Clearlake committee narrows photo-contest finalists, plans offline judging

Clearlake’s Marketing Committee reviewed entries for its summer photo contest and moved to narrow finalists offline after a lengthy slideshow and discussion over geographic eligibility and image quality.

Staff said they received about 35–40 entries and ran a slideshow of submissions. Committee members discussed criteria — photos must be "recognizably Clearlake" and should represent "lake life" rather than generic lake photos from other communities. Several images were questioned as possibly depicting Lakeport or other nearby locations; members recommended excluding entries that could not be verified as taken in Clearlake.

Judging options included a public Facebook voting thumbs-up, a committee slideshow vote, or curated selection by a smaller panel. Chair Clafi asked staff to share a folder with all images so members can make offline selections; staff said they would find a way to share the photos (DropBox or similar) and present a narrowed set of finalists for final adjudication. Tina and other staff reported counts of finalists that varied by reviewer; the committee agreed to continue ranking outside the meeting and return a final shortlist at the next meeting.