The Shoot & Share 2019 Photo Contest – My Results!

In January I entered the 2019 Shoot & Share Photo Contest. This is actually the first photography competition I’ve ever entered. And I didn’t really plan to enter it. But everyone else was doing it so . . . The night before the deadline I just decided to go for it. I was all casual about it, but of course once I entered I suddenly cared, a lot! ?

Shoot & Share describes this contest as “the only free and fair photo contest in the world.” It’s a pretty amazing thing. Because there’s no cost, anyone can enter regardless of means. And it’s fair because the submissions are anonymous and anyone can enter and vote. That’s right anyone. Which means not only did professional photographers vote, but kids, grandparents, friends . . . anyone. The way voting works is four images appear on a grid and the person voting selects the best of the four. Then a new set appears, and so on. Voting was addictive. There were a total of 12 rounds over about 4 weeks with the bottom 10% of photos dropping out of the competition with each round.

So what did I expect in a competition where anyone can enter and anyone can vote? I really had no clue what to expect. There were 583,150 photos submitted by more than 46,000 photographers and 85 million votes cast. It’s just a massive competition. But I had a blast participating, and I’m already thinking about 2020. I was so inspired by the amazing work I saw, and even though it was a competition, there was a such a community vibe with photographers encouraging each other. Getting out of my social media bubble and seeing some new and different work was something I didn’t realize I was craving.

I’m psyched that 13 of my photos placed in the ranked portion of the results! You can check them out above.