• KRISSY SAUTER
• Incense coils hang ready at the Man Mo Temple in Hong Kong with HÃng BÄo, red lucky envelopes, carrying offerings or prayers for bygone ancestors.

Krissy Sauter, from Claremont, Calif., is a graduate of the University of Arizona School of Journalism. Ever since graduation, Sauter has spent a majority of her time teaching and traveling to far exotic places like New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Belize, Uruguay, and Argentina. Along the way, Sauter returned and refined her photographic eye that she spent four years developing while in school in Tucson.

The California native recently made a trip to Hong Kong just in time for all the preparations and decorations to go up for China's big day on Feb. 14, when the Year of the Tiger begins.

Sauter is now back in California, working on her photojournalism career. To see more of Sauter's work, visit her blog here.

• KRISSY SAUTER
• Visitors and patrons to the Man Mo Temple in Hong Kong light candles and burn incense to honor their ancestors.

• DAVID H. McERLEAN
• Karl W. Hoffman, a border photographer, explores the railroad fence on the U.S.-Mexico Border. Hoffman has spent the past few years covering border issues dealing with immigration.

David H. McErlean, a Laguna Niguel, Calif. transplant, is an advanced photographer at the University of Arizona School of Journalism. McErlean excells in underwater photography and aspires to pursue a career in documentary photography, film making and multimedia production.

McErlean, who has photographed subjects such as a rape tree located on the U.S.-Mexico Border, border journalist Karl W. Hoffman and other border-related issues, is also an advanced diver who is working on his master diver certification to further enhance his underwater photography.

For more of McErlean's work, visit his Web site. or his photography blog at VII Visionaires.

• DAVID H. McERLEAN
• A school of fish swarm around coral on a reed in the Sea of Cortez, off the coast of San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico. San Carlos is the top diving destination to visit from Tucson, Ariz.

Reader John Nemerovski recently sent us this delightful e-mail:

John "Nemo" Nemerovski's BEST OF TUCSON(R) Photo Essay, featuring Nemo's daughter Sheba, visiting from Chicago. We studied Tucson Weekly's 2009 BEST OF TUCSON(R) special section three times through, choosing places to visit that were interesting and reasonably convenient during Sheba's three day trip to Tucson.

• FANTASY COMICS on First Avenue was our first stop. We were awed by the organization, quantity, and depth of the comic titles. Sheba purchased a "creepy" graphic novel, that she read while we were not out and about on our tour.

• THE BAGELRY on Campbell had closed at 2. We were disappointed, but vowed to return earlier in the day, as soon as possible.

• SAMANTHA M. SAIS/NYTI
• Ian Lewis, 8, who has Asperger syndrome, plays "hand dinosaurs" with a classmate before beginning class work at Drachman Montessori Magnet School in Tucson.

Samantha M. Sais is a student at the University of Arizona School of Journalism with a focus in photojournalism. Sais is also going for her bacherlor in fine arts for photography. Sais is a former intern for Metromix.com and at the Tucson Weekly and is a freelance contributor for the Weekly.

Sais, the president of the Journalism Student Advisory Council at the School of Journalism, is a participant on the photo desk at The New York Times Student Journalism Institute. Sais joins six other UA students in the workshop and 22 other students from around the country.

More of Sam's work here

Visit The New York Times Student Journalism Institute here