Photography Guru Millionaire?
What is a Guru?
Fair question! According to
Google,
gu·ru ˈɡo͝oro͞o/
noun
(in Hinduism and Buddhism) a
spiritual teacher, especially one who imparts initiation.
synonyms: |
spiritual
teacher, teacher, tutor, sage, mentor, spiritual
leader, leader, master;
swami, maharishi
"a Hindu guru and mystic" |
an influential teacher or popular
expert.
synonyms: expert, authority, pundit, leading
light, master, specialist;
informal whiz "a management guru"
Okay, so a photography guru must be a Master of Photography?
That makes sense to me.
Apparently, it also makes sense on the website GuruShots.
Here's how they describe themselves -
GuruShots is a platform for
people who love taking photos.
It’s fun, motivating and helps
you improve
Started just over 4 years ago, they
set out with the following Core Beliefs -
ANYONE CAN TAKE GREAT
PHOTOSAt GuruShots, we believe that it’s not about the gear you use nor the training you received. It’s not even really about the subjects you shoot. It’s really about your talent. We built GuruShots to give people a place to show and nurture that talent.
TAKING PHOTOS SHOULD BE FUN AND MEANINGFUL
Taking photos is an amazing way to express yourself. We wanted it to be fun and meaningful so we turned the sharing of photos into an exciting game packed with plenty of opportunities to show off people’s talent.
IMPROVING YOUR SKILLS MEANS FEEDBACK. LOTS OF IT.
Feedback is one of the best ways to get better. That’s why we built GuruShots - to give people massive feedback on their photos and the opportunity to compare their photos to others.
So, In other words...
You join GuruShots to share your photos
with other photographers in order to receive feedback and thereby
improve the quality of your photography. It started small,
competitions, or "Challenges" as they refer to them, are
generally theme based competitions where you submit your photos into the challenge, and then are shown photos from
your peers and asked to vote on the ones you feel fit the guidelines
of the challenge as set forth by the Guru running the challenge.
As the 4 years have passed,
tremendous growth and growing pains that are often associated
with success were all part of the mix. Now sponsoring an average of
50 challenges per month, and tallying 1 Billion votes per month
from over 1 million photographers from all around the globe,
GuruShots publishes articles, sponsors exhibitions in galleries all
over the world, and have given out over $500,000 in awards to the
winners of these challenges.
As you compete, you receive
achievements and points indicating how well you are performing on the
site. As you gain points and achievements, you rise from Newbie
to the highest level of Guru. After becoming a Guru, you are
given the opportunity to run challenges by selecting the theme, the
guidelines for the competition, and serve as the Professional
Viewpoint as to what photos best meet the challenge by voting, just
like the competitors through a blind presentation of the photos.
At the end of the challenge, the Guru then picks their Top Photo.
Keep in mind, these competitions have grown to the point of some
challenges having over 200,000 photos and 60,000 competitors!
All the time, you keep collecting
points. If you achieve the top level in the challenge, ALL
STAR, and jump through all the hoops possible, you can collect up to
1350 Guru Points for the competition.
AND THIS IS WHERE THE MILLIONAIRE COMES IN!
The first of June brought the first
Guru Millionaire when a photographer in Sweden achieved the
previously unheard of task - he had received over 1 million Gurushots
points. Now, on July 7, 2018, Julie Everhart, my wife,
partner, and fellow photographer, has done the same! From what
we can tell, Julie is actually the second photographer to make this
mark on the world!
Congratulations on your success Julie! Unless you have tried, you have no idea how hard it is to win a challenge (one of the requirements to achieve Guru status). And believe me, I know! I won my challenge a year and a half ago! Yeah, two gurus in one house. To become a Photography Guru Millionaire? Well, I don't think that's something I'll be chasing. For the record, I am closing in on the 450,000 point mark at this time.
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