We live in a world of cameras.

Cameras are now everywhere we look – and everywhere we don’t.

Cameras are in the smiling faces and loving hands of friends and family. They look down at us from freeway overpasses and from doorways and corners of stores and aisles of malls. They capture our laughs, our tears, our joy and sadness. Cameras capture us speeding through intersections and guide afternoon traffic home through freeway clogs and confusion.

Cameras are in our pockets, our phones and our computers. We click, Skype, chat, Twitter, Flickr and blog. We upload, download, archive, email, send and lose more pictures on any given day than past generations did in a lifetime.

Our double chins pop up on Facebook; our bad hair days are shown no mercy. Our children, our pets, our vacations are now documented in real-time photos. There is no escaping the multi-megapixel, auto-focus world of ever-ready digital photography.

In my generation I’ve witnessed home photography go from the Brownie Box camera and Kodak to black-and-white film and flashbulbs to Polaroids and i-Zone to Nikon Coolpix and a photo printer in every home. Snap it, print, it, frame it.

And submit it.

This year’s Just Out Amateur Photo Contest received hundreds of your travel, pet, family and friend photographs. We saw duck butts, dogs, flowers, birds and faraway places. Your photos were judged, not with professional quality standards, but with an eye toward the feelings and impressions that a first glance evoked. Did the picture tell a complete story, or depict just enough to make the viewer ask questions and want to know more? Did the image conjure a smile, bring a memory to mind?

We appreciate and reviewed every one of your pictures. All will be displayed at
Q Center beginning Monday, July 6. Each person who submitted photos will be an “Artist on Display.” As such, you are the honored guests at the opening reception. Please join us 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday evening, July 9 to peruse the photographs and talk about artistic kinda stuff.

You’re all winners, but we had to select a few to highlight. These are our favorites for 2009.

Keep shooting – We’ll see you right back here in 2010.

— Marty Davis

Our grand prize-winning photograph for 2009 comes from Donald Finch. The image was captured at the doorway of the main hangar at the Tillamook Air Museum. Finch was captivated by the “they’ve also served” vibe of the women in uniform. The importance of acknowledging the brave, bold and fighting women of World War II resonated with him.

Finch had his artwork first published as the back cover of Jack & Jill magazine when he was 8. In the ensuing five decades, he has designed special event clothing, invitations, corporate holiday cards and theatrical costumes, although he explains that he “counts other people’s money” for a living as an accountant.

Finch grew up “in the shade of LAX,” ran away from home to San Francisco at 36 and, in 2001, moved to Portland to be with his “huzbear” Michael – after 18 months of emails and three dates. They were one of the “Portland 3000” to marry in March 2004.

"These ladies in Donald Finch’s photo rock. They are butch, femme, dykes, lezzies, queer, straight, bi, androgynous, and gay as gay can be. They’ve all got on a different hat – that in itself is awesome, and they’re all wearing ties, which is sexy, sharp and really direct. Who doesn’t love a lady mannequin in a tie? Aside from the subjects themselves, this photo is very striking, with great balance and contrast, especially in terms of the models’ hair. The image catches your eye, makes you stop and think, and leaves you wondering, “Now where in the hell did this idea come from, and who was the lucky duck who got to do the set design?”

-Amy Williams, Administrative Manager

Congrats to Finch, the rest of our picks and to everyone who shared their images.

CAO DAI TEMPLE VIETNAM

DIANE PETTINGEL

“Gracious and kind, Diane represents Elder Resource Alliance well,” writes photographer Dale Jackson. “Self-identifying as intersex, Diane knows that at ERA she is welcomed and celebrated. Diane has been with ERA since 2008 and gives back to the community ... through the ERA Speaker’s Panel. Diane’s motto: ‘We all have to learn to love ourselves.'"

OREGON COAST

BASKET CASE

Photographer Tara Robinson

When it comes to photography, the subject is the most important component to me. Tara Robinson’s photo depicts the east side of Portland. Queer Portland is best found in Southeast and Northeast Portland, with all those poster poles on the street corners – I love the visual, because you know the majority of those posters are extremely outdated. Out of all the photos, this was my favorite.

Brian Michael Peterson, Advertising Assistant

Photographer Terri Grayum

I really love the contrast of colors in Terri Grayum’s “Dandelion” between the fabric and the flower. I find this image simple, and a beautiful concept. It is much like the subject in the photo itself, the dandelion’s spare yet elegant design. This photo captures my imagination as the little seeds take flight on a breeze to anywhere.

Larry Lewis, Advertising Director

Photographer Robert Richter

I’m interested in any image with eeriness as a central theme, and although I’m unsure if this is what the photographer was going for, this beauty lies in my beholden eye. It feels like a haunting has taken place in this corridor – or even scarier, that the grim reaper has been drawn from the shadows for an afternoon serenade. Beware of Pike Place Market nigh the House of Silver and Gold!

Photographer Lynne Hanson

If every picture tells a story, this one plays like a narrative collage: The disheveled tarp, the green lattice fence and battered blue-and-white barricade, that Suzuki bike, the international flavors of Bin Laden’s Café – hello, ‘Tali-ban beer.’ And then there’s “CIA Duty-Free Torture.”

The exposure, confrontational framing and visible flashbulb lighting only amplify the overall unease of the photograph. It’s political, cultural and personal. The image feels like a crime scene, an indictment, a smuggled moment – cluttered with evidence. The eye doesn’t know quite where to go. Wherever it lands, I want to know more.

Amanda Schurr, Editor

Photographer J.T. Ollett Love the tiger print!! Cliff Li

Photographer Alyce Cornyn-Selby It's a big world out there. Justin Taylor Sales Representative   Photographer J.T. Ollet Wonderful reflection of form in composition Lynda Wilkinson, Sales Representative

From all the pictures submitted for the contest, what was it about this one that stood out to me? The photo speaks to me of days gone by. It speaks of the rural life of my childhood memories, of being the daughter and granddaughter of loggers. It speaks of country life and community, of lumber, of mountains and fields. It speaks of the logging camps of those summers. It makes me remember – and long for – yesterday.

Marty Davis, Publisher