GuruShots
A couple of years ago, a student of mine showed me this amazing photography website called GuruShots.
"GuruShots is a platform for people who love taking photos. It’s fun, social and helps improve photo-taking skills."
Basically what you do is look at the variety of challenges that they have open at any given time and enter photos into the challenge of your choosing. People then view all of the photos submitted to each challenge and vote for the photos they think are the best. The more you vote the more people will see your photos and get a chance to vote for you. The better you do in each challenge the more voting power your receive.
There are always a wide range of challenges to enter, from basic photography techniques such as composition or depth of field, to all sorts of topics such as beards or bodies of water.
This gamification of the process of photographing different themes and new challenges, makes getting out there and trying something new easier and more accessible. Not to mention the burst of confidence you get when hundreds of strangers have looked at your photos and decided they like them.
This website can sometimes become slightly additive, you want to keep doing well, and you want to keep looking at other people's amazing photographs. The wide range of talent is staggering, from professionals to amateurs who really have no right to call what they are doing photography. It is hard to not be judgmental, but also hard not to be totally blown away by some of the photos from people all around the world. The global scale of the website is unlike most other social media, every photographer you come across is from a different country.
I have since starting using this website with my students and has homework assignments. They pick a challenge that interests them, shot some photos, submit them online, and then see how the world reacts to them. It gives them a sense of meaning and reward behind their images.
I highly suggest giving it a try. Fell free to check out my profile, or jump right in. You don't even have to submit photos to vote on others.