍: Medford
📸: Nikon Z5
When Karlee Calamito took this photo of her son’s travel baseball team, it became a viral sensation in her town of Medford. “I texted it to two moms; I guess they shared it with people,” she says. “Then people were coming up to me and saying, ‘I saw your dugout picture. Did you take the dugout picture? I want that picture with my kid’s team.’” Viral sensation or not, Karlee loves the photo’s timeless nature—it could have been taken yesterday, 20 years ago, or 50 years ago. It also shows how tight-knit her son’s team is. In April, Karlee left the corporate world to pursue photography full time, and she’s carved out a niche with local sports teams. She’s never been happier.
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE:
Ladders
John Astrab
@johnastrab
📍: Princeton
📸: Sony ZV-1
John Astrab was heading out of his Princeton apartment building when this scene—with its shadows, diagonal lines, and clear, bright sunshine—made him run back inside and grab his camera. “I said, ‘Holy cow,’” he remembers. To capture this image, John performed a set of maneuvers, climbing out his kitchen window and onto the roof. He took four shots until the workers moved the ladders, changing the setting he had found so striking. This photo was one of them. “Sometimes you set up a shot, and you get back home and it’s meh. Sometimes the spontaneous ones are better.” John is a semiprofessional photographer. He retired earlier this year after 30 years running a janitorial supply business.
STUDENT AWARD:
Osprey with Catch
Ryan Shelton
📍: Union Lake, Millville
📸: Nikon Z8
The mascot of Upper Township Middle School is an osprey, but we bet most of the student body hasn’t seen one of the beautiful birds quite like this. Except for Ryan Shelton, the 14-year-old who captured this incredible moment. Ryan, who’d recently gotten his first camera for Christmas after his interest in photography deepened, was out taking pictures with a family friend at Millville’s Union Lake when the duo spotted osprey diving in and out of the water. They waited patiently for hours until one came close enough to photograph. Ryan quickly reacted. Ryan’s burgeoning hobby of wildlife and nature photography has also inspired his family to enjoy the outdoors together.
JERSEY CHOICE:
Bird in Tree
Richard “RJ” Seib
@rjlikestotakephotos
📍: 9th Street Bridge, Ocean City
📸: Canon EOS Rebel T6
When Richard “RJ” Seib, a sophomore at Rider University, heard about our cover search, he grabbed his camera and used the contest as an excuse to explore new places in his home state. “Being able to see more of the place I grew up—it was inspiring,” he says. Although he traveled near and far, RJ snapped this image close to home, in Ocean City. At Rider, RJ is studying film and television production, but has recently gotten immersed in still photography. RJ doesn’t often take photos of birds, but found something special in this peaceful sunset scene. So did the public, who voted it the Jersey Choice Award winner.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Bayville
Michael Mooney
@m.mooney_photography
📍: Bayville
HONORABLE MENTION:
Green Heron
Mizanur Rahman-Klapper
@Mizanur_RK_Photo
📍: Garret Mountain Reservation
HONORABLE MENTION:
Jersey City Underpass
Barbara Beeman
📍: Jersey City
HONORABLE MENTION:
Nymph Treading Water
Linda Beck
@lindambeckjc
📍: Edison
HONORABLE MENTION:
Saturday Night in Boonton
Dennis Maida
@dennismaidaphotography
📍: Boonton
HONORABLE MENTION:
Lambertville Reflections
Gary Becker
📍: Lambertville
HONORABLE MENTION:
Animal Crossing
Rich Lemonie
@eagle.eye.explorer
📍: I-78, Summit
HONORABLE MENTION:
Swinging Summer
Mary Lou Snyder
@mlsrhs133
📍: Wildwood Boardwalk
HONORABLE MENTION:
Peek-a-Boo Fox Kits
Maureen Murray
📍: Backyard shed, Morris Plains
HONORABLE MENTION:
Short-Eared Owl at Dusk
Marc Silver
@marcsilvernature
📍: Pennington
HONORABLE MENTION:
Meteor and Northern Lights
Patricia Worley
@twilightbluephotography
📍: Dividing Creek
HONORABLE MENTION:
Officers’ Row
Miroslav Vrzala
@miroslav_vrzala_photography
📍: Sandy Hook
HONORABLE MENTION:
Saturday at the Red Mill
Ulla Vinkman
@uvinkman
📍: Clinton
HONORABLE MENTION:
Love Birds on a Snowy Day
Jack Kosowsky
@jaxpropix / @jaxeaglepix
📍: Hamilton
HONORABLE MENTION:
Sunrise Golden Flow
Armando Arturo
@mario_poppins
📍: Paterson
HONORABLE MENTION:
Moonset Basilica
Anthony DiMatteo
@gothamcityphoto
📍: Kearny
HONORABLE MENTION:
Preakness Fair
Lyric Thompson
📍: Wayne
HONORABLE MENTION:
Sunset in Seaside Park
Chad Hoover
@cw_hoover
📍: Seaside Park
HONORABLE MENTION:
The Boys Are Back in Town
Wayne Londregan
@waynelondregan
📍: Asbury Park
HONORABLE MENTION:
Bound Brook Reflections
Beth Youmans
📍: Bound Brook
HONORABLE MENTION:
Seaside Park Beach
Deborah Gentile
📍: Seaside Park
HONORABLE MENTION:
Asbury Park Beach
Jacqueline Kappel
📍: Asbury Park
HONORABLE MENTION:
Horseshoe Crab Season
Susan Rogozinski
@suerogo0624
📍: Fortescue
HONORABLE MENTION:
Asbury Park Fisherman at Sunrise
Patrick Hoey
@patrickhhoey
📍: Asbury Park
HONORABLE MENTION:
Bay Head, New Jersey
Kate Watt
@katewattphoto
📍: Bay Head
*2024 COVER SEARCH JUDGING PANEL
Ann Coen: Ann is a New Jersey photographer who started 20 years ago as a staff photographer for the Asbury Park Press. She now heads Ann Coen Studio and, with her team, specializes in weddings, family portraits and fine-art photography. She lives in Barnegat Light with her 12-year-old son.
James J. Connolly: James is a freelance photographer in the New York metro area for corporate, editorial and commercial clients. He worked for 33 years as a staff photojournalist, photo editor and multimedia editor at the Asbury Park Press and Gannett NJ. He lives in Ocean Township with his wife and two Shetland sheepdogs.
Laura Moss: With more than two decades of industry experience, Laura is a seasoned freelance commercial photographer living in Jersey City and working across the country, specializing in capturing the essence of interiors and lifestyle. Clients include iRobot, Nest Studios, Pottery Barn and Walmart.
Joe Polillio: Joe has been a commercial photographer for more than 30 years in the New York City area, shooting lifestyle, people and architecture for editorial and advertising clients such as AT&T, Macy’s and Redbook. Joe started flight training for drones in 2015 and is the owner of Aerojo Drone Productions.
Jennifer Pottheiser: A longtime New Jersey resident, Jennifer is a commercial photographer who shoots regularly for New Jersey Monthly, JPMorgan Chase, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and other nonprofits. She is a photography lecturer and instructor and a founding partner at Drawbridge Digital.
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