2019 Second Place winner: ”Lightliquid” by LOBO. Contrast lowered so headline letters stand out.
2019 Second Place winner: ”Lightliquid” by LOBO. Contrast lowered so headline letters stand out.
The deadline for voting for the 2025 ILDA Laser Photography Awards has passed. Thanks to the Members who entered, and the Members who voted for their favorite photos. Those votes have been counted and all entrants have been notified of the results. The public announcement of the ILDA Award winners will be at the 2025 ILDA Conference in November.
The remainder of this page is left for reference, even though the deadline to vote has already passed.
Here are the voting results:
The 2025 Laser Photography category was voted on by Members June 16-27. Ballots were sent to 258 Members and Member employees. Forty-six votes were received.
Each voter was asked to rank the entries by their preference: 1st favorite, 2nd favorite, etc. They were not required to rank all the entries. A vote for a person's 1st favorite gained 14 "points" since there were 14 entries. A vote as 2nd favorite gained 13 points, a 3rd favorite gained 12 points, a 4th favorite gained 11 points, etc.
The 2025 results are shown above. The entry with the highest point total received First Place; the entry with the second-highest point total received Second Place, and the entry with the third-highest point total received Third Place.
Only the names of the First, Second and Third Place winners are publicly released at the Nov. 5 2025 ILDA Awards Presentation. The other entries remain anonymous to the public. All entrants are informed of their Entry Identifier, for example “Your entries are letters ‘D’ and ‘J’,” so that they can know how their entry did.
Each voter was asked to rank the entries by their preference: 1st favorite, 2nd favorite, etc. They were not required to rank all the entries. A vote for a person's 1st favorite gained 14 "points" since there were 14 entries. A vote as 2nd favorite gained 13 points, a 3rd favorite gained 12 points, a 4th favorite gained 11 points, etc.
The 2025 results are shown above. The entry with the highest point total received First Place; the entry with the second-highest point total received Second Place, and the entry with the third-highest point total received Third Place.
Only the names of the First, Second and Third Place winners are publicly released at the Nov. 5 2025 ILDA Awards Presentation. The other entries remain anonymous to the public. All entrants are informed of their Entry Identifier, for example “Your entries are letters ‘D’ and ‘J’,” so that they can know how their entry did.
How to vote
All current 2025 ILDA Members, including Student Members, are eligible to vote for the 2025 Laser Photography Award.
Look through all of the photos below. Click on any image to see a larger-sized view and a description supplied by the entrant. Choose your favorites. You can have as many favorites as you wish. Just order them, so you know which one is your #1 favorite, which is #2, which is #3, etc. You do not need to order all photos — just as many as you think are especially worthy of being included.
VOTING PROCEDURE: ILDA Members have been sent an email with a link to the voting website. Once you have chosen your favorites, click the link in the email to go to the actual voting page. Voting must be done by Friday June 27 at 11:59 pm UTC.
The top three favorites will receive First, Second and Third Place ILDA Awards. Winners will be privately notified after voting ends, and will be publicly announced at the ILDA Conference in Huntsville, Alabama, hosted by Rocket City Lasers with hosting assistance by Audio Visual Imagineering.
Look through all of the photos below. Click on any image to see a larger-sized view and a description supplied by the entrant. Choose your favorites. You can have as many favorites as you wish. Just order them, so you know which one is your #1 favorite, which is #2, which is #3, etc. You do not need to order all photos — just as many as you think are especially worthy of being included.
VOTING PROCEDURE: ILDA Members have been sent an email with a link to the voting website. Once you have chosen your favorites, click the link in the email to go to the actual voting page. Voting must be done by Friday June 27 at 11:59 pm UTC.
The top three favorites will receive First, Second and Third Place ILDA Awards. Winners will be privately notified after voting ends, and will be publicly announced at the ILDA Conference in Huntsville, Alabama, hosted by Rocket City Lasers with hosting assistance by Audio Visual Imagineering.
VOTING DETAILS: Each active 2025 ILDA Member will receive an email with the voting link. In addition, for Corporate and Nonprofit Members, each employee (bundle member) listed in our records will also receive an email with the voting link. (Details are below. To check your ILDA Membership record, visit ildamember.com.)
If you are a Member, or a bundle member listed in our records, but you did not receive a voting link email, contact ILDA.
If you get a voting link email, but have not yet voted, you will get an automatic reminder emailed to you every three days until either you vote or until the voting ends.
You can only vote once. The software knows when your link vote has been used.
If you are a Member, or a bundle member listed in our records, but you did not receive a voting link email, contact ILDA.
If you get a voting link email, but have not yet voted, you will get an automatic reminder emailed to you every three days until either you vote or until the voting ends.
You can only vote once. The software knows when your link vote has been used.
Note about the picture or captions being cut off: You may need to adjust the browser's window size and/or proportions (make it wider or narrower) if part of the image or caption is cut off. It is probably best to use a tablet, laptop or desktop — not a phone — so you can judge the photos in larger detail.
2025 Laser Photography entries
2025 Laser Photography entries
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Al Khobar Water TowerThis photo was taken during the Qadsiah Festival 2024 in Al Khobar, KSA. It captures the Al Khobar Water Tower with lasers and video mapping. Our task was to illuminate the largest water reservoir in the world so it could be clearly seen from a distance and from the surrounding area. -
Bright FlightThis photo was taken during a special operation when very high-power lasers were tested for cockpit illumination and impact on pilots. The police helicopter made dozens of direct crossings with the beams at different flight speeds. A technology university organised the testing, and the whole operation was held under the national Police Force and Ministry of Defense. Due to the nature of the project and the organisations involved, we cannot disclose any further details or safety-related information. -
Infinite Field of ViewThis is a photographic and exposure experiment. The subject is over 1000 feet from a laser source fixed with varying lens materials. The result is a flat illumination that is flattened by chromatic abberation imbued by the index of the source lens. The result in real life is otherworldly with enhanced volumetric / 3D laser speckle that resembles a hologram. -
Laser FieldThis photo was taken during one of our installations at a festival. It captures the laser diodes' field with focused laser beams from a high-powered 500W laser system. -
NetWorldA laser net crisscrosses the globe, representative of our modern, interconnected world. Touching even the most remote corners, the net brings us all closer together –– or does it? -
Rainbow RoadRainbow road created using audience scanners and 96 individually controlled lasers in beam bar form. -
RGB///CMYEach laser emits only one color: red, green or blue. The light mixes in the air to create cyan, magenta, yellow and white. -
Scotty, Beam Me Up!For decades, Star Trek has fascinated generations of fans. The quote “Scotty, beam me up” has transcended Science Fiction and entered the mainstream. Having completed his mission of boldly going “where no man has gone before”, Captain James T. Kirk stands under the 150W laser beam, ready to be transported back to the safety of the USS Enterprise by his trusted engineer, Scotty. -
Space NeedleAn art display firing off 16 lasers in all directions off the iconic Space Needle in Seattle. This was set to a performance from a community art collective supporting black artists in enabling them to reach higher heights in their art. -
Tat-To-GoLaser has been projected onto all kinds of materials and objects – from buildings and screens to mountains and even clouds in the sky. However, the human body is still “terra incognita” when it comes to laser art. This laser tattoo, projected onto a pole dancer hanging upside down, just supported by the power of her own legs, is a first foray into this new art form. And in contrast to an actual tattoo one might come to regret later on, this laser-based alternative will not leave any permanent marks. -
Test PatternBefore each event, there is a calm and peaceful moment during laser alignment. At this instance, two lasers are projecting a test pattern to verify alignment and overlay. RGB alignment is afterwards perfected. The snowfall that evening brought sparkling magic to the moment. -
The GorgeThe Gorge is a light sculpture covering more than 20 square miles and employing more than 5000W of RGB laser light. Scenes from Top Gun were filmed in the Columbia River Gorge behind this stage, but the laser illumination highlights the potential for even greater purposes. -
The TetThe Tet is a destroyer of worlds. It demands an effective team. 52 is not alone. This photograph provides a beautiful contrast between soft audience scanning beams that are naturally enhanced by the exposure, contrasted by the massively high power beams overhead with sharp edges and fog glow. -
Topia Auditorium ShowThis is beamage produced by our homebrew diffraction grating projector called “FanBoy”. RGB laser diodes shoot through a grating that came from the original Laserium, according to John Robertson who provided it. There is also an effect wheel that gives the beams a periodic wobble. This was taken in the Michigan Theater in Jackson MI as part of the Topia light festival. We are set up near the stage, with the beams facing the entrance, terminating on the front of balcony. This is the first thing that the audience sees as they come in.
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Laser Photography rules
- FROM THE 2025 ILDA AWARD ENTRY RULES:
Submit a photo with laser beams/graphics as the dominant element.
The photo must be of a single “click” of the camera, whether a short exposure or a long time-exposure. However, multiple exposures are not permitted, even if triggered by one click of the shutter (e.g., using a setting or mode that automatically does multiple exposures is not permitted).
The photo may have darkroom-type improvements in Photoshop, such as cropping and curves. However, photo manipulation such as adding or removing elements is not permitted.
Also, there must be no logos, text overlays, copyright notices or other material added to the photo after it was taken, excepting photos where a client requires a logo, name, watermark, etc. as described for Client-Required-Logo entries.
All photos must be created with a camera, whether a DSLR, smartphone or even an old film camera. No Al is permitted at any step in the photo creation and editing process.
Non-laser elements can be in the photo; however, the laser beams or graphics should be the dominant element.
The photographed laser display can be from you or your company, or the display can be from another company – it does not matter. This category is about the photographer’s skill in capturing the excitement and magic of laser displays. -
Voting process
- One ballot per person: We are using email ballots to help ensure that an eligible voters can vote only once. For the Laser Photography category, ballots are sent to the main ILDA Member contact ("bundle administrator") and any other listed employee ("bundle member") of that ILDA Member.
Corporate Level 1 Members have one admin and up to three optional employees; Corporate Level 2 Members have one admin and up to two optional employees, and Corporate Level 3 Members have one admin and one optional employee. Nonprofit Members can have one admin and one optional employee. Details about "bundles" are here.
This procedure lets more ILDA Members and their employees participate in the voting process for Laser Photography.
Automatic reminders: Members who have not voted will receive a reminder every three days until voting concludes. This is not spam but is a reminder for ILDA Members receiving email due to their membership.
Voting rights: There is no absolute or guaranteed right to vote in this contest. We reserve the right to not provide or count an email ballot if, in our sole opinion, we suspect ballot-stuffing, voting irregularities, or for any other reason.
Non-delivery: Votes are coming from a third-party service. We are not responsible for non-delivery of emails either to or from us, for any reason including but not limited to failure on the third-party's part, errors in email addresses, forwarding issues, rejection of emails by servers, emails considered spam or trash, etc. If you do have an issue with email, contact us so we can try to fix this for any future elections.
Tie votes: By direction of the ILDA Board of Directors, there can be no tied placements in the ILDA Awards (e.g., no tie for First or tie for Second, etc.) Therefore, in case of the voting results ending in a tie, there will be a 2-out-of-3 coin flip to determine which tied entry receives the higher placement, and which receives the lower placement.
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