Try the gasp or giggle test. If you show your photos to friends and family and their response is "ooh, aah, wow," chances are good that you should send in the photo. If their reaction is a hearty laugh or an amazed, "How did you ever get that picture?" the judges will probably want to see it, too.

We suspected that a lot of people had taken pictures of the storm, but the quality and volume was still surprising. So many good ones were received that we had to institute a "gasp" test. If people in the newsroom didn't gasp when they saw a photo, it went into the also-ran pile.