Congratulations to Eleanor Caputo, whose photograph of Mono Lake, California, earns top honors in OP’s Your Favorite Places 2009 Photo Contest. Prizes include $1,000, a Tamrac Aero Speed Pack 85 Dual Access Photo/Laptop Backpack, a Duggal 16x24-inch print of her photo and a Gitzo GT2541 Carbon Fiber tripod with GH2780QR head.

As she passed by the lake on a spontaneous drive to Death Valley last spring, Caputo found the clear sky and calm water so inspiring that she instantly saw her shot. “I walked around a bit to find my composition, and then I spotted the little white piece of driftwood perfectly and naturally placed on the shallow shores,” she recalls. “It made a great foreground anchor to help give the image depth and perspective.”