Images of the Grand Strand Photo Contest: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Images of the Grand Strand photo contest and who runs it?

The Images of the Grand Strand Photo Contest is a reader photo vote staged by Grand Strand Magazine, the publication whose masthead serves Myrtle Beach and the South Carolina coastline around it. Photographers submit images taken across the Grand Strand, and the magazine hands judgment to its audience through public voting rounds carried on the publisher's own website. Every part of the event, from the entry gallery to the vote itself, lives at grandstrandmag.com.

Inside the wider best-of field the contest holds an unusual position. Reader's-choice ballots typically rank businesses, restaurants or services; this one puts pictures on display and lets the audience crown a favorite. The reward is editorial rather than commercial: the Reader's Choice winner earns a place in the magazine's April-May issue, which is the recognition the contest page itself advertises.

Three structural facts define how the event works. Voting is free and open on the web, with no paywall anywhere in the published ballot text. The magazine splits the competition into two voting rounds, a first pass across all submitted images and a second pass over the strongest performers. And the rhythm is daily: a supporter may vote once every 24 hours, which turns the ballot into a daily habit instead of a quick visit.

When does the Images of the Grand Strand voting happen?

The contest runs on an annual rhythm. Two editions of it are confirmed, in 2025 and in 2026, and the 2026 feature went out under the headline "Spectacular Entries From Our 15th Annual Photo Contest." Both cycles followed the same shape: two public voting rounds each February, with the verdict reserved for the magazine's April-May issue.

In the 2026 edition, the second round opened with the top 20 highest voted images from the first pass and ran through Tuesday, 2/17. That close date is the only deadline the ballot text spells out. Grand Strand Magazine prints no entry-round dates and no category roster beyond it, so anyone planning around the calendar should confirm on the live ballot each cycle. Whether a 2027 edition follows has not been announced either.

The two-round calendar

For supporters, the practical takeaway is that the window is short and concentrated. A ballot that lives for a few weeks in February does not forgive a slow start, and the images that reach the April-May issue are the ones whose backers showed up early and stayed daily.

How does a supporter vote in the Images of the Grand Strand contest?

The mechanic is deliberately plain. During the 2025 and 2026 cycles the contest's voting link led to the photocontestvote2 page on grandstrandmag.com, where the entries appear as a browsable gallery. A supporter studies the images, picks a favorite and submits that choice on the page. The ballot then holds the seat for 24 hours before allowing another vote.

Nothing in the Images of the Grand Strand instructions asks for an account, a login or a payment, and there is no app to install. That openness lowers the barrier to taking part, and it concentrates influence in the daily return: the page's own advice is to "come back every day," because a once-per-24-hours rule only rewards people who keep showing up while the round remains open.

What a daily backer actually does

Treating the vote as a small routine works better than treating it as a chore. Bookmark the contest page, set a personal reminder for the same time each day, and register the choice in a few seconds. Over the length of a February round, that steadiness compounds into far more support than a burst of attention on the final afternoon.

How does this photo vote sit beside other South Carolina ballots?

South Carolina carries a crowded slate of reader ballots, and the Grand Strand contest differs from each of them. The statewide Best of South Carolina Awards sort businesses into ranked lists. Charleston hosts two competing guides, Best of Charleston and Charleston Magazine's Best Of, while the BroadwayWorld South Carolina Awards serve the state's theatre audience.

Columbia runs its own split decision, with Free-Times' Best of Columbia and Columbia Metropolitan's Best of Columbia chasing the same reader attention. All of those ballots ask readers to rate merchants, venues or productions. Where those guides sweep whole categories of commerce under one roof, the Grand Strand ballot narrows itself to photographs taken along the coast, and it answers to nobody except the magazine whose masthead serves Myrtle Beach.

The Myrtle Beach contest instead stages photographs themselves, inviting the Grand Strand's audience to judge scenery rather than customer service, and it keeps the entire exercise on the publisher's own website instead of a third-party balloting service. That combination of a coastal market, an image-led ballot and a magazine-run vote gives it a profile its in-state neighbours do not share.

How can supporters give a Grand Strand entry a stronger push?

A photo ballot rewards steadiness more than volume. Because the Images of the Grand Strand gate reopens every 24 hours, the supporters who matter are the ones who remember the ballot each morning, so a simple reminder loop among friends, family and local social feeds accomplishes more than a lone burst of sharing. Pointing people at the direct contest link, instead of making them search for it, removes the usual drop-off between good intentions and actual votes.

The structure doubles down on that habit. Since Round 2 works only from the top 20 highest voted images of the opening pass, a supporter's daily return counts twice: it helps decide which photographs survive the cut, then which of those survivors claims the Reader's Choice spot in the April-May issue.

Grand Strand Magazine states no position on outside voting help anywhere in the published ballot text. Supporters curious about that route can read a neutral overview at buy votes online, then weigh whatever a service claims against the contest's own daily limit and the magazine's silence on the subject. The February window is short, and the April-May issue waits for nobody, so whatever plan a backer adopts needs to start early.