3-Column Category Posts and Featured Image

I’m struggling with pulling the first Featured Image from a series of similarly Categorized Posts. I’ve uploaded three images tsing the Media Uploader. The main page (home.php)has three horizontally aligned DIVs… each pulling a separate category with the first from the posts as a “header” image. The posts are coming-in just fine… but, I always end up with a duplication of the first Featured Image in the second Category.

Here’s the code…

<?php $minicat1 = get_option('stl_mini_category1'); $my_query = new WP_Query('category_name= '. $minicat1 .'&showposts=2'); ?>
<?php if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) {  the_post_thumbnail(); } ?>
<?php while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>
<!-- do stuff -->
<?php endwhile; ?>

I repeat this three times with: minicat2, stl_mini_category2 and $minicat2… etc.

I think I’m using has_post_thumbnail() improperly…

Any ideas?