Congratulations to Ali Zein Yousuf for winning Onward State’s Fall Photo contest! Mr. Yousuf will be winning a $25 gift certificate to bar bleu for his fantastic picture.

I wanted to thank everyone that submitted photos to the photo contest. You made picking the winner incredibly difficult, which was a problem I was hoping we’d have. I’m looking forward to see submissions in future Onward State photo contests.

If you take a sweet picture, don’t forget that you can add it to our Facebook fan page. We’d love to get some reader photos there!

Ali’s photo show a great range of brightness and darkness, while preserving the outstanding colors of the maple tree and surrounding foliage. The shadow cast by the tree casts arguably one of the coolest shadows I’ve seen made by a tree (and believe me, I’ve seen my fair share of tree shadows).

After the break, you’ll find the three photos that tied for second place. Check it out!

Taken from the top of the parking deck adjacent to the Nittany Lion Inn, Ben’s photo captures a huge swath of Happy Valley. With Old Main and Tussey Mountain located in the upper right hand corner, Ben uses the rules of thirds to his advantage.

I’m glad he just likes taking picture of leaves in the fall because this picture is fantastic. The spectrum of leaf colors is incredibly varied giving the picture a certain element of depth. Alex used the sun, which was obviously pretty high in the sky at the time of this photograph, to enhance the colors of the leaves without letting the photos become washed out.

This photo was my personal favorite. She combines the changing leaves with the presence of the person studying in the brisk fall weather. I found myself actually envious of the person in the picture after looking at this photo for long enough. Kate managed to get yellow, orange and red leaves in this picture which is contrasted by the still-green grass and brown leaves scattered on the ground.