Fame! Glory! Lucre (although not filthy lucre…)! A zen-like state of well-being and oneness with the world!

All of these are deserved by the winners of our first annual photo contest. [I hope you careful readers out there note the deliberate use of the word “deserved,” because while the lucre may be deserved, it cannot be provided at this point — however, we can provide some fantastic Apogee gear — and isn’t that better than money, anyway?]

First, thanks very much to everyone who submitted photos for the contest — we had a great selection, and it was a lot of fun for your humble judges to relive moments from the summer all over again! From a large number of submissions, however, we were able to narrow it down to three winners in two categories. We have a winner and two honorable mentions in our “student” category, and a winner and two honorable mentions in our “leader” category. We’ll post our student winners today, and our leader winners tomorrow.

To pick our winners, we were looking for shots that were nicely composed, that portrayed the great places Apogee’s trips go, and had a certain, well, a certain je ne sais pas, a spirit that — much like Monet at Giverny – catches the essence, the spirit, the zeitgeist, as it were, of our trips. With that in mind, we humbly submit to you our 2010 winners:

Without further ado — our 2010 Student winner is Isobella Stanton. Izzy participated in this summer’s America Coast to Coast trip, and she took this shot at dusk, somewhere in the Great American West. Her picture, the first picture below, captures not only the rugged beauty of the West, but also the indescribable feelings that come with a long day in the saddle, ever looking toward the horizon, but also most certainly in the moment, too.

Just below Izzy’s shot is that of her ACC pal, Zoe Thompson. Zoe’s picture is from about a thousand miles down the road, at the Pacific Ocean in San Diego. Her picture captures the pure joy, the relief, the camaraderie and the pride of accomplishment that every participant on that trip enjoys during that beach-side celebration.

And last but certainly not least, is Tristen Fekete’s shot from the Coast of Maine. Tristen took this shot during the course of his Coast to Quebec trip — and this very artfully composed picture neatly captures the beauty of the Maine coast, the warmth of summer, and indeed, something of the very spirit of youth, don’t you think?

So — hearty congratulations to our winners, thanks to everyone who contributed and stay tuned for tomorrow’s leader winners! [Winners — we’ll be in touch with you very shortly about getting you your (amazing) awards.]