GurushotsReviews 72

Gurushots is a game and like any other game the goal is to make money. The add says you get feedback from you photos and would improve your skills (it is a lie). Some of the gurus runs challenges but don't know exactly what is about. Challenge of " trees along side streets", the winners were paths in the woods and even a railway, when the challenge is the colour purple and the pictures of the flowers are pink or orange and they don't know the difference of hills and mountains. How can you take this "game" seriously and pay for it. Hell no. For the record I didn't pay a penny and of course I am not a "guru".

It doesn't matter how great your pictures are all they want is for you to spend money to boost your photos, swap your photos etc etc. I've had great photos get beat out by crappy photos. It's absolutely impossible to get a guru pic unless you're a guru.It's a complete rip-off don't waste your time, your heart, your soul, nothing, especially if you are a young photographer trying to feel out where you are. It's a game that's it. It's like playing Candy Crush.

If your very much into photography this is a awesome place to see different perspectives beautiful learning for beginners or advanced and so much more studying purposes mostly to make you skills more productive & professional!

However if your into photography contest and your not from Europe or of European descent i don't really recommend you enter as in almost all the competitions I've seen very little to no none European based photos win or even rank anywhere in the top 10 this is a site based on the world view and so should the winners or even ranker reflect that perspective. If you are diverse and your work is diverse it would probable be better to go elsewhere as this appears to be a Whitewashing site base, as i saw very little diversity in race & cultural photography (asia, africa, latin america or other) all topics are open but end results seem to be the same, i challenge you to test and view from your own perspective if your non European especially? Or even European?

Yes i have also entered contest and still do and me being non-white have a great diversity of photos high-end and standard of all types of photography including European based and its crazy how my European photo rank and its not always my best works but yet they rank elite and above without hard work so i use this to my advantage as you'll get way better results in the contest hint! If you cant beat them join them lol

That being said you can still learn a lot from this site to take with you in real world scenario's

So firstly I am hooked on this thing, or at least I have been.
I am currently at Champion level which is where I will remain until I leave.
The lack of stars? Numerous reasons, won't go into massive detail on every point, some I will try.
1st, if you set up an account, regardless of how many times you email them, threaten them with DP breach, it will NOT be deleted! You can delete the photo's you have uploaded, but your personal details are still there for people to find - I have given up trying to get them to look at this.
2nd, ALL the challenges are won by Guru's and Masters!
This is not an app where everyone has an equal chance of winning, you don't! Not unless you are a Pro / semi pro photographer AND have YEARS of experience in Lightroom or PS. There are virtually ZERO photo's in the top 100 of ANY challenge that have not had HUGE amounts of post editing... if you can't do this kind of thing, you are never going to progress above a certain level.
3rd, The tricks and game play that goes on that GS will NOT tell you about.
They have 'quick challenges' that only last around 3 days. Most last around 7-9 days. The push is to get you to join as soon as the challenge opens, that way other users can vote for you, and some of the 'big boys' who have lots of money to use swaps etc will do this... but not all.
The trick of getting top 10,20 or 30% in the quick challenges, is to join in the last hour. Have an autofill free, and have a photo to swap... swap with 30 minutes left and unless you are using really bad photos, I promise you an All Star rating and possible finish in the top 30%... I got three last week using this method.
4th, It will alter how you take photos and how you post process and NOT in a good way! So that last statement is not 100% accurate. The app will push you to learn new things, but you will do that by going to You Tube and learning them there, you can not learn them via this app! What will happen is that to progress, to get votes, you will start to over process your photos! You will massively over saturate every SINGLE one of them, because if you don't, no one is going to vote for them.
Do not ask me why this is, but I tested it. Used the EXACT same photo, one that was perfectly processed and looked amazing, got almost NO votes. I then made it look like crap, the saturation almost made me puke, and it got All Star!

So with all that, why play... well because the other alternatives out there, Viewbug etc are so difficult to work out, and depend EVEN MORE on you being rich that this is the best option of what is available right now.
It will push you, it will make you look at what you are doing more closely, and you will be better after 12 months of playing. BUT. It will also drive you totally NUTS if you have anything like a competitive bone in your body.
The photo below is one of the only times I have been given the award of Guru Pick

Have spent a lot of my life here, and can honestly say doing so has made me more self-critical and less emotionally attached to my photos. I also have improved technically and have worked hard to get to "Master" level, but think there is something lacking in my work that I search for that might get a Guru's attention... the public vote? Nah. Because I can predict exactly what images will be popular, and it is the same ol' same ol. Super glad photos can't win more than once... there was a certain photo of some black dogs that showed up so much I wanted to gag. Still problems with "similar" photos... the description should be very concise... different subject, different back ground... none should look anywhere close to the others in the set, lol. If you want to use the site, be sure to look up the definitions used in the descriptions... an amphibian is not a fish or a crab! Vanishing point relates to parallel lines. Minimalist photos have recognizable subjects, where abstract ones may not. I would love to see more creativity in the contests... I am constantly thinking of them, lol. Such as "The Accidental Photo that Worked" or "Ancestors" etc. etc. Be creative, and leave your phone shots on your phone... don't waste everyone's time. Thanks to Gurushots.