We want to share YOUR Great Lakes observations!

As we enter summer, warm weather, and lake days, we would love to see what’s happening around the basin. So get your gear and get out to the water and send us your best photo from a day out somewhere in the Great Lakes watershed.

Milwaukee Concrete Breakwater on Lake Michigan by SamJohnson
The top of Lake Michigan
Sleeping Bear Dunes

Details:

  • Submit a photo to GLOS you have taken of the Great Lakes or a body of water within the watershed. 
  • When you do, you will be entered for a chance to be featured as Photo of the Month! 
  • It is important that the photo is yours, original, with a clear subject that is taken near, at, or in one of the Laurentian Great Lakes. (bonus points if you find and photograph a data-collection buoy or other observation platform). 
  • Although your photo can certainly have humans in it, please do not send us photos of people who have not consented to having their photo taken or who would have issue with it being used for future GLOS purposes. 
  • Please do not submit any inappropriate content.
  • It is preferred that your photo is from this year (2025), but we will accept photos as far back as Jan 2024.
  • When you submit, please include your full name and a caption for the photo and the time/date and place it was taken.
  • All entries must be submitted by the 20th of each month (photos submitted after the 20th will be considered for the next month).
  • Winning photos will be decided by GLOS staff. The winner will be emailed by the 25th and will be announced in that month’s newsletter. 
  • The contest will run for the 2025 months of May, June, July, August, and September
  • Entries will be limited to one per contestant per contest month

 

Each monthly winner will receive a GLOS swag bag, but will also automatically be entered in the winners’ round where we will open the vote to the GLOS community to vote for the Photo of the Summer from the five winning photos. 

2025’s Winning Photo

Monthly Winners

May

Lake Superior, just east of Au Train, MI on October 20th, 2025, by Evan Lanese.

June

Lake Michigan at Ludington, MI, on July 4th by Ann Swanson.

July

Miners Castle on Lake Superior at Pictured Rocks National Park, July 2025 by Michelle Hurley.

August

Sunset on Lake Erie by Aly Andersen, July 2025

September

'Ludington Sunset' in Ludington, Michigan, August 2025 by Sandi Bronsink.

Thanks you all for sharing your photographic observations! We are excited to see what adventures you find in next year’s contest, beginning again in Spring 2026!

Lake News Observing