“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” as the saying goes. This month, we want your best photos depicting the theme “trash and treasure.” Show us something beautiful in the unexpected. Send us photos of what’s priceless to you. Most important, aim for originality—be creative.

If you’ve entered our contest before, you’re probably familiar with how it works. For all the newbies, here are the details: Send your submissions by noon on Monday, August 17, and our judges will pick the best shots to advance to the reader-voting round. Then we’ll open it up to you, the reader, to select a favorite. The winner will be published in the October issue of the magazine.

Photos—one per e-mail—should be sent to photocontest@washingtonian.com. Be sure to include the photographer’s name, phone number, e-mail address, and place of residence, along with a sentence or two describing the photo. Photos should be 300 dpi and at least four by six inches. And remember, both the photographer and the photo’s subject need to be from the Washington area, which includes the Maryland and Virginia suburbs.

Good luck!

Our policy on photo rights: The photographer retains the copyright. However, because the photographer has submitted his or her photo to the contest, the magazine has the right to print the winning photograph in the current issue of the magazine and online as well as in any future issues as long as usage is related to the photo contest. The magazine also has the right to use the finalists online in relation to the photo contest.

See our gallery of past photo-contest winners here.

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