Welcome to our annual Photo of the Year!
As creatives, we are always learning, challenging ourselves and getting creative with our tools. Every year we look critically at our work to see if there are areas we can improve on, and to identify what we consider our BEST work to see if we might be able to enter it in any of our industry photography competitions and also to refresh our visual presence online and in print with our most favourite photos!
Part of this process is SHARING and getting feedback from YOU – our audience – about what YOU love! Â
We have compiled our top ~100 favourite photos from 2023 and we want you to vote for the one you like the most!
How we chose the photos
We took approximately 220,000 frames in 2023 over 300+ photography sessions. (That’s not counting our personal ones of our own family!) So narrowing it down to this selection was not an easy thing to do!Â
We used a few simple principles to choose – the same principles we use as judges in professional photography awards and competitions:
- Impact – emotional and visual
- Storytelling/narrative strength
- Technical attributes (use of light, colour, composition)
- X factor
We tried to remain objective, because sometimes the way you might feel about your own photos is influenced by how much fun you had taking them! So our final selection has nothing to do with how well we connected with our clients, what they thought and purchased, or what our most memorable sessions of the year were.Â
What you can win
There are prizes for everyone:
for the voters, and for the stars of the photos
(who are all families who hired us to take their portraits in 2023).
For the voters:
One lucky voter will win a Heartstory Family Photography Experience worth $2000. This includes a studio or outdoors session and a photographic artwork package (made up of your choice of wall art or album and prints with digital files) worth up to $1800.Â
Twenty three (23) lucky voters will win a Heartstory Family Photography Experience worth $400. This includes a studio or outdoors session and $200 credit towards photographic artwork.Â
These will be drawn randomly.
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For the stars of the photos:
Photo of the Year (the one with the most votes when the voting period closes): this family will receive a 12×18″ framed fine art print of the photo (or $795 credit for artwork from their most recent session if they already bought this photo).
2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th place: these families will receive an 8×10″ framed print of the photo (or an alternative photo from their most recent session if they already bought this photo).
We will also be giving some starring visual space to the top 5 photos on our website, socials and marketing collateral (provided we have permission to do so from the subjects, of course) depending on where they might work best!
Voting is open to everyone over the age of 18, but you can only vote once per household/IP address.
 GET VOTING!
- Review our top photos of 2023 below
- Make a note of the number you want to vote for (it appears when you hover over the image & in the name below the photo when you scroll through)
- Scroll down to place your vote!
Fill out the form to enter & vote
By submitting your vote, you agree to the T&C at the bottom of the page (please read).
And don’t forget, you can only enter once!
Voting Terms & Conditions
-
- Only one entry per family/IP address will be accepted.
- Entrants must be over the age of 18.
- Voting closes at midnight, Wednesday February 7th, 2024.
- The top five images with the most votes will be announced on social media on Friday February 9th, 2024, and the families in those photos will be contacted personally.
- One lucky voter will be randomly selected to win a Heartstory Family Portrait Experience worth $2000 and a further twenty three (23) voters will be randomly selected to receive a $400 Heartstory Portrait Experience. These winners will be notified by phone or SMS by Friday February 9th.
- The $2000 prize is for an outdoors or studio Heartstory Family Photography Experience (worth $200), and $1800 credit towards photographic artwork.
- The $400 prize is for an outdoors or studio Heartstory Family Photography Experience (worth $200), and $200 credit towards photographic artwork.
- All prizes must be used by end of June 2024 with no extensions possible unless there are extenuating circumstances.
- Prizes may not be substituted for any other product or service (such as a wedding photography package) or used in conjunction with any other promotion, gift certificate or discount, and are not redeemable for cash. They also cannot be used towards a special project like Babies in Bonnets or others that we may run this year.
- By entering this competition, you agree to be added to our mailing list to be kept in the loop with cool stuff like this. We promise not to spam you, and of course, you can unsubscribe any time.
