I am always looking at the photos of others to do what I can to learn what tells a good story and captures the moment well. One of the ways I do this is by sharing my photos on sites for photographers to vote and critique my own photos.

One of these I like is YouPic. I've gotten some good responses, feedback, and encouragement from photographers around the world. They also offer short online courses on a variety of topics related to improving photography.

Recently, I found another site that touts itself as a 'Game' for photographers is GuruShots. They offer frequent 'challenges' for a specific category of shots and folks vote on the submitted photos. The challenges are created by 'Gurus' who have obtained that status by receiving votes and various awards for their photos. Photographers start out at the 'Newbie' level and progress up through a series of levels until you become a Guru.

Within each challenge, there are also levels assigned to photos based on the number of votes received, from Skilled to All-Star. One recent, and currently open challenge, is called Photographers in Action. Basically, it's photos of photographers doing what they do. I entered this challenge a little over a week ago with some photos I shot of my friends on my two photo workshops to India over the last few years. Lo and behold, apparently, others are liking my photos as I've moved up into the All-Star group at 16 of nearly 4,000 photographers! This link will take you to the four photos entered in this challenge. I also want to acknowledge the wonderful photographers who were my models.

Trying to get the right shot This kind of recognition is, of course, very cool, but also very encouraging for me to continue to work on my photography.

by George