Grand Prize, Minolta Maum 9 with Minolta AF 85mm ƒ/l.4 portrait lens: “The Thinker” by Montano St. Jules, Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario.

“I make photographs to see how they affect people,” says St. Jules, “and this was a magical shot.”

He noticed the heart-shaped locket a year earlier when he photographed the family with their older child. The locket somehow inspired a vision, which he eagerly shared with the couple. He invited them to call if they were ever expecting another baby.

One day, that call came.

“I wanted something that emphasized the baby, where the hands could represent the parents. The bowl shape is a natural one, a gesture of the hands,” he adds. “It’s an offering of the child to the world.”

The shot required an assistant to keep the month-old infant bundled up, while the father and the mother stood behind a black velvet cloth. It took six hours to complete. St. Jules used a soft light box and a Pentax 67 with APX 100 (Agfapan) film.

The image was developed in Pyro Gallo (which he read about in PT). “My desire was to create a unique composition that captured the universally recognized beauty of human creation,” St Jules says. “The design was to encompass the mother and the father, but also to emphasize the product of their love, the child.”