Bailey Eaves
Decatur, AL
Brooke Daniels
Stafford, VA
I would then like to announce our runner ups.
4th Place Carrie Novak
Sault Ste. Marie, MI
3rd Place Jadie Decker
Eagle Mountain, UT
2nd Place Kristie Bradley
Richmond, VA
And of course I am ECSTATIC to announce our June Teen/Senior Cover Contest Winner out of over 300 entries!
Nicole Cook
Auburn, CA

Now after reminding ourselves about L&L and what it stands for these are the decisions we have made for the cover contest.  Putting aside all the negative e-mails and taking into considerate all the honest feedback we have received over the last few months, yes this is not a new issue, and taking into considerate the future.  L&L is not an easy thing to keep up on and I am doing it all alone.  Gigi is too busy to help and with my senior session starting, well this week, I know I am not going to jeopardize my business for L&L.  Truth is my business comes first for me as well as Gigi.  As far as the flaws in the voting system.  Yes there are going to be people cheating, yes there are going to be people asking for votes and yes people are going to share about it.  There is nothing I can do about thins and frankly I don’t see anything wrong with the last two.  Except one thing.  It ends up being a popularity contest unfortunately.  I know people are going to get mad at me saying that but you can’t deny it. I am not saying there is ANYTHING wrong with having lots of friends and support.  I think that is WONDERFUL and I loved seeing the support the finalists were getting from their friends.  But I didn’t think about it till it was brought up to me again, multiple times, and it’s true.  You have a better chance of winning if you have more friends and support then if you don’t.  And the truth is that’s not really fair.  So our decision is due to us taking all these things into consideration and reformatting everything to fit our needs and what L&L stands for.   Again I know people are going to disappointed with our choice, and yes I know people are going to pissed at our choice but after sitting down and thinking about that I don’t care.  It’s a silly contest.  There really is no prize that is worth value, just the ability to feel great about your work and be in the spotlight for a while.  And shouldn’t that opportunity be giving to someone  who hasn’t had the chance to feel that way yet? I am not saying in any way are ANY of those amazing image worth the cover more then the other.  I am saying that sometimes the thing we need the most, when we are starting out, is to be in the spotlight and know that others LOVE your images.  For those of us that get that support, don’t you think it’s worth it sharing it with others?  I know I would not push myself like I do or feel as good as I do about my work if I didn’t hear the feedback I do from my fellow photographers.  And us that have been photographers for a few years KNOW how hard it is to start out and break into the market and feel good about our work.  There is SO MUCH amazing talent around all of us it’s very easy to start comparing and tearing apart our own work.  I know I still do.  So we want the cover to be an image from a photographer that DESERVES to be in the spot light for a day and that DESERVES to be recognized and reminded that they are talented.  And if anyone disagrees with me feel free to go to our facebook page and unlike it.  And that’s that.   This does not mean the cover contest will be gotten rid of and this will actually be easier and take less time then the old way, allowing Gigi and I to continue to offer it.  Everything will still be the same except, this month, Gigi and I will pick the winner and starting next month we will bring in an unbiased panel of judges to pick the winner.  Winner will be picked still be based on lighting, focus, composition, images that works as a cover etc. but it will also be given to a photographers who deserves to be in the spotlight and whos talent deserves to be recognized. Deadlines will also be changed due to the fact that the magazine will now be available in print there for finished earyer then normal.  All this will be listed out to the left under cover contest soon.   Again if you don’t like our decision reader our blog and being a fan of us on fb is optional.  You can opt out if you want.  We will post the winner tomorrow.  Thank you

I’m so excited to share our, not five, but TEN finalists for next months cover, which will be our first issue available in print as well as digital.  The reason I changed the rules and posted 10 finalists is because we had over 300 entries for this contest and there was no way we could narrow it down to only five finalists. We will also be posting 15 runner ups on our facebook page as we feel like too many beautiful images were submitted not to share more.   As the rules are stated to the left under cover contest voting will run from now till the 12th at noon EST.  The poll will then be frozen at this time and the image with the most votes will be the winner and our next cover image.  Because this next issue will be available in print we will unfortunately not be able to include the other images in our magazine due to size restrictions to keep the cost low.  You can find the ten finalists below numbered and titles and a poll at the very bottom.  The poll only allows one vote per IP address.  Good luck everyone!

Poll is closed till further notice.  Comments do not count as votes. Thank you.

This month we will be doing our voting a little differently.  Below you will see our finalists for this month (out of over 60 entries) all listed with a number and name above their image.  At the very bottom you will find a poll.  The poll only allows one vote per computer. Voting will start today and run till the 12th at noon EST.  At that point the image with the most votes on the poll will be the announced and the cover of our next issue.  Good luck everyone.

POLL CLOSED!