Here are the winners of the 2017 Cottage Life photo contest

On a September evening, Ryan McKie was taking a break from fishing on La Cloche Lake, Ont., when he noticed the late-summer sun peeking through the trees. “I took the photo right from where I was standing, cooking dinner over the fire,” he says. “I usually have an eye for a good photo; I snap a lot of pictures, but I can’t believe how well this one turned out.” He knew he had a stellar shot when he showed the photo to his family and friends. “They’re all familiar with the area, but even they didn’t think it was taken on our lake.”

Mikey Pauls was fishing in front of his family cabin on Lake Winnipeg, Man., when Mother Nature put on a truly exceptional display. “I knew about an hour before I went out that it was going to be a nice sunset,” says Mikey. He liked this shot best out of the three or four he took. “I’m pretty finicky with the details, and I like the way the water looks in this one, especially that splash that hit right as the wave met the shore,” he says. “It’s a sentimental spot for me.”

Michael Fox was hiking and mountain biking around backcountry Tenquille Lake, B.C., with friends when he spotted the moon rising on a September night. “I took a few photos earlier in the evening, but as it got later, I noticed the light changing, so I went back to the same place and took this shot,” he says. He used a mirrorless camera, a lightweight option he takes along when he’s hiking. “It’s a beautiful setting: the lake is calm, the mountain has a fresh dust of snow on it, there’s a little bit of a chill in the air, and the light was really something unique that night.”

Anne Masson’s kids Trace, 12, Kate, 9, and Taylor, 9, along with their friend Fox Heaps, 9 (far left), spent hours on the water trampoline at the Heaps’ cottage on Lake of Bays, Ont. “When I was framing the shot, I tried to avoid shadows falling on them,” says Anne. “But my goal was to capture the moment; they were just being kids.” The water was chilly that day, but “they were smiling, it wasn’t posed, and they were having fun,” she says. “It’s not bad, the life of a kid at the cottage.”

Venturing into town for a cool treat is a common practice at Steve Marsland’s cottage on Head Lake, Ont. His daughters, Sarah, 8, and Bee, 6, “love their ice cream,” he says. “This time, when we got there, they ran up and jumped into the window,” says Steve. “I didn’t even think about it; I just pulled out my phone and took the photo.” Steve’s family has only owned their cottage for a year and a half, but out of all the pictures they’ve taken in that time, “this is one of my favourites,” he says.

It was late August when Brad Bateman noticed a lone cicada crawling up his trellis. “The sound of cicadas is obviously a main feature at the cottage,” says Brad, whose family has been cottaging on Boshkung Lake, Ont., since 1936. He used his SLR camera, tripod, and Nikkor macro lens. “It was walking slowly enough that I could take the picture. It didn’t seem too disturbed by me,” says Brad. “Macro photography lets you see that there is more than meets the eye to whatever you’re shooting.”

Last spring, Becky Inglis and her husband were cleaning up and prepping for the sum- mer ahead at their Drag Lake, Ont., cottage when she snapped this picture. “We have a beach right in front of our cottage, so we’re used to seeing the tadpoles hatch every year,” says Becky. When she saw so many, she grabbed her SLR camera. “I wanted to get down as low as I could to get a better perspective.” The shallow water offered a clear view of the tadpoles. “We watch them grow up every year. It’s nice to see,” she says.

Alannah Virtanen submitted this photo of her dad, Timo, and her grandfather, Veilli Matti, taken while they were visiting friends on Balsam Lake, Ont., in the late ’50s. Cottaging and fishing were familiar to them when they came to Canada from Finland. “Having a sauna on a lake is common in Finland,” she says, “so, early on, they were hooked by the Canadian cottage lifestyle.” Her dad became an avid fisherman and now lives in cottage country. “I really like that this photo shows the bonding experience that can exist between father and son,” she says. “Plus, my dad looks really cute in it.”