Submissions are closed, the photos are in, and now it is your turn. Voting is open in the People’s Choice category of the 2026 LSLAA Photo Contest — year three of the contest, and one of our best fields yet.
nine photographers submitted this year, from sunrises and storm fronts to a very good day on the pontoon. Every one of them was taken on or around Little Sand Lake.
Voting closes Saturday 12 September at 6:00pm. After that the photos stay up, but the ratings close and the winner is announced.
How voting works
- Click Start voting, or any photo, to open it full screen.
- Give it 1 to 5 stars, and it moves straight on to the next one.
- Rate all ten, add your email, and press Send my vote.
- We will email you a link. Your ratings are not counted until you click it.
- One vote per email address. Anyone may vote — you do not need to be an LSLAA member.
Why we ask for your email address
We know nobody enjoys handing over an email address, so here is exactly why we ask and exactly what happens to it.
It keeps the contest fair. These are our neighbours’ photographs, and a few of these will be decided by a whisker. Without some way of telling one voter from another, a single person could rate their own photo five stars a hundred times in an afternoon and nobody would ever know. One vote per email address is the simplest way we have found to stop that.
Confirming proves the address is real. This is the part people ask about most. If we simply counted whatever was typed into the box, anyone could invent a hundred addresses and vote a hundred times — so the address alone proves nothing. Sending a link and waiting for you to click it is what makes it count: a made-up address never receives the email, so it never becomes a vote. It costs you one extra click and it is the difference between a real result and a guess.
What we do with it: nothing else. You will not be added to a newsletter or a mailing list. We will not share or sell it. The single confirmation link is the only email you will ever receive from the photo contest. The list of addresses that voted is visible only to the LSLAA committee members running the contest, so we can check the result adds up.
If the link has not arrived after a few minutes, please check your spam folder — that is where it usually is. If it still has not turned up, tell us through our support form and we will make sure your vote is counted.
People’s Choice and the judged awards
People’s Choice is decided entirely by your ratings, across all ten photos together as one open field. Because everyone rates the whole set, the averages are a fair comparison. Separately, a panel of judges scores the photos in two age categories, so our younger photographers are judged against each other rather than against the grown-ups. Those results are announced alongside the People’s Choice winner.
Rate the photos
Remember: your vote only counts once you click the link we email you, and voting closes Saturday 12 September at 6:00pm.
Voting has closed
Thank you to everyone who voted in the 2026 Photo Contest.
Closed 12 September 2026 at 6:00pm.
As always, every entry fee goes straight to our AIS fund, which pays for monitoring and preventing the spread of Aquatic Invasive Species on Little Sand Lake. Thank you to everyone who entered, and to everyone who takes a minute to vote.