Save the Bay Photo Contest

2025 Photo Contest Hero 1171x593

Terry Crider

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Open to both amateur and professional photographers, CBF's annual Save the Bay Photo Contest highlights the beauty and character of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed through the eyes of those who enjoy it.

The 2025 Photo Contest opens March 3, 2025.

Congratulations to our 2024 photo contest winners! Thank you to everyone who submitted photographs illustrating their vision of the Bay region—from Pennsylvania to Virginia, from the Shenandoah Mountains to the Eastern Shore.

The first-prize photograph appears in CBF's 2025 calendar. All winners will also receive a one-year membership to CBF and will have their photos displayed on CBF's website, in a CBF e-newsletter, and in CBF's Save the Bay magazine.

2024 Winners

First Place

Diane Leasure (prize: $500)

A pelican places a feather on a nest while its partner watches.

A pair of Smith Island pelicans work together to build their nest.

Diane Leasure

Second Place

Joshua Galicki (prize: $250)

A great blue heron perches on tree limbs close to the water, covered with with autumn leaves of red, gold, and green and looks out across the still waters.

A great blue heron perches near the shoreline of North America's northernmost bald cypress swamp at Trap Pond State Park in Delaware.

Joshua Galicki

Third Place

Arden Haley (prize: $150)

A duck brown, white, and black feathers stand out in detail as it turns its speckled head, with a deep green swoop running from eye to neck, and preens its feathers with its beak.

An American wigeon preens its feathers on a sunny winter day near Cambridge, Maryland.

Arden Haley

Viewer's Choice Award

Brian Wee (prize: $100)

A bald eagle stares at it's reflection in the water, as ripples spread from where it pecked at the surface.

A bald eagle appears to admire its reflection at Rock Creek on the southern border of the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

Brian Wee


Winners Gallery

Check out our map below to see where this and previous years' winner photos were taken.

View larger map

Map not showing? Go directly to winners map page.

Be sure to check back March 3 for our 2025 photo contest! Want to get notified? Join our email list.

Photo Contest

What a Donation Can Do

You can help us protect this amazing treasure so future generations don't have to rely on photographs to see and experience the beauty of our Bay...

Your donation helps us continue our restoration, advocacy, and education efforts. Please show your support for CBF today with a generous donation.

  • $35 can plant seven native trees as a streamside buffer.
  • $50 can grow 5,000 native oysters.
  • $150 can pay a teacher's tuition for a five-day professional development course.
  • $500 can send seven students for a day of learning in and around the Bay.
  • $1,000 can remove 600 pounds of trash from the Bay and its tributaries.
  • $1,800 can send a teacher on a five-day professional development course.
  • $2,500 can pay for seven students' tuition for a 7-day student leadership program.
  • $5,000 can fund 125 hours of policy advocacy at the state and federal levels.
  • $10,000 can fund 300 hours of scientific field research including testing water quality and evaluating the health and populations of marine and plant life within the Bay and tributary waters.

Make A Donation

The Bay Needs You

The State of the Bay Report makes it clear that the Bay needs our support now more than ever. Your donation helps the Chesapeake Bay Foundation maintain our momentum toward a restored Bay, rivers, and streams for today and generations to come.

Donate Today

Volunteer

Do you enjoy working with others to help clean the Chesapeake Bay? Do you have a few hours to spare? Whether growing oysters, planting trees, or advocating for a clean Bay, there are plenty of ways you can contribute.

Volunteer
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