Got a great photo to share for the Idaho Falls Magazine's Annual East Idaho Community Photo Contest? You've come to the right place! The submission deadline is Mar. 15, 2025.
This year’s contest will have seven main categories:
- Portraits: staged and/or candid photos that feature a person or people in eastern Idaho
- Nature & Wildlife: shots that depict the great outdoors in eastern Idaho
- Scenics: visual celebrations of our majestic, wide open spaces, from pastures to prairies
- Sports & Leisure: any type of sports action shot or leisure activity
- Events: anything that captures or celebrates area events: parades, festivals, concerts, you name it
- Birds: In flight, at rest, at the feeder -- dazzle us with your finest feathers
- Open: Any image that you can't fit into another category
- Black & White: Any image in black & white
ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS AND GUIDELINES
Post-Processing: Less is more, generally speaking. However, there’s nothing wrong with lifting shadows and tamping down highlights in Lightroom, PhotoShop or the proprietary software of your camera system. Same for some slight boosting or muting of colors, or adjusting temperature or tint. The whole point of shooting raw, for instance, is that you’ll have “room to breathe” when routing your work from capture to final destination. Some accomplished photographers purposely under- or over-expose their images with post-processing in mind. The dictum that "straight-out-of-camera" trumps a processed image is kind of silly, especially considering the myriad of ways that in-camera software manipulates images at the time of capture.
The only time post-processing becomes problematic is when it goes beyond what was originally shot.
It’s generally unacceptable to remove and/or replace (i.e. “clone”) elements in a scene, to obscure or darken portions of an image to create a misleading impression of time and place, or to combine separate images into one image — at least in such a way that the viewer is unaware that the manipulation has occurred. If you work over an image for creative effect, it should be self-explanatory and placed in the “Open” category. If you work over an image to conceal or mislead about what was actually photographed, that’s a problem!
Again, for any questions, please drop us a line.
Content Restrictions: This probably goes without saying, but please refrain from submitting images that promote violence, bigotry, hate and exploitation. If you feel your entry might be misunderstood in this regard, please let us know.
Model Releases: All content from this contest will be used only for editorial purposes. Generally, model and property releases are not required.
HOW TO SUBMIT
Our photo contest is open to photographers (excluding full-time studio professionals and credentialed photojournalists) throughout East Idaho. There is NO COST for submission. Please submit photos from the greater East Idaho region only, which includes (more or less) northern Utah, southwestern Montana and western Wyoming (think Grand Teton, Yellowstone areas etc). To the west, you can go as far as Salmon, Challis, Hailey, etc., and even into the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. Submit your photo entries to us by Mar. 1 2025. You may have up to three entries per category.
ONLINE: Enter Here
We strongly encourage sending your image(s) digitally via our submission page.
Send the HIGHEST RESOLUTION AS POSSIBLE. At a minimum, images should be sized to at least 3x5 inches at 300 dpi. Image format should be jpg, TIFF or png (jpg preferred).
Images submitted at insufficient resolution will be automatically dismissed.
EMAIL
You can also submit via email attachment to photocontest@idahofallsmagazine.com (same as last year). Send at the HIGHEST RESOLUTION AS POSSIBLE. At a minimum, images should be sized to at least 3x5 inches at 300 dpi. Image format should be jpg, tiff or png (jpg preferred).
Images submitted at insufficient resolution will be automatically dismissed.
For email submissions, your message subject field should say EAST IDAHO PHOTO CONTEST. Be sure to include the category you are submitting for along with your full name, your phone number and a description of your photo including time and place.
Larger images are certainly welcome. In addition to our submission page and email attachment methods, and you can also send photos on a thumb drive, CD or DVD if you prefer. Film-based color or black and white prints or also acceptable.
MAIL TO:
East Idaho Photo Contest
C/O Idaho Falls magazine
520 Park Ave.
Idaho Falls, ID 83402
If you have any questions about the contest, call Maudie at (208) 542-2206.
**For all entries submitted, Harris Publishing, Inc. reserves the right to publish the images in its future publications, websites and other media products. In such cases, every effort will be made to credit the photographer.**