What makes Montgomery County such a great place to live? We received close to 150 entries depicting the best of our community as part of our Planning Department’s 2008 photo contest. View the seven winning images | Read the press release
And make plans to see them displayed at the Magical Montgomery Festival on September 27 in downtown Silver Spring.
We awarded first, second and third-place prizes in both adult and youth categories with cash awards ranging from $75 to $300. We will display the winners' images at a number of Montgomery County public events, publish them in Planning Department publications and posted them throughout our site. The Planning Department is part of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC).
The Planning Department rated the images on the basis of creativity, photographic quality and their ability to tell a positive story about Montgomery County. A panel consisting of Planning Department staff, a Washington Post photographer and members of the community (such as professionals in photography, graphic design, marketing, public relations, and community planning) judged all entries.
Entries
View all of the submitted entries in the photo gallery below. We thank all of the contestants for their fantastic photographs that colorfully illustrate Montgomery County.
Rules
All photographs were taken in Montgomery County by county residents. M-NCPPC employees and their immediate family members were not eligible. All photographs must have been in color and must have been taken since January 1, 2007. Participants could not submit more than five photos and were eligible to win only one prize. Entries had to be color prints or high-resolution digital images. Black and white images were not eligible. Professional photographers (who make more than 50 percent of their annual salary through photography or have been widely published) were not eligible.
Submission of the photo and signature on the entry form grants the Montgomery County Planning Department and its sister agencies (the Department of Parks and the Planning Board) unlimited rights to use the images in perpetuity. Some of the uses of any submitted photo, regardless of whether it wins the contest, may include: 1) displaying the photo at public events, such as the county fair; 2) displaying the photo at one of our agency buildings; 3) posting a low-res copy of the image at our website; 4) publishing the image in Planning Department brochures, master plans and other publications; 5) other uses to be determined.
Entries will never be used by the Montgomery County Planning Department for profit. In the event that ownership of any photograph submitted to the Planning Department is contested in any manner, the department retains the right to disqualify that photograph. No entries will be returned, and no additional fees or other forms of compensation beyond an initial contest award will be forthcoming. In future uses, we may crop, rotate or otherwise alter images to fit various formats.
Date of last update: September 18, 2008
