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Thanks for the good job, and congratulations to celebration and the other participants! 
And not just the usual mixed feelings of having to host the next contest.
First, thanks rdking647 for an outstanding job!
I entered this photo for the educational value, which I rated high, not for anything spectacular that I did with it photographically. My photo won simply because the place was beautiful. I am glad the photo reflected that, but it was not difficult to do.
The aqueduct itself is really amazing, as it supplies the entire city of Kyoto with water, and the canal winds through the city. There is a path along the canal called the Philosopher's Path. The setting of the aqueduct is very serene--a Buddhist Temple. People go from all over Japan and walk on the Philosopher's Path in cherry blossom season. The whole setting is a wonderful mix of the western style of the columned aqueduct and the eastern style Buddhist temple. I spent a long time trying to understand the flow of the water, but, alas, some parts of the aqueduct were behind a fence. I was in wonderment of the whole thing, as I really do like technology of all sorts, though I generally don't photograph it.
Here are some more photos from the Temple, the Aqueduct, and from Philosopher's Path:
Here are the stairs I climbed to get to the top of the aqueduct:
You can walk around on the top of it!
Here is part of the canal that winds around Kyoto--(kind of an offshoot of Philosopher's Path I think)
I'll have a poll ready by tomorrow at the latest, for September's subject. It will probably be a 48 hour poll, because I like people to have as many weekends as possible to try to get new material, should the photographers choose to enter a new photo. Because we have not done this in awhile, I will have people submit photos to me, so people won't know the photographer.
Beautiful photography there and in this thread! 
