Every month we choose for recognition three photos from among those contributed to the report by member newspapers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. From these we select a Photo of the Month and two honorable mentions.

2000
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1999
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August

How I got the picture

Jones:

"On Aug. 30 at about 8:05 a.m., my father, Robert Jones, a retired Air Force fireman, phoned me with a scoop. The Iron Mountain House was on fire. Minutes prior to the call I had pretty much decided I was going to call into the office and take a personal day due to a twisted ankle from the evening before.

"After thanking my father for the hot news, I once again got comfortable on the sofa. A minute later, The Sun's community editor, Bart Bachman, phoned with a similar message. I told him I knew about the fire and was on my way out the door. It looked like I was working after all.

" Three minutes later, as I was actually, really heading out the door this time, my wife Lynn called to ask if I'd heard about the fire. Three phone calls in five minutes usually means it's big news.

"Upon arrival at the Iron Mountain House, firemen and local residents told me I'd missed the shot - a resident was evacuated from the fourth story of the burning building by the North Conway Fire Department's ladder truck.

"I continued shooting though and it was the tenth frame on my roll of 400-speed Fuji film that produced my best image. Using a 70-210 Nikon zoom lens I was able to capture three firemen leaving the roof of the landmark hotel as flames spread quicker than anyone thought they would."

Honorable mentions went to Raj Chawla of The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press for an Aug. 24 shot of a woman in a field of sunflowers in Jericho, Vt., and to Herb Swanson of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald for his photo from Aug. 27 of striking Bath Iron Works employees.