2017 Shoot and Share Photo Contest | Northern Virginia Family Photographer

The results are in!

The Shoot and Share Photo Contest opened for portrait submission at the beginning of the year and I wasn’t missing out this this time. I put on a brave face and submitted several of the portraits I took in 2016.  I was so in love with so many images I took last year that it was hard to narrow it down to just 50, but I did it and was all in for 2017!

The Shoot and Share Photo contest isn’t your typical run of the mill photo contest. It’s a contest for Photographers by Photographers and is held in efforts to bring the entire worldwide photo community together. There are 25 different categories and each photographer was allowed to enter 50 photos. What makes this contest a little different than others is that it’s completely focused on the photos. When voting, you are presented with four random photos from one of the 25 categories and you chose your favorite out of the four (see screenshots below). It’s completely anonymous, so you vote for the photo on merit rather than who took it. Keeping it anonymous also meant you couldn’t ask for votes on social media or anywhere else. No popularity contest here, it’s all about the talent. 

Anyone was allowed to vote, but let’s be honest, 95% of the votes came from other photographers glued to their screens, waiting for their own photos to randomly pop up (I didn't get the opportunity to see or vote for any of my photos). It was so fun and so addicting! I spotted several of my photographer friends work.  The rounds ended quickly so it was reassuring to know you were still in the running!

When the contest started there were just over 332,768 photos submitted from 120 different countries!
There are 10 rounds of voting and thousands of photos were eliminated each round. After about 2 weeks of voting, winners began to emerge from each category. Here’s a little breakdown of how the awards worked. [Graphic courtesy of the Shoot and Share Contest]

Thanks so much to all my wonderful clients last year! Without you, well, I wouldn’t have had any amazing portraits to enter.

This was such a fun contest to be a part of. It was awe-inspiring to see so many amazing portraits from other talented photographers. Congrats to all the winners! I excited and can't wait until next year!