The 2025 contest theme was community spotlights. We wanted to see shots of places, moments, and activities from around Lac Ste. Anne County. Everything from quiet everyday moments to seasonal recreation. Moments that tell a story.

Each contestant could enter up to five photos. However, a contestant can only win once per contest — even if several of their submissions were among the top-voted photos.

To qualify for a prize, photos needed to be high-resolution (roughly 10" x 8" at 300 DPI). A high-resolution iPhone image (3088 x 2320 landscape format) would be the absolute minimum acceptable quality. A good rule of thumb: the bigger the better.

From October 27 to November 7, the public was invited to browse all the photo entries main contest page. By clicking the heart icon under a photo, users cast a vote for it. Users could "heart" as many photos as they liked.

You can vote for as many photos as you like...but you can only vote for the same photo once every 24 hours (based on your IP address). This restriction is in place to minimize irregularities and keep the voting process fair.

Just like your residence, your place of business has a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address. The contest compares votes against the IP address of the voter. If you can't vote for a particular photo, this means someone in your office has already voted for it within a 24-hour time window. This rule is in place to minimize irregularities and keep the voting process fair.

It is likely that there will be some great submissions that don't make it to the voting phase. The usual culprit is low resolution, but other criteria are involved too.

We'd love to include every single submission, but we need to remain mindful of the end product: a calendar that showcases the beauty and diversity of our region through high-quality community-submitted images.

The first determinant of a winning photo is whether it meets basic thresholds for resolution and subject matter. The County performs an initial inspection and disallows any submissions that don't make the cut.

Then it comes down to how many votes the submissions on this page receive between October 27 and November 7. The top 13 highest-voted photos will be the verified contest winners.

It is possible that some of the top-voted photos won't make the cut due to:

1. Poor resolution - if resolution is too low, it's gotta go. Some photos can technically be the right resolution, but the wrong pixel depth (meaning they were small photos that someone has simply enlarged).
2. Wrong aspect ratio - a photo will likely be discarded if it's a vertical instead of horizontal. Remember, the winning photos will be featured in a wall calendar.
3. Doctored photo - if a photo is grayscale instead of colour; or has been filtered/manipulated beyond acceptable photo optimization, it won't make the cut.
4. Vote manipulation - we can see where the votes are coming from, and the type of computer or device that casts each vote. If we notice multiple votes from the same IP address or digital fingerprint, we will manually subtract any fraudulent votes. If it happens more than a few times, we will likely disqualify the submission.

We strive to ensure the photos most beloved by voters are the ones that make it into the County's official 2026 wall calendar. We will start at the top of the heap and carefully inspect each photo. When a good photo is borderline, we do our utmost to help it make the cut. However, we must also be fair to entrants who followed the rules to the letter.

Generally speaking, we use the photos to showcase the beauty and diversity of the Lac Ste. Anne region. The winning photos were featured in the 2026 wall calendar that the County produced in late 2025. These calendars are dropped off at several public locations across the County.

Many great submissions didn't make it into the top 13. The County still utilizes them in its print and digital communications. The name of the game is to promote the Lac Ste. Anne region to the world at large!