It's time to vote for the best "Pink" photos from among the 50 finalists as chosen by our judge, New England native D. Sharon Pruitt. The top 3 finishers win gift cards worth $100 for First Place, $50 for Second, and $25 for Third.

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When I chose a color as the theme for October, I was looking for a bit of a break from tradition, opting for something a bit more abstract than many of the themes we usually tackle. And when I asked professional photographer D. Sharon Pruitt of Utah to be our judge, I had unconventionality in mind as well.

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So I was cruising around the Web, looking for Pink photos and just reading on the topic of using color as a contest theme, when I came across an interesting site called Pink Sherbet Photography belonging to a Utah photographer.

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Folks, the October 'Pink' contest has some of the best photos we've ever received. We've built five galleries to show them off. Later, I'll introduce our judge ... she's pretty interesting!
Gallery 1 | Gallery 2 | Gallery 3 | Gallery 4 | Gallery 5

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Please check the tags on your October entries ... some of you have neglected to make your month tag October2009 ... instead you wrote simply October, so your "Pink" photos are showing up in the "Get Close" contest we had a year ago. To reiterate, the 4 tags for this month are Boston.com, contest, October2009, pink. Thanks...

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She wasn't really into pink herself, my good friend Sarah; she favored more muted earth tones -- they went better with her light brown hair and fair complexion that tanned to a warm glow by August.

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FIRST PLACE -- $100

izzysmama says: "Our cat Tilly. I'm surprised she let me get this close to her; she's not the friendliest cat ever." Camera info: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, focal length 60mm, 1/250, f/6.3, ISO 400.

Of this photo, Globe assistant chief photographer John Blanding, who chose the winners, said: "The eye color is stunning. You could even say the photo is a little scary, but it epitomizes the 'Get Close' theme."

Congratulations to izzysmama for taking home the $100 first prize. The rest of the winners:

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I've taken your comments to heart, and although a few of you advocated keeping the public voting, the majority -- some of whom left comments below, others who emailed me -- would prefer having a professional choose the winners.

Here are my thoughts:

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The October "Get Close" contest is over, and we have 208 entries. I've posted all that are eligible in this gallery; if you don't see yours, let me know by dropping a line to raw@boston.com.

I'm not sure when we'll get the Voting Machine posted because of the election, but in the meantime, look over the entries in the gallery (click through to see it) below and start to make your choices.

And start shooting for the November contest: "Motion" was the winning theme. The deadline is midnight Nov. 30; again, we'll post the November Flickr Uploader as soon as we get out of the political thicket.

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Time to start submitting your best Get Close photos for the October contest. As I told you in an earlier item, Get Close captured 30% of the RAW vote. Motion was second with 26%, followed by Silhouettes, 21%; Curves, 12%, and The Color Purple, 11%.

What do we mean by Get Close?

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In November or December, we will start to feature two contests, with different themes, per month: One will be a General category for topics of widespread interest. The other will be a Challenge category for more advanced amateurs who want to stretch their imaginations and test the limits of their cameras and lenses.

Meanwhile, it's time to choose the theme for October. And please leave suggestions for future themes. Thanks.

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