Disney photo contest winners announced

One photographer had parties to get enough votes to win tickets to an exclusive Disneyland party. Another enlisted her friends and relatives in Colombia to vote. And another wants to surprise her mother and sister with tickets.

By the Sunday night deadline, 1,363 photos were entered in a contest by Orange County Register’s AroundDisney.com blog to earn pairs of tickets to the first-anniversary party for D23, Disney’s official fan club. D23 provided tickets for the contest.

Readers were asked to submit photos taken at Disneyland or Disney’s California Adventure.

Three photos were selected by readers and two photos were chosen by Register journalists. The five winners are announced below.

The Register added a third pair of tickets to the online contest at the last minute because the top vote-getting photo was actually taken at Disney World. A Register editor had approved the photo for the contest, accidentally missing the fact that it was taken in Florida instead of Anaheim. So, we allowed the contestant to stay.

Submissions mostly came from Southern California. But Oregon and Arizona and New Mexico had entries. Favorites scenes were of the castle and the statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse. Many didn’t get a single vote — the contestants, obviously, just wanted to share their photos of loved ones or impressions of the parks with others.

A dozen or so were from the 1950s, including those offering historic shots of a Disneyland that is a lot different than it is today. Several were original shots of Walt Disney himself with family members.

The top vote getters were:

1) Tim Scholefield of LaVerne, 101,256 votes. His photo is in the slide show. Click to read about his engagement day HERE.

2) Cesilie Keller of Modesto, 84,165 votes. See her photo of Stitch HERE.

3) Diana Rey of Aliso Viejo, 75,348 votes. See Rey’s photo of her daughter drinking “royal” water HERE.

The Register-selected winners are:

1) Meredith Skwara of Anaheim. See Skwara’s shadow photo HERE.

2) Gina Eggert of San Francisco. See photo of girls in teacups HERE.

First-place winner Scholefield said he got people to vote by posting the contest on his Facebook and Twitter pages. Because he works in institutional technology at a school district, he sent the contest to students, teachers and parents as well. Then, he had parties over the weekend when friends came over with their laptops to click online.

“I can use this as a case study example of the power of social networking,” Sholefield said.

The photo was taken on the day Scholefield and his wife got engaged at Disney World. Now, he plans to take his wife, who is pregnant with their first child, to the party.

“I felt our picture was kind of the quintessential Disney story,” Scholefield said. “That day that we took that photo was truly one of the happiest days of our lives.”

Rey, who came in third place, said she asked friends and family from Colombia, as well as in the U.S., to vote for the picture of her daughter at Disneyland.

Second-place winner Keller already had tickets to the D23 party, so she is surprising her mother and sister with the contest passes. Keller submitted a picture of the character Stitch holding her stuffed Stitch, who she regularly dresses up and takes to Disneyland.

Keller plans to bring her baby Stitch to the party.

Recent Disneyland Resort news:

Disney photo contest winners announced is a post from: Around Disney

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