We are thrilled to share our results from this year’s Shoot & Share Photo Contest, our first year of participation. It was a last-minute decision (we only remembered to submit in the final hours before the competition closed so mad-panic-grab-at-50-almost-randomly-selected-images lesson learned: we are marking the date on our calendar next year! #parentlyf).
Here is a description of the Shoot & Share Photo Contest in their own words: “The Shoot & Share Photo Contest is the world’s only free & fair photo contest. Enter up to 50 photos in 25 categories. Anyone can enter photos, and it’s totally free! View the photos randomly and vote for your favourites. No one knows who took the photos, but everyone votes for the winners. The photos with the most votes win!”
In total, 583,150 images were entered in 25 categories. By the final round, 174,215 unique voters had participated from 144 different countries. They had spent 15,809 cumulative days casting over 90 million votes. It was quite the adventure progressing through the 12 rounds of voting!
As the final results are now available, we want to congratulate the photographers who had significantly better results than we did. They have truly inspired us. We are looking forward to putting some of that inspiration into good use - with our own spin, of course. We are looking forward to next year’s Shoot & Share Photo Contest already.
In terms of our results, feel free to check out the image below:
Results for Poppy & Sage Photography from Shoot & Share 2019: x1 Finalist, x1 Top 10%, x3 Top 20%, and x3 Top 30%.
We are grateful for both the opportunity and the votes cast for our images. I (Em) want to:
a) Recommend the competition for fellow photographers (or anyone really!). Honestly, just do it! We watched from the sidelines last year mostly driven by intimidation. If you have been considering joining in, make 2020 your year! Here are the categories so hopefully some resonate with you:
WEDDING
The Wedding Couple
The Bride
The Groom
The Wedding Party
Ceremony / Reception
Wedding Details
PORTRAIT
Birth
Newborn
Babies / Toddlers
Kids
Teens / Seniors
Families
Maternity
People Portraits
Pets / Animals
Lifestyle / Documentary
WEDDING/PORTRAIT
Engagement / Couples
That Just Happened
Emotion / Excitement
Passion Portrait
Styled Wedding / Fashion
PERSONAL / OTHER
Share Joy
Creative Projects
Phone Photography
Travel / Landscape
b) Most importantly, take a moment to acknowledge Pete. Our image that placed as a finalist was one that Pete took (this image alone was “favourited” - or shown some love - 45 times by voters) and was edited by me (I edit all of our images):
Our image that placed in the Top 10% was also one that Pete took:
I am so incredibly proud of his talent and unique eye. Just in the time I have known him (10 years!), Pete’s growth has been exponential, and he teaches me. As I recently shared on Instagram (check out the accompanying image Pete took here that has since placed in the Shoot & Share Photo Contest), “Photography has always been my (Em's) baby. Pete came along and, to be honest, my passion frustrated him sometimes. Understandably so. If I go to some place I have never been before (especially overseas), I feel naked without the camera. I always rationalise the situation by stating that we may never visit x place again (we both favour new adventures as opposed to reliving fond memories). Also, I don't want to rely on my long-term memory. Photography had to either be shelved under an individual hobby category (with me being more mindful of his feelings and compromising somewhat) or Pete would jump in the photography world, too. This is some straight fire he shot recently. I am learning from him. <3“.
Lastly, two more of Pete’s shots for good measure… yep, I am loud & proud ;):
Thank you for sharing in our delight and we’ll be over here counting down to next year’s contest. ;)
~~~
P.S. I was going to leave this post at celebrating Pete’s outstanding work but then I realised that one of my images is the beautiful half, Samantha, of the couple that includes the handsome groom (Johnré) above so - hey, why not include it, too! They are a lovely couple that we have been truly delighted to work with.