With over 1,000 votes coming in this year, our 2012 Photoremedy Photo of the Year has been selected. And the winner is the photograph labeled “Anthem Veterans Memorial,” which was taken as a 2012 summer storm seamlessly merged with the kind of spectacular sunset Arizonans have come to expect in the colorful Sonoran Desert.

Veterans Memorial – Anthem, Arizona

Although this timely image was in the lead for most of the polling period, it was running a close race with our Journey Home and Dingle Town photographs (see December 23, 2012 post for all of the finalists) up until the final few hours of voting. A late surge pushed the winner to close with 37 percent of the vote.

Interestingly enough, the Veterans Memorial shot almost didn’t make our top twelve list. Many of the other photos had their own appeal and most were more technically sound, but my son and computer graphics adviser Will made a last minute appeal. He simply said, “I don’t think you want to leave this one out. People are really going to like it.”

So, thanks to everyone who voted in our poll (I call it a passion poll because our “vote early, vote often” approach allows photoremedy readers who feel strongly about a picture to make a bigger difference in the outcome). And special thanks to Will for having the intuition to know that we are all winners when we pay special tribute to the men and women who have put their lives on the line for this great nation.

Cheers to our veterans, and cheers to a blessed 2013.

– Greg