An image of children at play in an African village is the People's Choice winner in Gettysburg College's second annual Photo of the Day contest.

Lucy Marinova, Class of 2012, submitted the shot, which garnered 297 of 1,071 votes cast in an online poll in the summer issue of the College magazine. The overall total was nearly triple last year's tally of 392.

Marinova, her classmate Munya Choga, and Peace Corps volunteer Jen Lazuta, Class of 2007, created a library in Bougounam, Burkina Faso, where Lazuta lives. The winning photo shows "three of the children from the village," Marinova wrote. "They play with tires and sticks because they don't have any toys." More of Marinova's photos from Burkina Faso are here.

Marinova is the winner of a Canon Powershot SD780IS camera that shoots both still images and HD video.

The same prize goes to the Editors Award winner. Andrew Maturo, Class of 2011, records a moment in a cafe on an island off the coast of Athens during the Gettysburg College Jazz Ensemble Mediterranean Tour of 2008. The panel of judges — including campus editors and graphic designers as well as a current art student — noted Maturo's success in frankly capturing his three subjects' strong but very different moods in a composition of oranges and blues.

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Coming in a close second in the People's Choice poll, with 243 votes, was a rainbow arcing over Plank Gym, Masters Hall, and Glatfelter Hall. It was shot by Jeff Steinour, Class of 2007, who took the photo from his sophomore-year dorm room in Apple Hall. "More than anything, this photo seems to capture that atmosphere of warm friendship and 'new beginnings' brought on by another fall semester at Gettysburg," wrote his classmate Andrew Stinson, who submitted the image.

Third, with 227 votes, was a shot that Ashleigh Zicker, Class of 2013, took during one of this past winter's big snowstorms. "This small, but vibrant, tree (located next to the Chapel and across from DPS) was one of the only signs of life during an early morning walk," she wrote.

Totals for all eight People's Choice finalists, in the order in which they appeared on the balloting page, were:

Maturo, Greek cafe, 46
Marinova, children of Burkina Faso, 297
Jessica Lee '13, environmental studies in the Rocky Mountains, 99
Harriet Manice '12, "A Silhouette Story," 48
Ping Zhu '12, Chinese village, 33
Ashleigh Zicker '13, red tree in snow, 227
Thomas Pace '03, Penn Hall with autumn leaves, 78
Steinour, campus rainbow, 243

Forty-five individuals submitted images this year. One non-finalist images received a "write-in" vote. It was "Students of today and tomorrow," submitted by Bill and Sandy Wert, parents of Vanessa Curran, Class of 2013. It showed her with her 2-year-old sister Laurel Wert on the steps of Penn Hall.

Submissions for Photo of the Day are always welcome. Anyone is eligible. Photos can be taken anywhere in the world, at any time past or present, as long as there is a connection to the Gettysburg College community, including alumni, families, students, faculty, and staff.

A one-vote margin decided 2009's contest. The winner was Jen Lech, Class of 2010, who studied abroad in Seville, Spain and captured her prize-winning image during a week-long side trip to Morocco, where she was part of a caravan that spent the night at an oasis in the Sahara desert. "It's pretty hard to hold the camera steady on the back of a camel," she said. (A profile of Lech includes more of her photos.)

Founded in 1832, Gettysburg College is a highly selective four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences with a strong academic tradition that includes Rhodes Scholars, a Nobel laureate and other distinguished scholars among its alumni. The college enrolls 2,600 undergraduate students and is located on a 200-acre campus adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania.

Contact: Jim Hale, senior staff writer