The Downtown Dayton Partnership recently held a photo contest called Downtown in Focus: The Dayton Photo Contest. Both amateur and professional photographers were invited to participate in the contest which was aimed at finding new and distinctive angles and shots of downtown Dayton. Well, the winners have been announced! All 55 photos are lovely in their own right. Frankly, I don’t know how the judges picked winners. Below are a few of my favorites, but which photos did you find most intriguing? Click each photo to increase the size.

Just flipping through the photo album, this photo struck me for it’s composition and palette, and the sense of fun that the Riverscape fountains never fail to bring out in kids.

Bruce Soifer “Moving Sculpture”

For me, Dayton is not the skyline, it’s the people who get a wild hair up their butt and decide to do something. This is Fight Night in downtown. Drake’s Gym sets up a ring in the middle of the street and hosts boxing. This photo captures those people who are making Dayton such a cool place to live right now. The people who have the ideas and the people who support those ideas.

Robin Feld “Downtown for the Count”

And this last photo is how I experience Dayton. Just on the street, with the people I love. You can have those very private and intimate moments in Dayton- and that’s the stuff life is made of.

Bruce Soifer “Lovers by Moonlight”

The entire album can be seen on the Downtown Dayton facebook page!