We want to share YOUR Great Lakes observations!
Get your gear, get out to the water, and send us your best photo from a day out somewhere in the Great Lakes watershed.
Contest 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 observing 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 or computer/AI-generated content.
- It is preferred that your photo is from this year (2026), but we will accept photos as far back as Jan 2025.
- 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 2026 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 and 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 Year from the five winning photos.
The 2026 Photo Contest is closed to new submissions. Hold onto any amazing fall and winter photos you may take around the Great Lakes, and make sure to share them when the 2027 Photo Contest begins on April 20, 2027.












