It is our pleasure to announce the 2022 Arizona Mushroom Society Photo Contest. We've seen so many excellent images over the course of the year, and now it's time to pick the very best.

Rules for submitting photos:

• The photograph must have been taken in Arizona in 2022. You are on the honor system for this.
• You should only submit a photograph that you have taken and is not anyone else's work.
• Each person may submit up to three photographs for consideration. 
• Each photo should be posted individually in a new post in the Arizona Mushroom Forum Facebook group with the hashtag
• Tag your entries by including the hashtag #2022AMSPhotoContest in your post, and make sure your permissions are set for public viewing. The hashtag must be in the text of the post.
• Post your photograph(s) on the Arizona Mushroom Forum group before December 10 at 11:59pm Mountain Standard Time.
• By submitting a photo, you are in agreement that the submitted photo containing the hashtag #2022AMSPhotoContest can be used by the Arizona Mushroom Society without charge, but with appropriate attribution.
• Breaking any of the above rules will disqualify you from the contest.

Rules for choosing contest winners:

• On or about December 11, ten finalists will be chosen based on the total number of Facebook reactions attributed to the post. Any reaction. whether or a  Like or an  Angry reactionor any of the others, will count as a vote for the photo.

• A panel of our three amazing judges will choose a first, second, and third place among the top ten finalists. The top three will receive special prizes provided by the Arizona Mushroom Society.
• Winners will be announced on or before December 23
• Anyone on the Arizona Mushroom Forum page can vote on any or all of the photos by posting a reaction or not.

Our  talented judges:

We've truly lucked out on getting a panel of three top notch judges, who intimately know and love Arizona fungi: 

Chris May: No one has facilitated a greater appreciation for our Arizona fungi than Chris. Chris revitalized the Arizona Mushroom Club into the Arizona Mushroom Society as we know today. Turning it from a growing organization of mushroom enthusiasts to a non-profit educational and charitable organization. Along the way, Chris has led innumerable forays, organized AMS events (including the last photo contest in 2019), provided lectures, and other efforts to make fungi and knowledge about them available and approachable.

Jess Starwood: As an author, artist, chef, writer, photographer, and co-founder of the Cat+Raven collective, Jess shares a delicate beauty to all that she does. Having grown up in Arizona and as a professional photographer, her shared obsession with fungi makes her uniquely qualified to help us choose the 2022 photo contest winners. That, and we had to make her a judge so that she didn't win all three of the top places in this contest!

John Morgan: Morgan is the founder of Morgan Imaging Studio, and a long-time AMS member. Morgan's work is extremely diverse and has been published by Arizona Highways - in other words, he's another ringer we thought was too good not to be a judge! His sharp photography skills and robust knowledge as an AMS foray leader are a perfect fit as a judge.