Fountain of Lights Finale No. 1

The Story:      Dayton hosts many wonders including the Fountain of Lights which is reportedly one of the world’s largest fountains. The Five Rivers MetroParks operates the fountains during the 100 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day. At the close of the season and with storm clouds clearing the Miami Valley skies, I arrived at the confluence of the Mad River and Great Miami River for one of the year’s last sunset displays. The varying cloud heights refracted the day’s last rays in their own unique manner, thus giving the sky added depth as if to strike serendipitous harmony with the warmly backlit fountain sprays.

The Rest of the Story:  When people first see this print, they always have nice words to share in how I captured this colorful sunset.  What most don’t know is the disparate elements which must align in order for this scene to materialize.

• Season:  The fountain sprays only kick off between Memorial Day to Labor Day.
• Fountain Duration:  The fountains only run for 10 minutes every hour, centered on the top of the hour.
• Official Sunset:  Most of the summer, the sun sets over Dayton, Ohio at the bottom of the hour making this a difficult offset to cover come.
• Winds:  On days the winds exceed 10 knots, the fountains shut off in order to avoid the winds drunching the adjacent apartments and bridge traffic.
• Clouds:  To many clouds and they block the evening light, creating muted colors.  Sometimes the clouds evaporated during my drive to this site, creating a blank sky.

So on this special evening, all these elements came together making for a magical scene.  As testament, I headed to this spot on seven previous occasions when I thought the conditions were right only to be thwarted.  My concern during this moment entails making a dozen different decisions in the heat of the moment and not ruining the opportunity.  For me, it all came together on this magical evening.

Sublocation:   RiverScape MetroPark

City, State:      Dayton, Ohio

Year:                2018

This room visualization depicts my original photography as displayed in an AI-generated room. The art print features the Dayton Fountain of Lights during a colorful sunset over Riverscape MetroPark. This room visualization was generated through FreePick with their permission and license, while I retain the copyright of the displayed art print.