2007 ONPA Pictures of the Year

First Place, Pictorial - Ken Love / Akron Beacon Journal

As the sun rises and reflects off the dew covered road an Amish buggy turns onto a side street in Holmes County.

Second Place, Pictorial - Chris Stephens / The Plain Dealer

Herons court one another by bringing sticks to the nest. Dozens of nests, perched high above the ground in treetops, are easily visible from the road at a heronry on West Bath Road in Akron. About 50 nests are expected at this colony. Seventy nests are expected at another heronry in Brecksville.

Third Place, Pictorial - Paul Tople / Akron Beacon Journal

Two balloonists skim across fog covered land on Sept. 29, 2007 in Akron.

Award of Excellence, Pictorial - Chris Stephens / The Plain Dealer

A red umbrella breaks the pattern of stainless-steel shingles resembling fish scales on the roof of the Frank Gehry-designed Peter B. Lewis building at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Award of Excellence, Pictorial - Eric Albrecht / The Columbus Dispatch

Distict Number 8 School withstands another Ohio winter. The school was built 1862 and closed in 1913. The school which is now a farm building.

Award of Excellence, Pictorial - Ed Suba Jr. / Akron Beacon Journal

Customers break into a trot after parking their car in the snow-covered Dillard's parking lot at Summit Mall as the first big winter storm of the season dropped over 16 inches of snow throughout the area.

Award of Excellence, Pictorial - Jame D. DeCamp / The Columbus Dispatch

A flag is lowered into a burning drum during a flag disposal ceremony provided by the American Legion Post 171 and the VFW Post 7883, June 14, 2007 in Westerville. This was one of more than 200 flags the were 'retired' during the two hour ceremony.

Award of Excellence, Pictorial - Joshua Gunter / The Plain Dealer

Lake Erie surfer Jen Moldovan carries her longboard along a windswept Edgewater Beach after catching a wave.

Award of Excellence, Pictorial - Lisa DeJong / The Plain Dealer

Lanterns with messages of peace float at dusk to comfort the souls of atomic bomb victims who died August 4, 1945, in Hiroshima, Japan. Cleveland Peace Action sponsored the event "The Commemoration of Hiroshima Day" on the pond at Rockefeller Park marking the 62nd anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing. Hiroshima Day is observed throughout the world to honor the over 200,000 people killed in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, most of those civilians.