Shoot and Share Contest 2017

We have a fun little post for you today! February through March, photographers everywhere submit some of their best work to the Shoot and Share Contest, and thousands of people vote on these images to find out who the “best of the best” are. It’s a very informal contest, but that’s the cool part! This is not judged by professionals, instead this contest is open to everyone and anyone who wants to vote. Photographers do a lot of the voting of course, but even friends and family join in every year. There are several different categories included, and every chance to vote includes 4 images from the same category. You vote for your favorite of those 4, and move on to another set. This went on and on until hundreds of thousands of images were narrowed down to the finalists and top 100 in each category. Here are some stats:

 

225,207 total images submitted to the contest

74,000 photographers involved

32,622,327 total votes

We both enter as individuals, as that’s how the contest is set up, but the photos we entered were always a joint effort. Every wedding day we shoot together is a joint effort, and often times if one of us is behind the camera taking the photo, the other was the one who clear the room, gather the bridesmaids, style the details, or hold the flash in order for the photo to exist.

The fun part each year, is to see the talent from the other photographers in the contest, become inspired, and of course to see how far our photos make it through the rounds. This year we were so excited to see that most of our entries placed in the top 20% or 10% of the contest! That was incredible news! We even had a few finalists, one that placed in the top 100, and another that placed 101 😉 Almost! Here they are!

This dress shot was a double team effort. Maggie took the photo, but Betty was the lighting genius and the one crouched back behind some wine barrels 😉 We honestly just threw this photo into the contest to fill out the maximum of 50 entires per person. We had no idea it would be our best in the contest, placing 77th out of 6,395!

This was Betty’s shot, and it placed 101 out of 9,197!

The rest of these photos were finalists, which means they made it through 12 rounds of voting!

We’re already adding favorites from 2017 into a folder to be saved for the 2018 contest! It’s always so fun! Congrats to all the winners! It was a great year!