Periodically during the year, members are invited to present a photo essay on a topic of their choice during a regular club meeting.

A photo essay is a set or series of photographs that are intended to tell a story or evoke a series of emotions in the viewer. All photo essays are collections of photographs, but not all collections of photographs are photo essays. Photo essays often address a certain issue or attempt to capture the character of places and events.

In general, photo essays can range from purely photographic works to photographs with captions or small notes to full text essays with a few or many accompanying photographs. When presented at Highland Glen, a photo essay is typically a sequential presentation of still images whose display is limited to approximately 10 minutes. With slide or digital presentations, the essay constitutes a single montage or collage of photographic images, with text or other additions, intended to be viewed both as a whole and as individual photographs. With prints, an essay may be presented sequentially, or the prints may be viewed all at once by setting up an exhibition of the prints in advance.

Slide or digital photo essays are often set to music, though this is not a requirement. Various software packages support slide shows set to music, ProShow Gold being one of the most popular at the present time.