Dayton Fountain of Lights Spray at Golden Hour

The Story:    The RiverScape MetroPark Fountain of Lights during a colorful sunset over Dayton, Ohio.   This 91-image panorama captures the Dayton Fountain’s spray refracting the warm hues of the last rays from the sun.  Did you know that Dayton’s Fountain of Lights, has one of the world’s largest fountain displays?

The Rest of the Story:   This shot is very difficult to capture.   First, the Dayton Fountains only spray for 10 minutes every hour–five minutes til to five minutes after the top of the hour.  Second, this fountain display needs to coincide with the official sunset over the Miami Valley.  The fountains operate from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day.  The number of sunsets that occur at the top of the hour while the Five Rivers MetroParks allow the fountain to run is limited to a few weeks a year.  Third, this scene requires clouds that add dimension to the sky, but not so many clouds that might block out the sunlight.  Frequently, I find if there are clouds at sunset, they either evaporate before the key moment or slowly block out the sun, rendering the scene in dark muted hues.  Finally, there are wind sensors that shut off the fountain to avoid creating hazardous conditions.  On this evening, I feared they would kick in again.  The wind sensors were installed to protect the apartments built along the Mad River and Great Miami.  If not controlled further, the fountain sprays can also shower the adjacent bridge traffic in the background.  On this evening, the wind was actively blowing water drops onto my lens requiring me to reset my composition and even then wipe my lens dry between shot sequences.  Fortunately, the breeze was light enough and did not trigger the fountain shutoff mechanism.  In short, there are a series of uncontrollable issues that frequently prevent visitors from witnessing this spectacular scene.

As a testament to the infrequent display, in 2018, I caught the scene twice:  Fiery Fountain of Lights and Fountain of Lights Finale No. 1.  In 2019, I captured it once in Glowing Fountain of Light Spray, Dayton Ohio No. 1.  From there I had a several year dry spell until this scene occurred.

Dayton Fine Art Photography:  On this webpage, I’ve included a rendition of this print in a Dayton Corporate Art setting.  The artwork depicts my typical presentation as framed giclee canvas art print with my standard black frame.   If you are looking for scenes that celebrate living in Dayton, this scene certainly captures one of the Miami Valley’s greatest landmarks.  Although this website offers standard sizes and mediums, I can custom print to your requirements.

Sublocation:   RiverScape MetroPark

City, State:      Dayton, Ohio

Year:                2022

An example of Dayton Corporate Art installed over a conference room. The artwork depicts how a large canvas print of the Dayton Fountains at sunset would appear in a company’s meeting room. This AI mock-up room featuring the art print lies under a license from FreeP!ck while I retain the copyright of the original artwork.