The Shoot and Share photo contest is a free and fair photo contest for photographers all over the world. The best part – Everything is totally free! The voting process is particularly addicting in my opinion. You see four images in a given category, and you get to decide which one is the best. No names, no links, no info whatsoever, just talent, and insane creativity. It is truly about the photos, and I LOVE that people from all over the world participate.

This was my first year participating (in both voting and entering) and albeit slightly intimidating, I went ALL-IN! This means I entered the maximum amount of images per photographer (50). There was a grand total of 583,150 photos were entered into the contest. You can view the results and the winners HERE.

Another fun part about voting itself is that you are able to choose *favorites* throughout the voting process. The purpose of this is to remember the images you LOVE and eventually see who the photographer behind the image was. Shoot & Share also keeps a running tally of how many people favorited YOUR images (Seriously, so fun!). This year, I had 8 images place in the top 30% in their respective categories, 9 images place in the top 20%, and 4 images place in the top 10%.

 

 

 

The following images made it to the top 30% in their respective category:

Round 7 (Engagement/Couples) – Place: 13,738/48,578

Round 7 (Engagement/Couples) – Place: 13,430/48,578

Round 7 (Engagement/Couples) – Place: 11,069/48,578

Round 7 (Newborn) – Place: 10,633/39,479

Round 7 (Engagement/Couples) – Place: 11,072/48,578

Round 7 (Engagement/Couples) – Place: 11,204/48,578

Round 9 (Share Joy) – Place: 2,933/10,810

Round 8 (People Portraits) – Place: 6,643/25,034

The following images made it to the top 20% in their respective category:

 

Round 7 (Engagement/Couples) – Place: 11,072/48,578

Round 7 (Engagement/Couples) – Place: 11,072/48,578

Round 7 (Engagement/Couples) – Place: 11,072/48,578

Round 7 (Engagement/Couples) – Place: 11,072/48,578

Round 10 (Phone Photography) – Place: 1,239/7,593

Round 11 (Phone Photography) – Place: 1,040/7,593

*This was the top scoring image! Believe it or not, I almost didn’t even submit this one. Last summer I went on a helicopter tour around the city of Chicago with my fellow photographer friend, Michelle, and I snapped with with my Samsung S8 during the ride! I love that it shows off the amazing city I live in and all of my favorite things about it in one photo.

Round 10 (Families) – Place: 2,944/26,188

Round 8 (Families) – Place: 6,614/26,188

Round 9 (Emotion/Excitement) – Place: 1,299/10,613

 

The following images made it to the top 10% in their respective category:

Round 10 (Engagement/Couples) – Place: 3,453/48,578

Round 9 (Engagement/Couples) – Place: 4,194/48,578

Round 10 (Maternity) – Place: 1,897/26,188

Round 10 (Styled Wedding/Fashion) – Place: 1,559/15,926

Overall, I am more than happy and SUPER proud of these results. Above all, these contest opportunities are a way to learn and grow and be majorly inspired by the raw talent that is out there in photography land. This is a world that is ever evolving and always changing; I will continue to hold myself accountable for keeping up with the latest and push myself to continue participating in these challenges, to keep growing, keep improving, and honing in on my skills.

I learned that the images that are MY favorite are not necessarily the favorite for other people. I submitted images that I worked HARD on. I scouted locations, analyzed how the light hits a specific location at a specific time, nailed the posing, set my camera settings to be on point, worked diligently at the editing (and heck, learned new editing techniques!) and the highest scoring photo was the one that required zero thinking, zero camera buttons, and minimal editing. The takeaway – Don’t overthink it! There is something to be proud of with every image. People see creativity in places where others might not.

Moving forward, I look forward to my 2019 photoshoots, and I’ll probably start collecting my 2019 contest images in a folder in advance this time around!