The Greenville Area Chamber of Commerce recently held its first ever photo contest for residents of Butler County, and Executive Director Francine Wasden said the contest highlighted the talent of area shutterbugs.

“The judges did a great job and it was a difficult choice,” Wasden said. “All of our entries were outstanding.”

The contest was held to help the Chamber collect new photos for its website, magazine and other publications promoting the

Greenville area.

Although there was no particular theme, there were three different categories:  structures, people and miscellaneous.

Sizes of the photos submitted varied from 3×5 to 8×10. Two members of the GACOC board of directors handled the judging along with a local individual with photography experience.

The overall winner of the contest was Angela Thomas.

Melanie Cain took first place in both the miscellaneous and people categories while Barbara Middleton won first in the structure division.

There were several honorable mentions, including Lillian Jernigan (structures), Robin Settle (miscellaneous), and Frank Hickman (people).

Wasden urged residents to participate next year.

“This will be an annual contest, so we hope everyone will keep their cameras handy and keep snapping those great photos of our community,” Wasden said. “Anyone who has a picture they would like to share throughout the year, please do so.”

Check out the Saturday Greenville Advocate edition for photos taken by the winners.