“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!

NOTE: Voting in this contest is now closed; scroll down to see the winner. The theme for next month's contest will be announced on August 3. Stay tuned!

When we decided to cast the net a little wider with this month’s “Send Us Your Best Photos” photo contest, we knew we were going to get flooded with great submissions. Readers, you didn’t disappoint. Our judges sifted through hundreds of submissions and picked their favorites.

Now it’s your turn to weigh in. Scroll down to see the finalists then take the poll at the bottom of the page to vote for your favorite. The photo with the most votes at noon on July 31 will be declared the winner and it’ll run in the September issue of The Washingtonian.

Don’t forget to vote in our Best of the Best contest, too. To celebrate the one-year birthday of our photo contest, we’ve compiled all the winners from past contests in a slide show here, and we’re asking you to choose a favorite. The photo with the most votes at the end of the month will be the winner, and the photographer will win a $100 gift certificate to the Fourth Estate, courtesy of our friends at the National Press Club.

Remember that for both contests, it’s one vote per person. If we notice voting irregularities with any one photograph, The Washingtonian reserves the right to disqualify it from the contest.

Don’t forget to check out the runners-up in this month’s contest, and go to our winners’ gallery to see all the past photo-contest winners. Check back on Monday, August 3, for next month's theme and how to enter.

Good luck to our finalists, and happy voting, readers!

Can you believe we’ve been at this for a year? That’s right—this month, Washingtonian.com’s photo contest turns one year old. And we’re celebrating the best way we know how: with two contests for the month of July.

First, for our regular monthly contest, we want you to send your best photos—period. Go through your archives or shoot something new, and send us the best that you’ve got on anything and everything. It’s our way of casting the net a little wider this month in celebration of a year of great photos.

The rules are the same as always: Send your submissions by noon on July 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 September 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.

For our second contest, we’re taking a trip down memory lane. We’ve compiled all the winners from past photo contests and are asking you to choose the best of the best. Check out the slide show below, then take the poll at the bottom of the page to vote for your favorite. This poll will stay open until noon on July 31. The winner will receive a $100 gift certificate to the Fourth Estate, compliments of our friends over at the National Press Club. Neat!

So get to submitting, cast a vote below, and help us celebrate a great year of photo contests!

Please note: Voting in this contest is now closed; scroll down to see the winner. The theme for next month's contest will be announced on July 1. Stay tuned!

Last week, our judges perused stacks of photos to select the top five entries in our strength-themed photo contest. Now it’s your turn to weigh in and choose a winner.

Remember, the winner this month will be published in the August issue of The Washingtonian magazine. Plus, he or she will receive four tickets and food vouchers to the July 11 Washington Mystics game. Neat, huh?

Here’s how to vote: Check out the finalists below, then take the poll at the bottom of the page. The poll will stay open until noon on June 30; the photo with the most votes at that time will be declared the winner.

And remember, it’s only one vote per person, so play fair and choose wisely. If we notice voting irregularities with any one photograph, The Washingtonian reserves the right to disqualify it from the contest.

Don’t forget to check out the runners-up in this month’s contest, and go to our winners’ gallery to see all the past photo-contest winners.

Good luck to our finalists, and happy voting, readers!

Want to enter next month's contest? Check back on July 1 for details on how to enter.

The Washington National Opera hosted its annual ball on Friday, June 5, which in recent years has grown into one of Washington's most elite social events and this year attracted more than 500 opera fans, including Supreme Court justices, congressmen, senators, and government officials. Tickets, which started at $1,000 a person, included dinner at one of several embassies around the city—from Finland to Italy—and then an elaborate ball at the German Ambassador's residence. Click below for our photo slideshow.

All photos by Chris Leaman.

Bring on the dumbbells! Our photo-contest theme this month is strength. We want to see your best photos showing fortitude, resilience, power—anything that embodies the idea of strength to you. And this month’s contest comes with a bonus: The winner will receive four tickets to the Washington Mystics versus Los Angeles Sparks basketball game on July 11.

Here’s how the contest works: We’ll collect entries for the next two weeks, and our judges will pick the finalists. Then we’ll ask you, the reader, to help choose the winner. The photograph with the most reader votes at the end of the month will be crowned and will appear in the August issue of The Washingtonian.

Submit as many entries as you’d like to photocontest@washingtonian.com, but attach only one photo per e-mail, please. With your entries, be sure to include the photographer’s name, e-mail address, phone number, and place of residence along with a sentence or two about where the photograph was taken. Photos should be 300 dpi and at least four by six inches. The deadline for submissions is noon on Friday, June 19. Finalists will be contacted when the reader voting goes live.

Washingtonian editors and other staff selected five finalists in our shapes-themed photo contest. Now it’s your turn to choose a winner.

Scroll down to see this month’s selections, then take the poll at the bottom of the page to cast a vote. The photo with the most votes at noon on May 29 will be the winner, and it’ll appear in the July issue of The Washingtonian.

Remember, it’s only one vote per person, so choose wisely. And please, we ask that you play fair. If we see what seem to be irregularities in voting for a particular photograph, we reserve the right to disqualify it.

Don’t forget to check out the runners-up in this month’s contest, and go to our winners’ gallery to see all the past photo-contest winners.

Good luck to our finalists, and happy voting, readers!