Our 2022 capture challenge drew to a close in October after nine months of amazing entries and fabulous winners, as voted for by our wonderful community over on Instagram.

Now its time to vote for the overall winner - such a hard task as they're all amazing!

Below we will list the winners in order of winning throughout the year and link to the challenge blog post which gives ideas and tips for styling and shooting with the technique they each used in their monthly challenge. (These blog posts are a really valuable resource for anybody wanting to learn or explore photography and styling!)

I'm sure you'll agree that all of the winners are fantastic stylists and creatives but there can only be one overall winner, taking home another £100 BVS voucher!

Every valid (published) vote will be entered into a prizedraw to win a £25 voucher - you could win £25 just for voting!

Please vote by commenting your favourite in the comments box at the bottom of this post - you will need to use a valid email address to validate the comment.  One vote per person please - no cheating.

Here's our run down on the best gifts for your creative or self-employed loved one this year 

For the getting-serious-about-this stylist - from £176 (saving up to £77)

Our handcrafted surfaces are a luxurious treat for those who are taking their photography to the next level and are ready for investment pieces.  The gift set of two (or 4) hand-painted backdrops and gift set of two bespoke canvas backdrops offer a rare opportunity to give a generous gift and enjoy up to 25% off.

We can work with you to create designs that they'll love for Christmas delivery or you can surprise them with a gift card and details of this gift, for them to work with us on the designs after the holidays in January. 

When you choose 'January production' you unlock an extra 5% off!

My mum grows the most beautiful organic apples and my kids love that caramel sweetness so tarte tatin is an easy, go-to recipe for our household each late summer.

I wanted to shoot some rustic food with a freshly-picked, home-grown 'garden shed' vibe on our new 'Jack' backdrop so this recipe offered the perfect opportunity to style and enjoy these leafy homegrown apples.

I've given the ice cream a slightly grown up twist by infusing the cream with rosemary before making into ice cream - it balances the sweet caramel, as does tossing your quartered apples in lemon juice before assembling them in your oven dish.

I hope you enjoy this sweet, sticky, creamy mess!

Like most businesses in the UK we are facing increased costs in nearly all aspects of our work.  We have thought hard to make our product price increases as minimal as possible, while allowing us to continue to offer attractive shipping costs and special offers on shipping and products.

On the 1st of July the following products will change price as follows:

Welcome to May and our next #bvs capture challenge!  Enter for your chance to WIN a £100 or £25 voucher

About our theme - using hard light

#bvshardlight

I am only just starting to play with and see the possibilities with using hard light in my photography - as a 99% natural-light-photographer I need direct sunlight to get hard light and strong shadows.

But its so much fun exploring this technique now I have some lighting kit! Strong, direct light gives you those hard edged, highly defined shadows rather than the softly graduating patches of darkness you get from soft - or diffused - light.

Typically, larger light sources (that will wrap light around your products and props) produce soft shadows, and smaller, single light sources (like slim, directional light) produce harder light and shadows because there is little or no other light softening the edges from other angles.

Introducing The Styling Handbook, a new creative agency focused on authentic, quality-led content and e-commerce for food and lifestyle brands

The Styling Handbook is the new home of our styling, photography and marketing services - somewhere we can share our passion for authentic, quality-led content without confusing the message here - where 99% of you visit us purely for photography backdrops!

While BVS is still an important focus for me, I'm really excited to be working on more commercial photography and marketing projects and have the time to train and support other businesses - thanks largely to our amazing team at BVS!

We're already working with some fantastic global brands and local businesses, offering -

• commercial styling and still life photography 
• remote and on-site content creation, including restaurant photography
• marketing strategy and social media services
• e-commerce strategy and design
• styling and photography training and workshops

Welcome to April and our next #bvs capture challenge!  Enter for your chance to WIN a £100 or £25 voucher

About the #bvs challenge

Our monthly challenges are open to everyone in the creative community, hosted via Instagram, co-hosted by myself (Sophie!) and some of our brand ambassadors – Anna, Suze, Matt or Patrick – plus special guest judges each month.

For each challenge we will share professional styling and photography tips and ideas that follow a monthly theme. The tips and themes explored should be useful in all still life photography - including food, product and lifestyle content.

We hope to inspire our community and be inspired ourselves – I always find it fascinating how people can interpret things differently and use the same theory in lots of different creative ways! 

Welcome to February and a new #bvs capture challenge! Enter for your chance to WIN a £100 or £25 voucher.

About the #bvs challenge

Our monthly challenges are open to everyone in the creative community, hosted via Instagram, co-hosted by myself (Sophie!) and some of our brand ambassadors – Anna, Suze, Matt or Patrick – plus special guest judges each month.

The February 2022 challenge theme is monochrome and we're thrilled to have Roberta @healthylittlecravings as our guest judge helping Anna, Suze and I select the finalists.

#bvsmonochrome

Most people think of black and white images and artwork when they hear monochrome but it actually describes the use of any single colour (or hue) in different shades. In monochromatic images the colour remains the same but the vibrancy, brightness and - with artistic license - tints and tones differ slightly.