Tag Archives: Gurushots

My Photo Journey: From Game to Gallery Recognition

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I had a new experience the weekend before Christmas. I don’t enter competitions with my photographs very often. I am my own worst critic. Nothing is good enough. Everything needs to be improved.

I am part of an online photography game, Gurushots. In the game, one enters different contests, and other members vote on which photographs they like. It is fun, and I have met very nice people through participating in the game.

Another aspect of this game is that you can enter your photos in showings in galleries worldwide for a small fee. This exhibit has two aspects. About fifty photos will be on the gallery’s walls, and the rest will be represented digitally. Over the years of my involvement with this game, I have had mine accepted as a digital entry a handful of times.

This past fall, I was notified that my photo had been selected to hang on the gallery walls at the Coningsby Gallery in London for a three-day gallery exhibition. Whoa, I didn’t know that would happen. I was thrilled to know it had been selected.

On opening night, they showed a video for those who could not visit the gallery. London was a bit far, especially since I have some big plans for the near future. I followed the video through the two photography exhibits in the gallery. One was a nature photography exhibition, and the one my photo was chosen for was Portrait Photographer of the Year. And…just like that, there was my photo.

The photo was taken on a Photo Safari in Kenya in 2019 with Pangolin Photo Safaris. I traveled for ten days through two reserves. Three professional photographers on the safari taught me so much in the time I was there. On the last full day, they had us rise before dawn, and the people who worked at the reserve we stayed in came in traditional dress. With the help of the first morning light, we learned to take photos enabled by this magic moment of the day. This was one of the photos.

Here is a sampling of other photos from that morning shoot. It is a Slide Show, so click the arrow.

Every day, small moments of joy bring us happiness. When things are tough, or I am having a bad day, these moments of joy help lighten the sadness, chaos, or whatever else is happening in my life. I am so thankful when I can recognize these moments.

Finding out I had been accepted into this show brought me more than a small moment of joy. It made my heart lighten. Undoubtedly, a little self-pride is involved, but not all is wrong. I am thankful for the opportunity this presented to me. It is good to know my hard work in learning photography comes with these moments of reward.

I often work on my photography skills, taking workshops and exploring how to improve. I have improved my photography since 2019. Yet, this photo shows my progress, and I feel so good that it was acknowledged. And it is fun to share it with you.

Today, I am thankful for a moment in time, for a fine photo being acknowledged, and for the opportunity to share it with you.

Today, I am so thankful.

Finding Lessons Everywhere

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This past summer I became involved in an online game for photographers called GuruShots. I have belonged to this site for a while, using it as a way to explore what photographers are doing and expanding my skills and knowledge. This past summer I decided to join a team and explore what this aspect of the game was about.

The team chooses a theme challenge and competes against another team. For example, the current theme is “24 Hours”. The challenges last from a few hours to a day. What do we win? Knowledge, points, and a progression up the board of the game.

I joined the Photography Friends team. I chose this team because of the team description.

“Our team objective is to share in the joy of photography and learn from each other in a friendly atmosphere. Although winning matches and advancing our team is great, it is not our primary goal. If this sounds good to you, please join us.”

I have been learning a lot. I have discovered photos that I had forgotten about and have been amazed at some of my work. I have also been making new friends from around the world.

“Freedom” was the theme of a challenge a few weeks back. The team chose it because it seemed to be an easy challenge to find photos that represented the theme. I began to think about what freedom meant. It would be easy to put up a photo of an eagle or the Flag. This is an international community and those photos lose their meaning once you embrace the world.

I entered photos and they did well. Do I think they represented the topic? No, not really.

These are the four photos. You can double click on them to enlarge them.


Freedom means more to me with each passing day, during this current state of affairs in this country. Freedom means that my voice is heard. When did this country stop respecting the freedom and respect of religious choice? Freedom means I can walk down the street and feel safe and secure. I may feel safe and secure, yet not everyone has that choice and that walk is not free to all.

Freedom means one thing to people with wealth. Freedom may have another meaning to someone homeless and on the streets or existing on a low-income wage.

The more I thought of this contest and the pictures I added the more I felt like I copped out. This was an opportunity for me to address freedom. It may have taken more effort to go out and find symbols of freedom to photograph. What would those symbols be? The freedom to protest. I believe I could have found a symbol of this today. Black Lives Matter. There would have been many opportunities to find symbols of religious freedom. A photograph of the word Voice would have been appropriate and meaningful.

What began as a simple contest evolved into much more as I began to contemplate what freedom really means to me, to this country, and to the world.

Today I would like to commit myself to help others experience freedom without fear. Today I am grateful to experience freedom in all its unique and usual forms. I also make a promise to myself not to cop out when a topic such as this surfaces again.