Photographers

Abbey Gatto - USA

I am born in 1980 in the city of São Paulo, Brazil and currently work in the federal public service collaborating with the Communication Department of the Federal University of São Paulo as a photographer.I started photography in the year 2016 and until then my passion for it only increases. My interest in photography was born through living with friends who had been photographing for some time. I bought a mirrorless Canon and started a phase that would totally change my life. The photograph has filled great gaps of my life giving me a new way of seeing the world around me. The first photo contest was precisely in the Gurushots, causing that later I acquired interest by other opportunities. Nowadays I have been dedicated to the photography of urban landscapes, but I like the segment of street photography very much. Gurushots is a tool that provides us with contacts and friendships around the world, and makes us leave the comfort zone, making us risk the great varieties of themes proposed. This is brilliant, because it makes us learn each day in a fun way. Out of the challenges, I have approved 14 themes of challenges, had 2 publications in magazines and 14 photos exposed, 4 printed and 10 in digital format. I participated as one of the authors of the fifth edition of Pbmag magazine with 8 black and white photos; I participated in the following photographic exhibitions in the city of São Paulo: Olido Gallery; Legislative Assembly of São Paulo (twice); Vila Butantã; Shopping Top Center; Federal University of São Paulo; Minute TV (São Paulo subway).

Alex Reipert - Brasil

Alexander Sviridov is photo–artist from Toronto Canada. He studied art design in Russia. Over the years he developed passion in Photography. His preffered style is fine art photography. He combines old masters art with surrealistic ideas to create true masterpieces of unique recognizable photo art. Many of his photos are edited to look like paintings. He is always eager to find new and creative ideas to project them in his art. His youngest daughter is his inspiration. You can see her in many of his art pieces. His pictures were recognized worldwide and won multiple international photo awards. He is Multiple winner in Gurushots, Viewbug, Photocrowd and 35 awards. Gold medalist in Trierenberg Super Circuit photography contest 2019.

Alexander Sviridov - Canada

I am a Scottish landscape photographer, currently living in Finland. My studies were first in law and then in computing and I spent two decades in the technology industry before taking a career break in 2017. I have spent the last two years travelling through Europe with my camera. My interest is in the outdoors. I love to travel and to walk about in beautiful and peaceful places and my interests have always reflected that. In my teens, twenties and thirties my free time was all spent walking around golf courses but as my forties approached problems with my back made that increasingly difficult. I had always had an interest in photography but I didn't know much about it, I decided to buy my first camera in the beginning of 2015 and (to my slight surprise) I became immediately obsessed with photography. In my times as a golfer I played in a lot of competitions (locally, nationally and internationally) where wins were the target and scores or rankings were the way to measure your progress. When I started with photography I looked for an equivalent measurement system and for that reason I ended up in photography competitions, starting with GuruShots. Winning the third GuruShots challenge that I entered provided me with a lot of encouragement to continue. As time has passed I have seen that wins, scores and rankings are not necessarily a great way to measure art and these have become less important to me. My preferred genre is landscapes and within that I am most fascinated by mountain scenes – mountains can provide such a strong vertical element to the images and break up the boredom of a horizon. My favourite shooting destinations have been northern Norway, southern Germany, Slovenia and Iceland. As I develop in my photography I have started to be interested in more intimate landscapes rather than grand scenes, I think that might be the direction I move towards in the future. I also love to shoot birds and wildlife and I use that to refresh my ideas whenever I feel like I need a break from landscapes. At the beginning I learned a lot from competing, it was very useful to see what kind of pictures were popular with people and to try and understand why some of my images went better than others. The competitions encouraged my photography and I was motivated to try and succeed. As time has gone by , with multiple wins behind me, those benefits and motivations have reduced and so has my participation. I now enter challenges only occasionally. In GuruShots I have been printed in 7 exhibitions and displayed digitally in over 30 more, my pictures have been printed in 5 photography magazines and I had a photograph in the "Big Nature" book. My pictures have also been used in a number of GuruShots articles. I currently prefer to compete on Photocrowd where I also have more than ten contest wins and have regularly been in the top 20 photographers in their leaderboard which is a photographer ranking based on results across all their competitions.

Andy Fowlie - Scotland

A lady (now a friend), one day phoned me and asked if she could enter one of my photos that she saw in a local newspaper under her own name in a Gurushots competition. I said, "no", you may not, and asked what competition and where. She then told me about Gurushots and that's how I started to participate. within the first month I have won the Mellow Yellow competition with landscapes of yellow canola, a yellow rose and a yellow wall. The gurushots bug had bitten me... and for the next three years I was a very active member of Gurushots and won Top Photographer Gurushots 12 times, Top Photo Winner 3 times. And received 78 guru picks. I have since become too busy with the writing of a book to really participate fully, but hopefully will again. Photography and especially that of people, had always been a passion. I received my first lessons from my father, a keen photographer and artist, who gave me my first camera, an Agfa, when I was eight or nine. Many years later, in 1992, I upgraded to a Pentax SLR film camera. After meeting and marrying Maré Mouton, an experienced graphic designer and photographer, in 2003, we started producing a magazine, Village Life. That and digital cameras have allowed me to revive my latent interest in photography, this time with constructive criticism and guidelines from Maré who had worked in journalism, graphic design, photography and public relations in South Africa and Namibia. I prefer to work with available light. In October 2007, I held my first exhibition, titled "Portrait of a Village", with 56 of the over 50 000 photos I had taken of Stanford's residents over a period of only five months during the village's 150th year. More than 400 people attended the opening of the exhibition and it was said that my use of available light "reminded of that used by the Old Dutch Masters" in painting. In February 2008 a large–format book, Stanford 150 : Portrait of a Village, was published with text and over 500 photographs by myself and the design and layout by Maré . The book depicts a broad spectrum of the people currently living in the village: white, coloured and black, young and old, rich and poor, the landowners and the landless, the workers and the loafers. All the photographs were taken using only available light. Portrait of a Village attracted attention both from local reviewers and overseas. "Annalize's unique style of capturing natural light and the essence of her subjects", resulted in an invitation from people in the Netherlands to have my photos exhibited there. An exhibition of 22 photos was on show in Podium Mozaiek in Amsterdam Bos en Lommer and in the Scagon theatre in Schagen. And in January 2009 the full selection was on show in the Suid Afrika Huis on Keizersgracht in Amsterdam. In 2009 I exhibited in Bellville, Cape Town. This was followed by a combined exhibition – Portraits of Three Villages, with and in Lüchow, Germany, and with and in Fermignano, Italy.

Annalize Mouton - South Africa

I am born in 1977 in the city of Capua, Italy. I'm work in italian Airforce. I started self study photography in 2016 when I was sent in mission for 3 years in United States . My Interest in photography was born in that year when my wife Patrizia asked me learn more about role and techniques to make good pictures for our trip around United States. So it became like a drug for me and totally change my life. Now I still study a lot of books to improve my skills. I prefer landscape, macro and street photography but now I see everything around me with different eyes, I'm always looking for something really interesting to catch with my camera. I want say thank you Patrizia for opening my eyes. My first challenge was about murals. I love participate in guru's challenges for inspiration and for learn always something new from other photos and photographer.

Antonio Mingione - Italy

Anupam Hatui, born in 1982 in India, male, having a great deal of interest in the art of landscape photography. I am a IT Techie by profession but live in my dreams pursuing my hobby and passion in photography. Blessed with an opportunity to live in New Zealand, I learned a lot admiring the beauty of the natural landscapes of the country. Learning and practice were the pillars of my journey, not to mention watching the works and collaborating with renowned kiwi photographers greatly enhanced my skills. Staying for six years in paradise gave me ample opportunities to feel the vibe of nascent beauty of mother nature and this has been a great inspiration to me. Pixoto was the first platform where I presented my works and was amazing to get some early success. I could remember one of my shot 'Auckland Skyline at dusk' taken from One tree hill domain was awarded with the top 10 rank. Landscape and astrophotography are my styles. I like long exposure techniques, wide angle landscape shots, nightscape shots, etc. I like street photography and portrait photography but my skills are not up–to the mark, so trying to spent sometime learning the subject. GS platform gives us a good opportunity to try new techniques, ideas and judge the same against world class photographers. I have learned new styles of photography and keen to continue enriching my skills. Though GS has given much recognition I managed to get some success in different arenas and platforms.

Anupam Hatui - India

Catalin Arcu - Romania

I'am from the city of Colmar in the region Alsace, France. I was Sector Director at La Banque Postale (Postbank) in Strasbourg. Retired since the 1st june 2019, I'm a self made photographer. I learnt photography by reading magazines, books and looking videos. And of course looking other photographer's works. I start in photography when I was 18, with a Minolta Reflex I bought for more than one month loan. And I allways used it in automatic mode. Funny isn't it ? My first photo contest was "Abstract in nature" for the Digital Photo Magazine in France. I won with a frozen puddle B&W picture. After that, I won two other magazine contests with photos that never won in GS. Landscape is my speciality. For me it's easier than people. I think I have allways new thing to learn. And it's why I take part in other challenges. Even if the winning pictures are not allways the best of contest, it's an opportunity to improve my skills. I allways thought I was a good photographer, not an excellent, so I participated only in one non competitive exhibition. On demand of the Icelandic Consul in Strasbourg, I exhibited 10 of my icelandic photographs in 2018. And this year one of my GS winning picture was published in an Australian Photo Magazine.

Christian Barret - France

Clementina Cabral - Portugal

Cristina Tessari - Brasil

My name is Csaba Mihalka. I'm a semi–professional photographer and I started to try myself on the GS at the beginning as a pioneer. Everything was so different that time but I didn't upload any photo for a year and then I find very good friends for the game and I got more inspiration to take photos and start challenges that time. I was very young when I started to blow in the chemical smell in my uncle's dark room. I always wanted own camera, but I never get it that time, I'm from a very poor family, so I just watched other photographers, how to do it. I bought my own first DSLR camera 10 years ago and when I went to the The college I had the first SLR as well. I smelled again the chemical in the darkroom more than 30 years later. The first contest maybe when I applied the National Geography Contest but I didn't take seriously, usually I made photos only for families and my one and I got invitation to take photos on festivals. I do everything if I have equipment for it. I like to try everything and that's why I loved Gurushots (GS) used to be. The GS was very good (and my friends from there) to try myself in everything not only to do those parts what is helpful for the business. I won many challenges. I had printed and digital exhibitions, by GS, in a couple of bigger cities.

Csaba Mihalka - Hungary

Edina Muhari - Germany

Elena Callegaro - Italy

Born in Morocco, raised in Dover (UK) from a French Mum and a Spanish Dad. I consider myself a semi–profesional photographer as I do not live 100% from Photography. I currently work in Export. Fluent in English, French and Spanish. I got my first digital camera when my son was due. A Sony cybershot 5mp about 13 years ago but only took family shots. Little by little I started to work out the concept of how cameras work. I was offered years alter a new unused Canon 1100D for 100 euros and was organizing photo shoots two weeks later. So I guess from the moment I got that DSLR in my hands I went crazy and discovered a new world. That was 7 years ago. Since then I have put many sessions, weddings and comunions under my belt. I have since last year changed from Canon to Sony mirrorless Cameras. I have only competed in Gurushots, I promised to myself to stop competing when I left sport so it's a bit of a contradiction for me. Where I have the most fun in Photography is through portraits or Architecture by far and for different reasons.

Eric Valera - Spain

My name is Bíró é va, I'm from Hungary and I live in a small city, Ceglé d, with my husband and my three sons. I'm a teacher, I teach 6–7 year olds to write, read and count. I travel a lot with my family around Hungary, I like to capture the beauty of nature, plants and landscapes. My first photography related memories are when me and my father were sitting in a dark room developing pictures. I took my first shots with my phone, I later started Gurushots with these, which my friend suggested. As I was watching the other pictures I realized that I need to buy a camera. Two years ago I bought a Nikon d3100 with two lenses. I never learned photography, I studied famous pictures and tutorials. I would like to and I have to learn and improve. I like Gurushots, because it encourages me to make pictures with new themes.

Eva Biro - Hungary

Farhan Hayder - Italy

Fernanda Magalhaes– - Portugal

Photography is an art that emerged in my life as a radical passion after a long courtship. I have a degree in economics and social communication with a postgraduate degree in political science. I worked for several years as a university professor in these areas. In the 1990s, I got in touch with the work of photographer Sebastião Salgado and that changed my life. I began to take an interest in the photographic field by doing some small work on journalism subjects and buying several books from classic photographers. In 2009 a journey across Europe radically changed my life. During this 10,000km trip by train I got to daily photograph every single thing that caught my attention. Upon my return to Brazil, photographing became a regular practice filling much of my attention and time. I ended up choosing to become a professional wedding photographer. However, my interests went far beyond, I engaged in street photography and the production of Photojournalistic documentaries. I have never had any interest in photo contests. However, in 2016 I eventually found out about GURUSHOTS website and started dedicating myself to photographic challenges. These competitions were often difficult, with high demands, having my work compared to the outstanding presentations of so many photographers from all over the globe. Lots of strategy planning, adrenaline and excitement were involved in all these hikes. Over the course of three years I had the great happiness of winning dozens of challenges, placing myself among the most rewarded artists on this platform. Even though I tested my skills in challenges with various themes, my focus was in exploring the characteristics of the human being from a photojournalistic point of view, aimed at capturing emotion at it's apexChallenges like: "The Big Smile", "Age vs. Youth", "Candid Photograph", "Wedding Emotions" and "Mothers" clearly show this trend in capturing the emotive. While the focus of the above mentioned was on joy and deep emotion,challenges like "Loneliness" and "The essence of pain" emphasized on dark sadness. The cinematic look is a strong characteristic of my work and it made a good impression in the "Movie Scenes" and "Film Noir" challenges. "Photojournalism" and "Urban Scenery" were very important competitions where I managed to successfully highlight my passion for street photography. In my career as a photographer, I photographed hundreds of musical shows. Photos linked to the music themes can also be seen in these awards. Participating in these contests greatly improved my photographic skills and technique by challenging myself for the better. This new level resulted outstanding achievements in portraiture themed competitions like "Beards and Mustaches" and "Low Key Portraits". I am deeply honored for having the opportunity to participate in this book and also for having you, the reader, familiar with a small part of my work.

Flavio Souza Cruz - Brasil

I'm Gergo Bakos. I'm from Hungary. My main job is as a programmer. I was born in 1985. I have a family with my two children, two girls and my wife. My wife is also a lover of photography. My wife and I wanted to have a baby and I wanted to make better shots of her and then I bought a DSLR camera (Nikon D7100). I thought if I had a good camera I would take good pictures. I quickly realized that it would not happen. I started to study on the internet, learned a lot and realized that I was more and more interested in knowing how it could be better and better. I've never been a contest photographer. I posted in facebook groups and then met the gurushots (GS). My main themes are portraiture and landscape. At first I mainly photographed pictures, now I photograph landscape because I want to perfect myself, I feel that my landscapes are still not good enough. The challenge for me has always been adrenaline. Never money, lenses etc. Just adrenaline. I liked the part of the GS tactics and watched the other competitors. At GS, I won about 34 challenges and about 30 top photos and a guru top pick. I won once in photocrowd too, a landscape challenge.

Gergo Bakos - Hungary

My name is Gerrit Hoogmartens and I live with my two gorgeous daughters and my wife in Zonhoven, a little town near Hasselt and Genk (Belgium). During the day I work as a project manager for a Japanese company that produces medical devices. When I'm not at work I love to spend time with my family or take long walks with my dog Lewis and try to document the story of his life. Photography has always been a part of my life. Some of my uncles are also photographers and I think that is what inspired me to start taking pictures as well. It really got a boost when Lewis came into my life. He is my biggest motivator to continuous trying to improve my photo's. I've posted some photo's on photography groups on facebook but before I joined GS I never participated in a challenge. I love to make photo's of dogs and if I would have to describe my style I would say that I like using techniques like shallow depth of field, empty space and i have a preference of the rule of thirds. When i edit my shots I try to keep a balance between reality and phantasy. I like the dynamics of the game, I love to look at all the photo's and it makes me wanna explore other subjects than dogs. My last biggest achievement was winning a Gopro. Other than that some of my photo's have been displayed in Amsterdam, Madrid, Venice, Berlin and Las Vegas to name a few.

Gerrit Hoogmartens - Belgium

Born in 1965, I am living with my wife and my three children at the countryside in the Upper Sûre Nature Park in Luxembourg. Autodidact, I started shooting in 2015. First successes in FB groups and YouPic motivated me. I prefer landscapes that I often shoot during my early morning walks with my dog Theo. With my drone, DJI Mavic Pro, I try to show different perspectives. "From Above" and "Chàteau de Vianden". I also enjoy shooting Street Photography and try as often as I can to capture those impressions. Participating and success in contests on Viewbug, Photocrowd and 35awards.

Guy Krier - Luxembourg

Helena Sousa, was born on August 15, 1975 in the city of é vora. Graduated in Chemical Engineering from FCT / UNL and is a lecturer at the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal. Lives on the Costa de Caparica. From early on she developed an enormous taste for photography, but it was only in 2005 that she started in these 'arts', having started to publish the first works in the sites "Olhares" and "Reflexos Online". Since then she has never stopped in this infinite world that is photography. She had the privilege of seeing two of her works as a book cover and some photos in magazines, articles and photography exhibitions. Currently, she participates actively in several photographic challenges worldwide and has won 1st place for many times. The great passion for photography of abandoned places was born on the subject of one of these challenges, whose theme was "Abandoned Spaces" It considers that the photography is its form of expression, along with the Latin dances and the Argentine tango.

Helena de Sousa - Portugal

Ildiko Bakos - Hungary

I come from Eidsvoll in Norway (not far from Oslo, capital of Norway). Here I live with my husband and four cats! I have two grown children, both moved, but fortunately live close by. I work as a health agent. I started to get interested in photography 15 years ago when my daughter was about 4 to 5 years old. I discovered that she liked to stand in front of the camera and pose. That struck me as very entertaining and made me more interested in photography. Finally, I started shooting animals too, and that's what I find more fun. Many people find it easy to photograph, for example, cats, but no, it is not. A cat does exactly what it wants and does not care what the photographer is trying to do. It is very fun to photograph moving animals. I also still shot many photos of my daughter. For I have my own photographic model to practice! I've never been to photography courses. Everything I know about photography I learned by myself, reading articles on the internet and looking at pictures of other people. I do not participate in major photo competitions. I'm very active in GS. It is very fun. I also participate in smaller competitions that I meet on the internet and in the local newspaper. Besides the GS, I'm in Pixoto, but less and less. I also participated in Viewbug. I like to take pictures of animals, especially cats and dogs. And portraits of people. But I like to challenge myself by trying new things. All I do in GS is to participate in competitions. I've tried to run some competitions, but none of them have been accepted by GS. So I only participate in other people's competitions.

Jane Bjerkli - Norway

Javad Assaad - Turkey

Brazilian, civil engineer and builder as main occupations, I was born in 1964 in southern Brazil, but I moved to São Paulo as a child. My curiosity about photography started to increase in 2011 when I joined Instagram. At that time I was not sure about what this social network was and how to express myself and relate to people through images that I produced with mobile. I spent a year looking for ways, until in 2012 a hip injury prevented me from running marathons, until then my hobby. Over time I devoted more and more attention to photography, studying, and then I bought a DSLR camera. From then on I began to experiment with the most varied styles of photography, having found in Street Photography the one that most delights me for the challenge of composing images that contain stories with elements that are very hard to control. The first challenge site I met was 500 px, right after Viewbug, but the two platforms are not as friendly as GuruShots, so I took part in one challenge only on each. In addition to Spy Voyeur Street Photography, Documentary Photography and Urban Landscape Photography are the ones that I like the most. Ballet and Dance are also among my favorite subjects.It took a long time to reach my first GS win a year ago and since then I have been working hard to win other challenges, but I have to divides the time with my professional work as engineerIn addition to 5 Top Photos and 2 Top Guru's Pick, I have a printed photo displayed in a GS Exihibition and two photos digitally displayed.I had two photos selected for The Work and The Worker Exhibition, competing for the Lewis Hine Prize. The first challenge site I met was 500 px, right after Viewbug, but the two platforms are not as friendly as GuruShots, so I took part in one challenge only on each.

Joscelin Soares - Brasil

Juan Rodrigues - Puerto Rico

My name is Lars–Erik Löfman, I was born and raised in Northern Sweden, in 1979, my parents derived from Finland. I work at a factory that manufactures aluminum. In my upbringing I have always had access to a camera so the photo interest has always existed for me. About 4 years ago I started to develop my photography by taking the help of mentors/youtube and GS who could give me the basic knowledge in photo. I also have several photographers as role models. I think it's important to check out other photographers and photos you like. You can learn a lot by trying to think about how the photographer thought when he took the picture. But then it is important to find your own nich and be lucky to catch the moment. The first competition I participated in was at GS in the spring of 2017. My favorite motifs to photograph are landscape and seascape. What motivated me to attend where to win, I wanted to be among the best. Outside the challenges I've been featured on TV. I've only competed on GS.

Lars Lofman - Sweden

I was born in Transylvania, Romania, but I'm hungarian. At the moment I live in Nottingham (United Kingdom).I don't remember but I think so minimum 20–25 years ago I start to photograph with film (When I was child). Ten to twelve years ago I changed the film to digital technic. My favourite themes are People, people in willage, willager moments, landscape, enviroment, fog, sometimes animals–mammals. So I don't have fix style. Two important themes: People and enviroment (Landscape, fog). I'm a member of Mfvsz (World Federation of Hungarian Photographers). I have plan to be Fiap member.

Lehel Vass - Romania

I'm a Photographer from USA. I've been shooting photos since I was a kid and studying photography since I was in high school.I became a Barber 35 years ago and started to network the two... in the process I have developed clients, friends, connections, and many people that have brought my passion for photography to the mainstream where I have been involved as co chair in the USGA Senior Amateur golf tournament; FAA for the Atlantic city Air Show; Grucci Fireworks; Local and on location Events; and many Weddings.... My Photos are also sold in many local gift shops and Galleries and can be found on US Congressional websites. I enjoy shooting Street Photography most and on GuruShots have been printed in books; Displayed in 13 Exhibitions; and featured in their Meet The Guru Article. I have also won contests on ViewBug, Photocrowd and YouPic.

Louis Benzell - USA

Luciana Justice - Brasil-USA

Marco Antonio Perna is an IT professional and Researcher, with a Master's degree in Systems and Computing from IME–RJ, his work was about "Image Compression", and a photography enthusiast. He was born in 1965 and his interest in photography emerged even in the 1970s, when he was only six years old and recorded his first image. From then on, the interest was increasing until in 1997 he took his first professional steps in the art of photography. He began his career as a photographer by recording the II International Ballroom Dance Meeting in 1997 at the Hotel Glória (Rio de Janeiro), when he realized that just photographing did not meet his need to express himself. He saw the importance of documenting the events he photographed, and that was how photojournalism came into his life. In 1997 he created the website dancadesalao.com (the Brazilian Ballroom Dance Agenda), where one of his activities was the photographic coverage of ballroom dance events. It was a time when the internet as we know it today has taken its first steps. The photos were to leverage the advertisements of the portal dancadesalao.com, at that time the websites were still important and dancadesalao.com received about 1,000 hits per day. In times when few actually accessed the internet, that number was very good for an independent website. The photographs were posted in very small size, in quality and dimensions in pixels (320x240 for example). It was necessary that the pages be very light so that the average user that accesses with the internet "dialed" of about 1/4 mega could see comfortably the published photos. In 1999 Marco Antonio Perna bought a Kodak digital camera of a megapixel that was enough to the job. His Nikon FE with 50mm 1.4 lens was being left for more important moments, until being sold around 2003. Nowadays, with more than 20 years of career, he has also been an event photographer and photographic sessions in other dance modalities, such as: Belly dancing and Arabic Folklore, Jazz, Ballet, Gypsy Dance, Tribal, Flamenco etc. In addition to photo sessions, editorials etc, outside the dance. He has articles on photography published on websites such as fotografia–dg.com and in magazines such as Digital Photographer Brazil 56. His photographs have already been published in the magazine Fotografe Melhor and in other diverse print or digital media. He participated in photographic competitions of photographic associations such as Photo Nature Brasil and the Brasília Photo Show Festival. In both competitions his photos received a silver medal. On websites, initially viewbug.com, he has several victories in photographic disputes. And lastly the website gurushots.com, where he has several victories as well. In Gurushots his photos have been selected for two books and some articles. He participated in print and digital exhibitions around the world. He was the second Brazilian to reach the status of guru winning a challenge and the first world guru, without employment bonds with gurushots, to run his own challenge. Previously only gurus pros (contracted by the gurushots) could run challenges.

Marco Antonio Perna - Brasil

Marina Shipova - USA

Mario Dragoi - Hungary

Mervyn Fitzhenry - Australia

I come from a small village in the Swiss Alps. Born in 1974. I played ice hockey for a long time and came to photography late. This was in 1998 when I undertook my three–month trip to Thailand. Through my job and then as an independent owner of a tinsmith I have neglected photography for a few years. When I suffered a silent heart attack in July 2005, I had to step down. Since then I have more time to devote myself to my hobby – and that's fun! I lived in Thailand with my wife and daughter between 2008 and 2016, which is paradise for a passionate amateur photographer. As my performance decreases more and more, I changed my photo style. I used to love being out in nature, loving to explore and photograph landscapes. Today, my photos are more studio burdened, which meant a complete rethinking and re–learning the photography. I came to Gurushots in 2014, when the whole site was still in its infancy. I was also allowed to win a few times which surprised me very much. I think my pictures are good but there is still a long way to go to the level of some top photographers on the page and in the group. One of my highlights with Gurushots is that I was the first to collect 1'000'000 GS points, it is easy today, but a long way in the beginning of GS. Also, I has a photo in the book "Everyday Cbjects". Then there were three exhibitions with a printed picture and some as a digital picture. And last but not least, four images have been selected for Online Magazines.

Michael Mettier - Switzerland

Nathalia Turolla Nigro - Brasil

Orsolia Bitai - Hungary

Paulo Guerra - Brasil

Brazilian, born in São Paulo in 1960. I graduated Sociologist and I am a Public Official of the City Hall of São Paulo. My second activity since adolescence has always been music. As a bass player I played professionally in several places. Photography came into my life about 6 years ago. So my first photographic subject is music. I photograph music show and in my studio I produce material for CDs and divulgation. The second most present subject in my photography are my travel photos. Photos of Iceland, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Cuba, etc. are very successful in Gurushots. The success in the GS encouraged me to participate in other photographic challenges. I won twice Honorable Mention at Bienais no Brasil (2017 and 2018). I won FIAP Honorable Mention in Photo Nature (2017) and Gold Medal in Photo Nature Brazil (2019). In 2018 I was among the top 10 in the international contest Wordwide Photowalk promoted by Scott Kelby. Currently besides my personal website (www.paulorapoport.com), I maintain a site where I put my photos of musical presentations. (www.themusicstages.com).

Paulo Rapoport - Brasil

I live in France and I work in real estate. I do a lot of hikes and so a lot of pictures. I always took pictures but it was during the holidays, or to have fun. I wanted to progress and I bought a Canon 6D two years ago. I looked for tutorials to learn and I knew a girl on a facebook group who advised me Gurushots. I did not feel like it at first because I did not want it to take too much time. Finally I got into the game and it took a lot of time! This game pushed me to do themes that I never did and I progressed enormously. The themes I prefer are the landscapes with snow. I love to shoot doors... as people have seen on gs! I never understood why it works so much! I really like doing still lifes. I installed a special room for this and I have a lot of objects. At gurushots I won many themes of colors (red, yellow, white, multi colors and blue especially) and challenges on very diverse themes: still lifes, portraits, metal, imperfections, minimalism, fields, mountains, shoes, horses, cattle, barns, light, clouds, night city, winter, round, marinas etc. Today what motivates me is to win challenges that I have never won, like bridge, looking up, path, mist.... I participated in two exhibitions with gurushots, Berlin and Amsterdam. Outside, I have two photos that have won competitions and that have been enlarged in size 2 meters by 3 and exposed on the wall of a city. I do not participate in other sites because I do not have time. I just take care of a page "the frontal in the Cevennes" https://www.facebook.com/lefrontal/ where I put pictures of this region. There are 1160 subscribers.

Peggy Matchkine Cano - France

I was born and live in Hungary. I am an amateur photographer. I'm in old age and started very late in this hobby. I go to a park where I know a lot of happy kids, which is why my main subject is children's photography, but I like to try other subjects too. I am a GS member for the last three years. I had so many struggles and disagreements with others that I came out of it, but I never gave up and started over from the beginning, so I was Guru four times and ran my own challenges as well. The GS game is just good fun for me. GS is not the main place for me in photography. I am a member of other photographic organizations: Hungarian Photocopying Association and FIAP, International Federation of Photographic Art. My photos went to Hungarian and international photography competitions. So I have 188 photos in 13 countries, digital and print format too. I have many gold, silver and bronze medals and have received special award also in my country and others. I also had exhibitions of my photos.

Piroska Kiszner - Hungary

Polod - Thailand

Ricardo Q. T. Rodrigues - Brasil

My name is Richard Boose and I am a family / wedding photographer in Northern Ontario, Canada.I started photography about 15 years ago just taking photos of my oldest son and a few nature photos when we lived in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I enjoyed the experience of getting out of the house and seeing nature in a different light. I was not very good at photography yet and never imagined it as a career, it was really just a hobby that included automatic camera settings and family outings to local parks. Eventually I moved away from the city to a small northern town surrounded by forest, lakes and hills. This is when I started to take a more serious approach to photography when I cracked down and learned the different camera settings, how to manipulate light and how to edit photos in both lightroom and photoshop. I realized I wanted to make a go of professional photography so instead of focusing on landscapes and nature so much, i started to aim my attention to shooting people, families and children instead. I realized there is always a market if your good at landscape or macro, but its a hard one to get into professionally, but with people there are customers everywhere looking for photographers on a daily basis, so this is where i turned my attention to. Eventually I launched a private photography business doing family, children, couples and weddings and its been what i loved ever since. To date, I do much photography work for the city of Elliot Lake including media publications and events. Elliot Lake often provides me with media access to many major activities and events that usually require admissions or bookings. My preferred style is capturing innocent children in unposed, natural moments. In post production I love blurred backgrounds bringing in a matte finish while making the subject pop slightly. I am a fan of adding signature light rays, color tones and skies to my finished products. I have won online photography contests on both gurushots & photocrowd, the only two sites I have ever joined. Gurushots originally inspired me to step outside the box and try new ideas. But since there are so many good photographers in many many subjects, I have lately preferred to stick with my comfort zone and work more on perfection with portraits since there is still much to learn ahead!

Richard Boose - Canada

Rizwaan Khan - Pakistan

Born in Milan (Italy) in 1973, I'm a self–taught portrait and travel photographer based in Palma de Mallorca (Spain). I'm graduated in Engineering, sporty, skipper and I loves to travel. From an early age, I discovered myself as a backpacker but only in 2013, I started to explore my great love for photography. After many years working as Sales Manager, in 2015 I decided to quit my job and change my life at all. At the begin of the same year, my first exhibitions have been held in Milan and Bergamo (Italy). Furthermore, I started up the collaboration with a press agency in Birmingham (UK). In June 2016 I opened my permanent exposition in Singapore and Palma de Mallorca (Spain). In 2018 I launched my own photographic expeditions offer for passionate travelers. In 2019 I became one of the few and very selected authors for Luka.Art, a Brazilian platform for contemporary photographic art focused on the interior design. At present, National Geographic, GEO Magazine, Daily Mail, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, Civilization, Life Force Magazine, Shot! Magazine, Dagospia.com, Repubblica.it, L'Eco di Bergamo, INDEX.HR, Photography Masterclass, Inter Photo Magazine, GSP Magazine, Capture Mania Magazine, Sapo Photo Magazine and other media worldwide published articles surrounding me and my works. A selection of my most iconic photos are available as a Limited ?Edition prints and I currently have published eight books titled "Iran", "Nepal Mandala", "Ethiopia: Cradle of Civilization", "People", "Cambodia: Land of Gods", "Namasté ", "The Timeless Valley" and "Streets of the World". The first contest I partecipated was the "Portrait Awards 2015" of LensCulture. I didn't win but at the end of the contest my photo has been awarded with a free portfolio on Lensculture as it was one of the photo more rated. I like to take picture of portrait, people and street photography. The main motivation of my participation in the challenges is to improve my skills, find new inspiration and incentives to continue growing in this wonderful art. Concerning achievements on GuruShots I have been interviewed for a "Meet the Guru" article and my photos have been selected to take part to the exhibitions at the Qlick Gallery (Amsterdam, Netherlands, December 2017), the Valid World Hall (Barcelona, Spain, January 2019), the Xpozer's New Gallery (The Hague, Netherlands, January 2019) and Palazzo Ca' Zanardi Cannaregio (Venice, Italy, June 2019). I has been invited to share my works in many exhibitions around the world, including the Mart Photography Center (Ekaterinburg, Russia, May 2017), The Brick Lane Gallery (London, UK, June 2017), the International Festival of Mediterranean Photography (Trapani, Italy, September 2017), the central museum of Chelyabinsk (Russia, May 2018), PhotoKina (Cologne, Germany, September 2018), Poppy Ball 18 (Riyadh Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, November 2018), ImageNation 2019 (Desenzano, Italy, April 2019), Oborishte Gallery (Sofia, Bulgaria, May 2019) and CASACOR (the second world event for design, Sao Paulo, Brazil, June–August 2019). At the moment I'm organizing an exhibition for the National Geographic in Tehran (Iran). Concenring contests, I took part to many contest including ViewBug, Fotocontest, PhotoCrowd, National Geographic, LensCulture and others.

Roberto Pazzi - Italy

Ron Conigliaro - USA

Rui Moura - Portugal

Silvia Husek - Brazil

Tadeu Vilani - Brazil

I was born in Hungary in 1977, where I live in a small town in Gyöngyös. I am married and the father of two wonderful girls. I studied hospitality and now I am a director at an events house. I used to write fishing articles for websites and newspapers. There was need for high quality photos in the articles, so I bought my first camera. I wanted to make good quality photos, so I started to learn photography techniques. My brother delved into the subject because he had completed a photography school at the time. Five years ago, I became interested in nature photography, first I started with macro photography and then I started taking pictures of birds. Since then, I have been shooting birds to admire the animal world as closely as possible. Sometimes I photograph abandoned buildings and family portraits. Last year I had a talk about nature photography, which I received positive feedback. In Hungarian contests I started with variable success. My best result was a photo of 3rd prize and a prize of 2nd place. My photos are in a nature book, and they were printed in various GS exhibits. I started playing at GS a few years ago. The first time I thought I would not have a chance to win with my photos. But then I noticed the taste of site visitors and learned the tactics I was able to do. My first victory was wonderful. We were very excited with my brother and his wife together. I will not forget this feeling until now. Later I got more challenges. I do not remember, how many exactly, but could be more than 50 in total. I know so many nice people and friends on the site, thanks to gs for this. The best thing is to create a community. I do not have my own website, some photos can be found on my facebook page. But I rarely send my photos there. In many cases, it is more important for me to have the moment I get from nature than the finished photo.

Tamas Bakos - Hungary

I am from Hungary but I live in Austria. I am a hobby photographer. I like travelling and hiking. It is very important for me take shots during my trips to save the moment forever. I like Gurushots because I can see a lot of beautiful shots. I have been member on Gurushots more than for two years. After half a year participating I became Guru. I missed one "guru pick" to become a Guru at that time. Now I have 110 Gurus Pick, I have participated on 12 exhibition. I have won many times. I think my photography skills are better than earlier, but I am not satisfied.

Valeria Schmidt - Austria

Vassilis Mathioudakis was born in 1972 in the city of Heraclion Crete Greece. I studied Archaeology and History of Art at the University of Crete. I graduated in 1995. During my studies I started "playing" with an Olympus manual camera. I've also had my first experiments in the darkroom. Since 1997, I have worked as a freelance professional photographer and photojournalist in several magazines and newspapers in Greece, such as NEA, Passport, Difono, Kathimerini, the music hall of Athens and Athens festival, Vice etc. I currently work as a freelance photojournalist. I consider myself a social documentary activist photographer and the last years I am totally focused on the refugees. My dream is to photograph the refugees all over the Mediterranean Sea, especially now that the media are not so interested in them anymore. Photography started as a game actually as a life game. The B&W world was fascinating that era. All the procedure of processing the film in the dark room was like magic. I couldn't believe that I had the chance to print my own photos. I never thought that I will become a professional photographer, it just happened especially cause I was everyday at the streets observing people, protesting etc. It was a book! It was published about at the end of 1990's and it was about Greek artists in general (photographers, painters etc.. The subject was an art symposium and we exhibit the artworks that were selected. My big love are portraits but my way of life as an activist photographer made photojournalism the most important part of my life. About 20 years I was photographing protests, homeless, social and environmental incidents and the recent years I was involved more with the refugees a real strong experience. For many years I did also travel photography. I started playing guru for fun. In a way it was an effort to escape from my reality and it is interesting game also. I like to observe what people prefer and vote. I realized that sunsets and birds are the more powerful. One photo was selected for exhibition by gurushots, and another one was selected for sun newspaper (the burning cop).

Vassilis Mathioudakis - Greece

Victor Nigro - Brasil

Viktor Kegye - Hungary

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