Have a great photo of Bellingham or a community in Whatcom County sitting on your camera roll? Now's the time to enter it. The Bellingham Experience is launching a community photo contest on July 1, inviting residents to submit images that best represent life in Bellingham or the wider Whatcom County region.
The Bellingham Experience is the tourism-focused organization behind bellingham.org, which promotes the region to visitors and serves as a central calendar and resource hub for local events. Their photo contests have historically drawn a wide range of entries, from landscape shots of the Cascade foothills and Bellingham Bay to neighborhood street scenes, festival moments, and wildlife sightings around the county.
The contest officially opens Wednesday, July 1. Full rules, prize details, and the official entry portal are available at the Bellingham Experience website. Entries submitted before July 1 are not being accepted for this round, so check the site on launch day to begin. The contest is open to anyone with a qualifying photo of Bellingham or a Whatcom County community, and all skill levels are welcome.
For residents who've spent the past month exploring the region, this summer has offered plenty of potential contest material. From the return of lifeguards to Bloedel Donovan Park on Lake Whatcom to the Chuckanut Foot Race, the Lake Padden Triathlon, and countless waterfront and mountain views, there's no shortage of local subjects worth capturing. Cornwall Park, shown in a previous contest entry that's been circulated by the organization, is a perennial favorite for photographers given its mature trees and open lawns.
Whatcom County's geography gives local photographers an unusually diverse set of subjects within easy driving distance. The San Juan Islands ferry terminal in Bellingham, the mountain meadows accessible from the Heather Meadows area near Mount Baker, the working waterfront at Squalicum Harbor, the farmlands of the Nooksack Valley near Lynden and Everson, and the forested corridors of the Chuckanut Mountains all offer distinct photographic character. Even a single walk through Fairhaven, Bellingham's historic Victorian neighborhood, can yield compelling urban documentary images.
Community photo contests like this one serve a dual purpose: they surface authentic local imagery that the organization can use to represent the region accurately and compellingly, and they invite residents to look at their own home with fresh eyes. Previous winning entries have appeared in regional tourism materials and on the Bellingham Experience's social media channels.
If you plan to enter, the key steps are: review the full contest rules on the Bellingham Experience website, confirm that your photo meets the geographic criteria, and submit through the official portal on or after July 1. Details on prizes and the judging timeline are expected to be posted with the launch.
For more information and to enter when the contest opens, visit the Bellingham Experience photo contest page. The organization can also be followed on social media for updates as the contest gets underway.
