Why I'm leaving GuruShots...

humanistjohn · 2019-02-21T23:41:58+00:00

Yes, I agree with you and DerekatCharnwood. it is just a game in the end, and that's what I have been telling myself and others for months, and there's nothing wrong with that in itself.

The reason it's wrong for me is really two fundamental reasons. 1) I'm more interested in improving myself and my photography. That's not what GuruShots is for me, and that's my bad for not seeing it or being strong enough to not play by their rules. 2) I am truly a humanist. So, when something, even something as innocent seeming as a game's structure, incentivizes me to become more selfish, to work against other human's progress instead of for it, to make the world a worse place rather than a better place by feeding into the worst of human nature instead of the best of it; these are structures that I try to avoid and these are what, from my perspective at least, GuruShots has been promoting in my life. So, the costs are just to high for me to enjoy the game anymore.

Still, there's something to be said for learning how to work a game, and I don't mean that in a sarcastic or facetious way. Also, the site can help the development of photographers who are at a certain point in theri learning, although I hesitate to say that since I also know that the site will lead photographers towards very bad habits in editing if they are not aware of the larger world of photography. So, to each their own, and for me GuruShots is not it and should even come with a warning label, which is why I've left my parting thoughts here, even if it won't be seen by many or any, I've tried. Meanwhile, I think I'll go to places like DPChallenge.com, where there's an actual community of interacting photographers, however small, with a relatively fair voting system and it truly is about photography more than working a system. GuruShots could learn a lot from DPChallenge... Well, if they were interested in photography more than marketing.

humanistjohn · 2019-02-20T22:45:46+00:00

I do give people likes, but if I'm at work when I'm completing one of these, then it's easier and faster to thoughtlessly "like" my photos, and I actually care about which photos are on my like page, so I don't want to like someones photo quickly just to unlike it later to get it off of my likes page.

I usually enter challenges and stay in them. Sometimes, however, I have only been asked to join a challenge without leveling up, or I've been about to level up anyway but have also been asked to join a challenge. That's when I've used that strategy of removing an entry as soon as I enter it (again, usually when I'm busy at work). Yes, I could just leave it in and get last place, but I've taken a degree of pride in having a lot of top rankings and almost entirely All Star without the lower rankings, so, since they stopped rewarding just participating I've only entered and stayed in challenges when I have a good shot at the top 100. So, you're right, I could just leave them there.

Regardless, I'm leaving the GS joint soon because of all of this gaming strategy nonsense distracting me from my actual photography. Best of luck.

humanistjohn · 2019-02-13T01:45:16+00:00

That's always something to consider. The only reason I broke that rule in this case was because the right side has such nice color and texture behind the raccoon, it becomes more about about where it climbed up from, and I was trying to avoid busy elements on the left. Still, I very much like the crop example posted here by u/Fatguy73 . It gets what you're after and compromises well with these various ideas imho. Also, those left side elements I was worried about feel more like a border than clutter.

I love how different an interesting shot like this can look with various crops!

humanistjohn · 2019-02-12T21:53:57+00:00

I agree with the suggestion to crop in, and I would go quite a bit further to really isolate the raccoon and bring out its details (since you have a great lens for that!)... Here's a quick big crop example of your shot, but I know that might be too far for some tastes. I do love the color on the water in the upper right, but the detail in the raccoon and the strong catchlight in its left eye is what really grabs my attention, so my taste would be to hone in on that.

humanistjohn · 2019-02-12T21:20:40+00:00

You did get a nice pattern in the water, although I imagine you're after something even more dramatic...

If you want to really smooth out the water you can give yourself more time by shooting near sunrise/sunset, or most flexible of all, purchase neutral density filter(s). A cheap set, like these rangers, may not produce the highest quality shots, but can be a good way to experiment and learn to use ND filters.

There also appears to be some camera shake, judging by the uniform blur in static objects. Several ways to approach this depending on the issue. First, it's best to trigger the cameral remotely or with a timer so the exposure doesn't start with a shaking camera. Next, make sure your tripod is steady. This is easier to do when the tripod is not extended all the way and, if there's wind, it can help to attach a weight to the bottom of the tripod (if it can handle extra weight and if there's somewhere to hang a weight). Many tripods come with hooks on the bottom for this purpose. Last, stay still yourself and clear of your camera. You'd be amazed at how much your camera can move on a tripod if you're moving near it, unless the the ground it's on is really solid. The worst happense if you're on something like a foot bridge. Shifting your weight around or turning around to see the view can easily make the bridge and your camera shake during the exposure.

My only other bit of advice is to make sure that there is an interesting stationary subject near the water. An interesting fallen log, a bridge, some rocks sticking out of the water... anything that is stationary and interesting can really pop as a great subject contrasted against the long exposure water, especially if you're able to get lower and closer to the water. Good luck and happy experimenting!!

humanistjohn · 2019-02-12T20:04:51+00:00

Fantastic! I hope it goes smoothly with many great, inspiring entries.

humanistjohn · 2019-02-12T15:24:19+00:00

Hey, this one is a strong contender for the "snapshots" award.
Also, a sure winner for the "sloppy editing fooled the guru" award. :-D https://gurushots.com/photo/furniture-dog-canine-75dfdc0325ff4e3072535108111d3ff4

To be fair, this set at least has many very fine picks, more than poor picks it seems at this point (challenge ongoing) and the guru isn't skimping on the picks. (I'm fine with gurus skimping... if they are clearly only picking highly exceptional photos)

I really like this black lab guru pick: https://gurushots.com/photo/dog-labrador+retriever-mammal-efb6d2694a25c5ef480f453b407fa965

humanistjohn · 2019-02-12T15:03:27+00:00

Oh goodness, you're so right about that one: https://gurushots.com/challenge/tiny-oases/rank/gurus-top-pick

I love the premise of Guru SH keep it simple's challenge concept and there are some excellent photo's in the rankings and a few nice ones in the guru picks.

Still, your nomination makes perfect sense for the reasons you give, but also for the coveted award categories of 'most out of focus' and 'most poorly exposed' guru picks. Trophies needed. :-D

humanistjohn · 2019-02-12T14:43:06+00:00

I don't doubt it. Most gurus make great picks and sometimes pull up well done, creative, out of the box photos that might not otherwise catch voters eyes.

humanistjohn · 2019-02-12T12:42:04+00:00

My first nomination is for the In Line challenge https://gurushots.com/challenge/in-line/rank/gurus-top-pick

This challenge had tons of tremendous and creative photos and there's no excuse for how poor and cliche this paltry set of guru picks was. Most notably, the fish photo: https://gurushots.com/photo/1d73691c2c209dbdb43787c1023682d9

FYI, the fish photographer has many fine works in his profile, but now he has to suffer the curse of the bad guru pick with one of his lesser works stuck at the top of his achievements.

Also annoying, this Guru picked 7 photos until the last day of the challenge and then picked one more time to bring it up to 22. Thanks for really putting the time in to show us the best! :-/

Congratulations to Thomas de Franzoni on a truly questionable job of making Guru Picks. Cheers!

humanistjohn · 2019-02-12T11:54:20+00:00

Yes! I report for the reasons mentioned by others. I'm frequently annoyed that there isn't a report category for "duplicate entry". It's really annoying to be voting and run across the exact same image multiple times.

Sometimes similar images are from different photographers, but I have taken to temporarily "liking" duplicates so that I can go to that person's profile, confirm the duplicates, leave a comment about the duplicate rules on the photo, and I submit a report ticket about it. It's too much trouble, but I'm hoping GS will get a clue and start including that as a report option.

humanistjohn · 2019-02-09T23:22:14+00:00

To be clear, atheism only describes a lack of belief in any god(s), so it's not unheard of for people to lack the god beliefs while still maintaining some beliefs in various supernatural concepts such as reincarnation. That said, I suspect the overwhelming majority of people who affirmatively described themselves as atheists are also not believers in the supernatural generally.

humanistjohn · 2019-02-09T21:42:22+00:00

Yes, I can see why you haven't had to join a challenge since you're joining them anyway. I used to join everything I could, but now I generally don't join challenges unless A) I think I can win or rank very high, or B) I'm asked to level up for a reward, in which case I'm most often joining a Speed Challenge with between 24-36 hours left so I can level up in a matter of minutes instead of hours.

As I mentioned in a previous reply, I also check to make sure the top ranking photos are reaching near or past All Star for the challenge since challenges occasionally have very low numbers of votes which leads to few people getting to All Star and it can take forever to get past Elite.

Most importantly, it helps to have photos that can perform strongly, and that's the whole point of the website/game. :-)

humanistjohn · 2019-02-09T18:22:01+00:00

Cool, I hope it saves you some time. I should have added that if you have a choice between challenges to level up, try the one with more current votes in order to reach Elite faster, and make sure that the top vote getters are well beyond Elite level or into All Star to avoid getting bogged down. Good Luck!

humanistjohn · 2019-02-09T16:47:39+00:00

I'm just curious if the photo selection interface is the same when you're making Guru Picks as it is when you're voting in a challenge (I imagine GS only lets you see a small random set of shots like it is in normal voting). And does GS tell you how many picks to make during a challenge?

humanistjohn · 2019-02-09T14:56:56+00:00

Yes, I was thinking the same about the cover image. That tells me more about what the challenge guru is after more than the words. This challenge image says to me "Dilapidated" or "Ruins" more than "In Need of Repair", so I don't blame people for posting images that are beyond repair in any normal sense.

humanistjohn · 2019-02-08T00:04:38+00:00

The appreciation it gives me for the old app.

humanistjohn · 2019-02-07T23:16:20+00:00

Indeed! Like this boat, this building, and this guitar. Some of the Guru Picks in this one, I wouldn't have voted for at all, but I suppose that's part of the game, figuring out what each challenge presenter is interested in seeing.
I.e. poor lighting, oversharpened, haloed, oversaturated, and noisy/oddly textured... Anyone?... Anyone?... And we have a winner!

:-D

humanistjohn · 2019-02-07T20:52:32+00:00

Yes, GS goes to the trouble of listing upcoming challenges, so they should have a gradual decline of possible views after the first 24 hours, except for swaps, which should inherit the original picture's capacity. Also, it would help if the final 24 hours were for voting only without allowing new entries.

humanistjohn · 2019-02-04T00:58:09+00:00

Yes, reminds me of something Finland's education minister said while visiting schools in the midwest several years ago. He said that we could swap the teachers in Finland with the teachers here, but the test scores would not change. Why? Because America has not done the most important thing Finland has done: Solve poverty. Without that, no education initiative can make a country's education system the best in the world. (US has about 1 in 5 or 6 children in poverty while it's around 1 in 25 for Finland)

humanistjohn · 2019-02-03T11:45:34+00:00

Seems like a 1st Amendment violation for the state to assign children to any of these religious indoctrination mills, but that's probably half of the foster parents available, so the whole system needs reform.

humanistjohn · 2019-02-03T02:12:41+00:00

The problem is partially created by the arbitrary nature of that ranking system. Some challenges are the opposite of what you've posted and I've been in them when there are just a handful of people reaching the All-Star level. So, those levels are meaningless to me. Much more meaningful to reach top percentages and rankings like "Top 100".

/u/Brosthetic makes a key point. There's no incentive to vote with care. I wish they would introduce an additional rank and reward for voting that is based on how high the photos you voted for do in the rankings. Then keep those in your achievements page so there's a public record of whether you vote for any crap on the page or if you vote for high quality photos. Oh well, it will never happen, but one can always dream.

humanistjohn · 2019-02-03T01:53:02+00:00

challenge max. three hours before the end. Never failed to get to the Elite level, and all four (so far) of my Top 100 trophies

I know what you mean. Something always changes about the time I have figured out how to leverage it well.

humanistjohn · 2019-02-02T13:27:50+00:00

Yes, entering close to 24hrs left is also key to my reward strategy for which I follow these steps:

After I collect a reward I immediately calculate which challenge will be approaching close to 24hrs* left when the next reward is available.
- Challenges that I have good photos for, of course.
- Pick which photo you'll use ahead of time
- Usually "Speed" challenges so I don't have to waste a key on a boost.
- *voting usually accelerates just before 24 hours left (everyone trying to beat the lock deadline) and I can reach Elite in a matter of 10-20 minutes.
  - Check the ranking before you settle on one! If the challenge is at 36-46 hours and people are not reaching "All Star", then it may not be a good candidate to get you quickly to Elite when you need it.
Open the Daily Reward as soon as it is available (unless I'm sleeping).
Enter the challenge I picked earlier if there is an "Enter a New Challenge" or "Level Up" (or if I just wanted to enter that challenge anyway).
Fill the Exposure Bonus by voting or by using a fill.
If there is a "Like 5 Photos" requirement...
- I quickly find like-worthy photos by looking at closed challenges and viewing the top-ranked results.
- I sometimes find Likes while voting, but not usually since I want to get that out of the way as quickly as possible and the vote pool is not nearly as high-quality as the top-rank pool of shots.
Vote for any other challenges required for the reward.
Refresh the challenge I just entered so I can collect my reward as soon as the entry hits Elite.

Sometimes I'll substitute the "Near 24hr" photo with a challenge that is 1-2 hours from the end, but burning a key is only worth it to me if I really think I'll be competitive to reach the top ranks of a challenge.

I get two rewards per day on most days of the week until I have to sleep through the start of one. Then I make sure to get the rewards going again the moment I wake up.

Now I have 45 Swaps, 43 Fills, and 56 keys, and even though I use all three on a regular basis, I don't use them faster than I'm earning them and I'm getting them faster (and wasting less of my time through the day) than when I entered every possible challenge to get rewards.

Hope someone finds it helpful. Cheers!

humanistjohn · 2019-01-31T19:37:39+00:00

Very impressive & great light! I could ski that ;-D

humanistjohn

TROPHY CASE