CARRBORO — Emmy Marshall takes her camera when she paddles on Falls Lake, looking for unusual images. Last January, she was struck by the sight of a curved branch arching out of the water. , That day the water was rippling heavily, creating a striking background pattern of blue and green, and the branch together with its reflection mirrored on the surface formed the shape of a heart. She focused and snapped.

“It reminded me of a primitive image. It almost looked like antlers,” said Marshall, 53, a consultant for N.C. Partnership for Children.

“That’s the fun thing, when you carry your camera around and you’re in the right place at the right time.”

Her, ‘River Heart,” and more than 80 others are on display at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro. They represent just fewer than half the total number of photographs entered in the ArtsCenter’s 2008 community photography contest.

Entry fees for the contest went to the scholarship program for children’s and family programs. The contest generated $1,485 for scholarships,said Brooke Williams Kesterson, director of Children’s and Family Programs.

The photographs on display capture other beautiful and striking images in nature, from a tree in full greenery along Bolin Creek to a closeup of a nestful of baby cardinals with their heads thrust back, beaks open, crying for food.

Other images depict playful moments: a young girl in huge sunglasses, people swimming in the ocean, a black dog’s paws on a sandy beach.

Alexa Garvoille submitted a self-portrait piece in which she appears three times, entitled “Self Portrait in Green.” Why green?

“I think the way that it worked out, I had those green candlesticks and those green mats, it was kind of coincidental. Then I got in the green dress,” said Garvoille, 23, who does photography and layout design for a small, independent literary and arts magazine called FOLIO.

The image captures the reflection of herself taking the photograph in a mirror over the dining table. Somehow, she’s also sitting in both chairs at the table.

“I was thinking of the different relationships you can have with yourself,” Garvoille said. “The one on the right is kind of jealously looking over at the one posing for the camera, so I was thinking of green as in jealousy.”

The photographs will be on display in the lobby through May.