FIRST PLACE - $100

My name is Mark Sarver and I was honored to participate as a judge in the Boston.com photography contest.

My background is as a photographer and a teacher of digital imaging, printing, and design, and as a digital technician hired by many photography professionals to enhance their images and realize their vision.

The theme this month was "the human form." I interpret "the human form" to mean the study of the human body using design, shape, and light. Many great portraits, editorial portraits, and action shots were submitted, but they didn't quite fit the theme.

Within the Final 50 were some images that would have been better with a simple crop. Others could have been enhanced by shooting in RAW and using better image processing.

The images I ranked highest were those using design, shape, and light to say something about the human form.

Thank you for this opportunity to participate as a judge.

Mark Sarver

Here is a gallery of Mark's Final 50 choices. Look for his Top 10 on Wednesday.

I know you all think I have been in Timbuktu for awhile, but I've actually been on two major projects. I apologize for neglecting you. But some good news: We have a terrific judge for the March "Human Form" contest: Mark Sarver, a freelance photographer and technical consultant who formerly taught at the New England School of Photography.

We've done several themes lately in which we haven't had to include people in our photos, so let's challenge ourselves to capture images of people while at the same time celebrating the human body.

Despite his experience and professional achievements, our judge, James Worrell, admitted that he had a tough time making his final choices. And on top of that, "It was really tough to pick 3 out of my top 10!"

But choose he did, and here are the results:

The results are in! With fewer than 100 eligible submissions this month, we asked our judge, James Worrell, to choose 25 finalists instead of 50. He did so, and sent this comment:

Even though the instructions for our March contest were to empty your pockets and pocketbooks and start photographing (I think I'll skip the phrase "shooting" this month), the critical part of the instructions was to arrange the items in an interesting or creative way.

In essence, we were photographing still lifes -- just with unexpected items. So when I looked for a judge, I wanted someone with an expertise in this field. And I found one.

Keys, wallets, iPods, iPhones, lipstick, cell phones, money, watches, credit cards, Chap Stick, insulin pumps, combs, pill boxes, hand sanitizer, pacifiers, receipts, hair clips, tweezers, glasses, lozenges, gum, diapers, toys, paper clips, inhalers, losing lottery tickets -- and of course, camera equipment -- clutter up the pockets and pocketbooks of the RAW amateur photographers who entered our March "The Items We Carry" contest.

I came across a cool Flickr group: The Items We Carry. The criteria for that group is simple, and one I'll adopt for this contest: Take a photo of the most commonly found items in your pockets or on your person, arranged.

There were a few twists and turns with the March contest, but in the end, photographers Lance Keimig and Christian Waeber combined to choose an impressive array of strong images that best illustrated the theme, "Nighttime is the right time."

Time to close voting and move on with the choices for the 10 best "Nighttime" photos. There's a little wrinkle this time, thanks to the honesty of our judge.

Our March judge, professional photographer Lance Keimig, has made his selection of the 50 finalists from among 300 photos entered in the "Nighttime is the right time" contest.

I've finished the final gallery for the March "Nighttime" contest -- Gallery 6. If you don't see your photo in any of the galleries, it's because:

a) It was a sunset, dusk, or twilight shot
b) It wasn't taken at night
c) You entered more than one photo

See all the entries as they appear on Flickr here.

If you think I made a mistake, which believe me, is highly likely, just send me a note at raw@boston.com.

Folks, Lance Keimig and I were unable to keep our Monday evening appointment to judge the March "Nighttime" contest, so it's rescheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11 a.m. I'll keep you posted.

Lance Keimig, a professional photographer who specializes in night photography, has agreed to judge our March contest, with the theme "Nighttime is the right time."

Well, I have jury duty today, folks, but over the weekend I built two more galleries of March contest entries. So we have 4 galleries done, containing 200 of your photos in all. As of right now, there are just 72 more photos to feature, but given that you still have until midnight Tuesday to enter, we just may surpass 300 photos.

Here are the galleries I've built so far: Gallery 1 | Gallery 2 | Gallery 3 | Gallery 4

Here's more about the theme, and here's how to enter.

Once I get all the contest entries posted, I'll get back to your Wildlife shots. That's not a contest; that's just a call for photos. And dozens of you have sent in some pretty great pictures.

We're up to 138 entries for the March "Nighttime" photo contest. I've built two galleries of your photos so far, each containing 50 photos. Gallery 1 is here, and Gallery 2 is here. More to come.

Getting a head start on posting the contest entries this month. As you know, the theme is "Nighttime is the right time," and we're asking for real night shots: No sunsets, no twilights. Here's more about the theme, and if you want to enter, here's how to do it.

Meanwhile, here's a gallery of the first 50 entries. More to come.

Before I talk more about this month's theme, I want to mention a rule for this month's contest right off the bat: Let's be a little stricter, and therefore a little more challenging, with this theme: These must be true night shots. That means after dark. No sunsets, no dusks, no twilights. Ah ha!

Night photography can produce some of the most beautiful pictures you've ever seen -- and some of the most disappointing. Here's why: