Gurushots, my review and my tips on the photo competition platform
Gurushots is a platform that appeared in 2014 for free photo challenges. The challenges are very numerous, accessible to all, ten a day, and varied! Here are examples of challenge categories:
- Macro
- Mountains
- Person in activity
- Culinary
- Insects
- Photo of leaves
- Dominance of purple color …
As you can see the challenges are original for some which is a good point to stimulate the photographer’s creativity.
How it works
Once registered on Gurushots you will have the status “Newbie”, the goal of the game will be to pass GURU with good results on the challenges but for that you will need (a lot) of time (there are 9 ranks) and beautiful pictures !
Once you have obtained Guru status (you must, among other things, win a contest to obtain it) you will have the power to offer your own contests!
Gurushot challenges
As we have seen there are plenty of challenge categories and each of them has its own particularity such as:
- The theme
- The number of photos: it goes from 1 to 4. Pay attention to this before registering, making sure you have enough great photos to play with!
- Reserved only for certain statuses
Once registered for a challenge, you will have to vote on the photos you prefer from other users, this will fill your visibility gauge in order to be highlighted … And this is in my opinion the main flaw of the site, for filling this gauge takes a lot of time if we want to give points only to very beautiful photos … Then you just have to vote for the least worst or use a “Fills” bonus which is won randomly in the challenges or … by paying !
Note that it is useless to have your gauge always filled to its maximum because the photos will be displayed fairly between all the participants (unless you do not fill your exposure gauge at all).
On the other hand, it is important to have your visibility gauge high before the end of a competition to take advantage of maximum visibility.
Bonus
When you arrive on the platform, you will be given various bonuses:
- Swap: It allows you to change one photo for another in a contest, if you see that one is not working
- Fills: Avoids having to vote to become visible by filling your gauge
- Keys: Allows you to participate in a challenge a few hours before it ends
Rewards
This part might disappoint you if you saw the $ 150, $ 300, $ 500 in rewards, that’s the value you received as a … bonus most of the time!
There are many contests with real rewards, real money, or for example cameras to be won, but the number of participants is very high!
TIPS
Discover some tips to hope to win one of the challenges.
- Be picky when selecting photos for a challenge. Stick to the theme.
- Always put the maximum number of photos allowed on a challenge, if one photo doesn’t work, use a swap if the others work well.
- Before swapping any of your photos, wait for the vote to stabilize, if your exposure level is at its maximum, that means your photos won’t really get new votes for a little while.
- Avoid the autofill feature and take the time to choose your photos carefully.
- There is no need to enter when opening a challenge, your photos will not be seen again.
- Don’t forget to put your exposure meter to its maximum a few minutes before the end of a challenge to have the maximum possible votes!
Review about GURUSHOTS: not convinced.
One of the strong points of the Gurushots platform in my opinion is its approach comparable to an online game where we will multiply the competitions to gain as many points as possible and advance in the statutes, a rather pleasant addictive side, moreover certain themes sharpen creativity!
However, to hope to finish in the first positions, it will take a lot of time! In addition, the average quality of all the photos on the platform makes it a fun platform in my opinion, but not to be taken seriously!
In my opinion, it is more interesting to take time to be inspired by beautiful images of talented photographers or other competitions (fearless, regard d’auteur… ) rather than having to take time to vote for the least worst pictures… 🙂
Advantages
- Its fun game aspect
- Winners usually have beautiful photographs
- The originality of certain themes
- Paid bonuses are not disadvantageous for those who do not pay
- Available on IOS / Android
Disadvantages
- Very average photo quality overall
- Filling up the exposure meter can become very time consuming (if done carefully)
- Only in English (it’s still very accessible)
