Our friends over at GuruShots, "The World’s Greatest Photo Game,” hosted a challenge recently where participants were asked to submit their best nightfall Image. There were thousands of entries and 37.6 million votes throughout the contest. Check out the three winners of the challenge as well as the 100 top rated images below.
GuruShots is a perfect platform for photographers who love what they do and want to share their photos with others. They host hundreds of various themed challenges that offer a wide range of prizes. Not only do you get to share your photos, but it's a fun game for all who participate. The best part is that it's free to join. Simply visit www.gurushots.com to start sharing your work.
Péter Nádas, Hungary - Top Photographer
Péter Brantzen, Germany - Top Photo
François-Xavier Faidy, France - Guru's Top Pick
adeslo - Canada
Alex Armando Torres - United States
Alexander Tarasenkov - Russia
Alison Dave - Australia
Andreas Jonsson - Sweden
Andrei Dima - Romania
Andrew Hitrov - Russia
Andy Fowlie - Germany
Arturas Jonkus - Republic of Lithuania
Ashish Penti - United States
Bán Katalin - Hungary
bart buckalew - United States
Bradford Richman - United States
Bryle Tristan Gaylor - United States
calmander.37 - United States
Catherine Durbano - France
Cesonia Lazarov Anghel - United Kingdom
Christian Mueller - Australia
christinesartventures - Singapore
Daniel Kazor - Stolen Shadows - Canada
David Abbott - Egypt
David See - Singapore
Derek Kanaswood - United States
detlev.b. photo - Austria
Dewan Karim - Canada
Dirk St - Germany
Eduarda Freitas - Portugal
Emilia Turkiewicz - Canada
Eric Sorenson - Canada
Fabio Brocchi - Italy
Felipe Lima Roth - Brazil
Frédéric Pallanca - France
George Araiza - Mexico
Gil Shmueli - Israel
Gonzalo Cianciarulo - Argentina
Hajdu Krisztina - Hungary
hodgepodge_jane - Ireland
Hossam Sadek - United States
Iakovos Pap - United Kingdom
Igal Shnaiderman - Israel
Ircsi Ecsedi - Hungary
isabellapat - Canada
James Head - United States
Jana Čendak - Slovenia
Javier Garcia Alvarez - Spain
Jayden Yoon ZK - United States
Jennifer Benney - United States
Jose Angel Cortes - Spain
journeysthroughwanderlust - United Kingdom
Juan Carlos Correa Arevalo - Mexico
Julia Muniz - United States
Kelly Vivian - New Zealand
Kimberly Ruggeri-Rios - United States
Konstantin Korobeinikov - Republic of Lithuania
kuriene - Netherlands
Lachlan Downey - Australia
Leif-Magne Heitun - Norway
Lolo Nel - United States
Luis Silva - Portugal
Lukasz Szubartowicz - Poland
Lynn Shelton - United States
Margarida Afonso Silva - Portugal
Marketa Zvelebil - France
Martin Vano - Slovakia
Massimiliano Clari - Italy
Matic Marc - Slovenia
Matt Specht - United States
Maximiliano Chinelato - Italy
Michael Camilleri - Australia
Mick Harris - United States
Mike Furber - New Zealand
Mona Dienhart - Luxembourg
Monika Plewka - Poland
Nader El Assy - Egypt
nadopics4 - Ukraine
Nishakanth Yogarajah - Sri Lanka
Oliver Schmid-Selig - Germany
Per Hultebrand - Sweden
postman.76 - Russian Federation
Rami Pazhar - Israel
Régis James-Farges - France
Rick Cutright - United States
Riitta Santala-Köykkä - Finland
Robbie Woods - United Kingdom
Rodolfo Vadillo - United States
Ronny Van Loock - Belgium
Sam Cropper - United Kingdom
Simon Wirth - Switzerland
Sridhar Setty - United States
Steve Dillon - United States
Szilvia Barrett - Australia
Tasos Ziogas - Greece
the.omnituenic.traveler - United States
Troy Edwards - United States
Vitaliy Karavaychuk - Ukraine
William Adamczak - United States
Wolfgang Weber - Germany
Xan White - Switzerland
Yves Chamberland - Canada
Zoltán Radics - Hungary
Naomi Steinruck - United States
The top 100 images from Gurushots "Nightfall" Challenge.
I’ve been meaning to check this site out, but I’ve here mixed opinions. If anyone here has used it, have you found it to be worth your investment of time?
I've heard its very addictive, and a guy I follow seems to have gained quite a bit of success after having his work featured at their exhibitions a number of times... at least based on the number of trips he's taken over the last year vs the two years prior. I'll see about checking it out, thanks for the information!
I'm there too, and each time I participate to contests, I wonder every time if I should go on. I think the quality of the photos shown there, and, most important, those who win, is very unequal. I think the images shown here is a good sample of the problem. There are quality pictures, for sure. But among some who got votes, some have overexposed high tones, or are taken with a crappy smartphone, or with the wrong type of HDR. And mainly conformists.
There is few place for original and personal content.
I take the example of the Budapest Parliament, a shot seen a million times (and I'm guilty of that too !). But, even if the pictures are well made and the building wonderful, what makes the difference between all of them ?
And, as Broken Canon Art explained, you have to vote for peers to have your image have more displayed, and it takes time. Or you can pay for that.
So, I think I will spend less time there. But feel free to try !
When it comes to online contests, I'm always wary of the results. One of the reasons I've been on the fence, is the "quality" of the winners. I'm not going to lie, the first two winning images don't really do anything for me, the third one has some great storytelling. More or less, the top complaints I've heard are that it's either a "popularity contest" or "pay to win", but I'm not sure how true those are. though.
I agree with you about the three winning photos. The difference beeing that the two first are (if I don't get it wrong) the result of the votes, and the third a pick by one of the "gurus", so a human person (at least that's what I guess).
So, it's not surprising that a very common landmark and yellow and blue colors are over represented. I read a study once that explained that you had better chances to get your image voted or at least noticed on social media if it's mainly blue.
So, you are right about the popularity contest and the "pay to win".
But sometimes I wonder how images like this one from the selection even got votes, regarding the quality.
Oh, and the interesting contests, those which give the opportunity for exhibitions or magazine appearance are not free, but you have to pay around 8 dollars.
Don’t do it mate. It’s a massive waste of time.
It reminded me a lot of a free to play phone game to be honest.
You have to spam votes in order to boost your own expose and you can apply power ups to take shortcuts.
The quality of images on average is very low. With a lot of phone snapshots and pictures that don’t fit the theme.
I would say people spend less time actually looking at an image than they would on Instagram.
I've heard the "waste of time" comment a lot, which is the reason I haven't joined yet. I usually have very little free time to spare, so I'm not sure I could "play" enough to make it worth my time.
People actually need to vote positively to at least 100 photos a time to get full exposure. This exposure diminishes by, I don't know, let's say 20% per day. You need to fill up your vote-meter to get optimal exposure yourself.
People therefore just vote without looking at the pictures randomly proposed, otherwise you just waste a lot of time as there are several contests at the same time....
Up to you if this sounds interesting...
There are quality and even excellent pictures shown. Becoming a Guru is an unknown secret. It appears to me as that the actual Gurus play their own thing...becoming Guru multiple times.
I don't know whether the actual prizes are real or not.
That does sound like a bit of a time sink, so I might wait until I have some more free time in my daily life before joining. Thanks!
I get what you mean, unfortunately and being very pragmatic, I don't think that any image is really seen or being approved unless it is a Guru Pick. Unfortunately...
Such a pleasure to be selected! You can find more of my work and buy the prints at www.gurushots.com/thisisjumuniz. Contact me for inquiries. For more to come! <3