Photo Contest Guidelines

2026 Photo Contest

25th Annual • Deadline: August 31, 2026

Categories:

First, Second and Third Place prize plaques, plus publication in the November/December 2026 magazine issue, are awarded for:

• Color

• Black-and-White

• Creative Lens (Formerly Digitally Altered)*

• There is also a Grand Prize to best overall color or black-and-white photograph

• Honorable Mentions are also awarded for color, black-and-white, and creative lens.

• All photographs must be taken in the 14-county Finger Lakes Region

• Photographs can be any subject matter.

• Entries are limited to 5 in each category:

(Up to 15 images can be submitted in total)

– 5 for Black-and-White
– 5 for Color
– 5 for Creative Lens*

See below for the definition for “Creative Lens (formerly digitally altered).” 

Submission

• Submit your high resolution photos as digital images. Email to mark@lifeinthefingerlakes.com

– Please send the highest resolution photo that you have. Be careful when emailing – sometimes email programs will try to downsize the image to make mailing faster. When possible, compress your files. It may be necessary to send more than one email because of the size of the photo.

• Submit photos as prints (if no digital version is available)

– print should be at least 5 x 7 inches and subject matter should be in focus. All entries should be sent through U.S. postal mail or parcel post. Prints will not be returned.

Life in the Finger Lakes Photo Contest
171 Reed St.
Geneva, NY 14456

Life in the Finger Lakes magazine reserves the right to use any photo entry for promotional and online purposes without compensation to photographer. Any photo published in an article in the magazine that is not directly a part of the photo contest will be subject to freelance guidelines and photographer will be compensated accordingly.

• Identify each photo and/or digital image on a Word doc or within the email. Please include the following:

– photographer’s name, address, phone, e-mail address

– the image name

– the category each image is to be judged

– where the image was taken (all photographs must be taken in the Finger Lakes Region.)

– any other information you’d like to include about that image

– please remove any watermark/signatures from photo.

• Only winners will be notified before the November/December Issue is published. Please refer to that issue to see the results of the photo contest. Life in the Finger Lakes magazine reserves the right to publish any entry, both online and in print, for both magazine publishing and magazine promotional purposes.

* Creative Lens images are those that have used digital manipulation using the following methods:– excessive dodging and burning – excessive color saturation and other filters.

– filtering using solarization, mezzotint and duotone

– stitched panoramas and other panoramic photos

– high dynamic range (HDR) images

This category DOES NOT include photo illustrations (combining images from at least two different photos). Such photos will not be considered for judging.