Every year the photo community has a free contest that is world wide. It's called the Shoot and Share Photo Contest. Three years ago I entered for the first time. I became hooked! Basically it's a giant photo contest where ANYBODY can enter in their photos - regardless of age, talent, equipment, etc. Voting is open to ANYONE - regardless of tech background, age, occupation, etc. And it's free. Which is also unheard of. This year I almost didn't enter, but just days before submissions closed I scrolled through my galleries and sessions and found 50 images that I was proud of. (50 is the max you can enter.) This competition is just for fun and holds no klout, nor does it determine if you are a "professional" or not. Especially since people have their kids vote, grandparents, heck, I even read on the group that someone's cat was voting with their nose! It is simply put, a fun contest to enter. (Especially coming off of busy season!) This year there were 583,150 entries and millions of votes. The way they do the voting is it is broken down into categories. From those categories, voters are shown a set of four images from the same grouping (for example; families) and they click which one they like the best from those four. This goes on until you have the will power to go to bed or do something productive with your day. (I'm not joking - so addicting.) You can also "favorite" images along the way - think of it like pinterest. At the end of the contest you'll be able to see your favorites, how they did, who took them, what their settings were, and how to contact the photographer if you loved it so much. Last week I got my results, and out of the 50 images I entered among the thousands to be voted on, 12 placed! I love seeing which ones made it far and which ones I thought would make it far, but didn't. I ended up placing, 3 in the top 30% of their category, 7 in the top 20%, 1 in the top 10% and 1 finalist! 

Top 30%

Top 20%

Top 10%

FINALIST 

You guys. My dumb dogs made it as a finalist. Out of alllll the beautiful images I entered, these turds went the farthest. To place anything further than a finalist you had to make it in the top 100 images. These dumb dogs who destroyed their dog bed placed 103 out of their category in "That Just Happened." Had we been three pictures ahead we would've been in the "best of the best." This was literally the last photo I entered in the contest because it was on my desktop and thought, "What the hey." Just goes to show you that anything is possible with this contest. hahaha! I loved seeing the results and can't wait for next year!