Enter Friends’ 2025 Photo Contest
Please submit your photos now

Showcase your work while helping to share the magic, beauty, and wonder of our local forest preserves. Professionals and amateurs alike are encouraged to submit photos that feature plants and animals, landscapes, and people enjoying the many activities available in the preserves. We choose photos that represent a range of seasons, sites, and subjects. And we’re especially interested in pictures of people in the preserves.

Rules:

1. Photos must be taken in a forest preserve in Cook County, Illinois. Please visit fpdcc.com to verify the location is part of the Forest Preserves of Cook County.
2. Invasive and non-native species must not be prominent in the photo. This also applies to photos taken at Chicago Botanic Garden and Brookfield Zoo.
3. Each photographer may enter a maximum of five photographs.
4. Each photo file name should include the following (yes, your documents will have long names, but all this information is necessary):
   • a title (if desired)
   • descriptors such as the species photographed (if known)
   • location where the photo was taken (forest preserve and town)
   • name of photographer
   • ex. “‘Motherhood’ mergansers at Busse Woods in Elk Grove Village by Kim Munroe”.
5. If you are submitting photos for the youth category (18 years or younger), or on behalf of a youth, please specify this in your email and include the birthday of the photographer.
6. Winning photographers consent to allowing Friends to use their photos on our website, across social media, in publications, and other materials. Friends will not share photos with other entities unless permission is granted in advance by the photographer.
7. Submit photos as a high resolution (this is generally considered 300 DPI/PPI (dots per inch/pixels per inch) or higher) JPG/JPEG file.
8. Submit entries via email to: [email protected].
9. Use the subject line “2025 Photo Contest.”
10. Photo Contest submissions are due by December 31, 2025.

Prizes:

• First Place receives $350.
• Second Place, Third Place, and Best of categories (ex. Fauna, Flora, Landscape, People, Youth Photographer, etc.) receive $100 each.
• Honorable mention receives $25 each.