Help Me Reach The MAXIM Quarterfinals!
A Vote A Day Gets Me Closer Each Day!
What is MAXIM FLASH?
Maxim Flash is Maxim's photography competition.
Photographers enter, and the early rounds are decided by public voting — anyone can cast one free vote per day. As competitors advance, the field narrows round by round, and later stages move into professional judging of originality, lighting, composition, technical execution, and editing.
At the beginning, it is a contest led by the masses in the most literal sense: it runs on people supporting it daily.
It ends with a photography evaluation. I'd like to get far enough to be judged on the work.
Why Did I Enter?
How It Started
I picked up my first camera about eight years ago, in college. I didn't have a business plan behind it. I just knew I wanted to travel eventually, and I wanted to come back with something better than phone photos — real images of the places I'd been and the people I met.
For years, that's all it was. Then in 2024 I finally reached a point in my career where I could travel the way I'd been planning to, so I invested in real gear: cameras, a drone, an editing setup. I started taking the craft seriously. People responded to the work, but I still wasn't thinking of it as anything more than a hobby I happened to be good at.
How I Got Inspired For More
What changed was showing up somewhere I didn't know anyone. In 2025, I started going to Houston running clubs, mostly to get out of my own comfort zone and meet people. I brought my camera. I started shooting and flying the drone as a volunteer, and the running community shared the photos, tagged me, reposted them, and kept asking for more. That was the first time it clicked that my photography had value to somebody other than me.
That's also where FOTOS By NOE came from. It started as an Instagram account so people would have something to tag other than my personal page. It became a portfolio, then an identity, then a business.
How It’s Growing
When I decided to take photography more seriously. I kept breaking out of my comfort zone. That's what led me to the work that means the most to me now. Volunteering for a bigger organization doing amazing things in another country.
Every single time I've stepped outside my comfort zone, photography has opened another unexpected door. Maxim Flash feels like another one of those doors. It feels like another mountain to climb and a place to stay up high as a sense of achievement to get from this journey I am in.
The Work That Got Me Here
How To Maximize Your Support
The Fastlane Way
In addition to the free daily vote, MAXIM allows supporters to purchase a digital MAXIM Next issue directly through my profile. Eligible purchases generate Media Votes that are automatically applied to my competition entry.
Right now, a $10 MAXIM Next issue through my profile generates 10 Media Votes + 10 bonus votes — 20 total votes toward my campaign.
Note: You will need a MAXIM VIP account to do this.
As we move through the Top 20, Top 15, Top 10, Final 5, and Victory Lap, the competition will get much tighter. This is where additional support through MAXIM Next can make a much bigger difference in helping me maintain a strong position and work toward the Quarterfinals!
The Quarterfinals are still part of the public voting tournament, but reaching that stage would put me much deeper into the competition and significantly closer to the Finals and eventual Championship Interview, where MAXIM's professional judges evaluate the remaining photographers.
I’ll explain below the roadmap & what awaits the ones who pass through after these rounds in the MAXIM Flash Competition!
The Current Goal
Help Me Get To The Quarterfinals!
If you've followed my photography, hired me, ran with me, supported the work I do for Friends of El Salvador, or just believe in what I'm building, please support me however you want for this competition.
As of now, I am in the Top 20 and will be updating things here as things progress. Once I pass through, the quarterfinals will be held in early 2027! So let’s get this going, make it there together & see how far we can get!
I am also starting a trend online called #VOTE4FOTOS
Use that hashtag if you’d like and post on your story when you have submitted your vote & I will be happy to share it to my story!
This means a lot to me & I hope to bring more visions to life from others that hire me & my own!