As I am sure a lot of you know about everything that happened yesterday (if not please feel free to read the post below this one). Due to my emotions I instantly took down the cover contest because some things needed to be worked out, and they were. Gigi and I came to a conclusion, that we feel, will fix the problem completely. While doing this we were looking at the big picture and didn’t take into consideration the finalists for the cover. I want to send out an apology to all ten of them for drastically stopping something that neither of them had anything to do with. I should have left it up while Gigi and I talked. Again I sincerely apologize for this, especial to those photographers. After talking to a few of them I started to look at the contest from a smaller picture and at their angle. In doing so help us decide who should win this months cover. We were going to being in a guest judge this month, since it was last moment, and have her/she pick the winner but since the original contest was started with the old rules/old way I don’t think it’s fair to talk away all the work and support from those photographers. So Gigi and I decided that the person with the most votes when we took the poll down yesterday is our winner! Again I am sure some of you will be upset with this decision and say it goes against everything I said yesterday, and in a way it doesn’t. We are changing the contest still, for the better, but what gives me to the right to change something that is already taking place. It wasn’t fair to those top ten finalists and the fact that again they had nothing to do with what happened yesterday I didn’t feel that it was fair that my instant decision effected them directly more then anyone else. This whole circumstance has put me in a very uncomfortable position and I am more the grateful for all the honesty and support from the L&L followers, which is why I feel like I can be completely honest with you. Again I send out my sincerely apologizes for all the finalist for what I did and again we will be giving the cover to the person with the top vote when we took the poll down. Which was Angela with AMR Photography! Big congrats to her and after talking with her and hearing about all the support she had from her friends, family and fans and I am happy with our decisions.
Again big congrats to Angela and I am so happy to finally be able to say we can put this whole issue behind us and learn/grow from it. I also want to take a moment to that EVERY person who sent in an honest opinion about the cover contest issues. I am not the best person at these type of things and hearing thought from the fans point of view was very helpful. Thank you everyone for your support, opinions and kind words. Thank you for being part of L&L.
Also I will be updating the cover contest page later today with the new rules and deadlines. WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS!! Next month is yours!! So please check the page tonight or tomorrow because deadlines will be changing!
Have a GREAT weekend everyone!
April cover winner
Michelle H. - I really feel impressed to let you ladies know that you are incredibly generous with your time and talent and I for one appreciate ALL that you do. I absolutely adore the L&L mag and I think you are definitely entitled to “rework” the contest and submission process if YOU feel it is not working properly. I have to also say that I have never really been a fan of the ‘photo with the most likes gets the win’ approach as it absolutely becomes a popularity contest and steers away from the true intention of the contest/search. With your new direction I feel that at least everyone involved has a fighting chance to come away as the cover winner…kudos to you for making the hard decision, but a definite good one!! XO!