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National Geographic closes “Your Shot” website and switches focus to Instagram

by 19 Comments

According to a recent report, the latest Disney layoffs would impact National Geographic, considering that it was acquired by Disney earlier this year. And it seems to be true – NatGeo has issued the official announcement that it’s closing the Your Shot platform.

For those of you who may not know, Your Shot is a photo community which offered photographers assignments, advice from experts, and the opportunity to get their work featured on digital and print platforms. It also connected the photographers within the community.

I first noticed the news on Reddit, where one of the users shared that the platform seems to be closing. And indeed, when you visit the Your Shot page on National Geographic’s website, you’ll see the official notice. It reads that the Your Shot platform will be discontinued as of 31 October 2019. It won’t cease to exist overall, but it will be moved to Instagram:

Variety’s report claims that Disney’s layoffs will make National Geographic “more of a TV-centric operation, focused on its U.S. and overseas cable networks.” And with the Your Shot platform moved to Instagram, users wonder how it will work from now on. How are the submissions going to be curated? And how is the community engagement going to function from now on? Is it just going to turn into followers and likes? I guess we still have to wait and see, and judging from users’ comments, the opinions are divided. Some hate the idea, while the others don’t see anything bad.

I personally haven’t been a member of Your Shot, so I can’t speak as a user. But objectively speaking, on Instagram, there’s always a chance to turn everything into likes, without too much engagement, which certainly isn’t a positive thing.

Have you been a member of Your Shot? What do you think of NatGeo’s decision?

[via DPReview, Variety]

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  • WhoIsLikeGod

    I’ve been a YourShot member for several years now. In my opinion the service to avid amateur and professional photographers provided by YourShot is unparalleled anywhere on the Internet at this time. Your article outlines the main advantages it had over other photo sharing sites, namely a real connection to professional photography editors who would give feedback and recognize excellence in various ways, including a number of opportunities to get you work published mostly online, but also occasionally even in one of NatGeo’s print publications. The sense of community and real and substantive mutual encouragement among the members of the site was something that was supported both by the administrators of the site and by the features and design of the site itself. I have not found any of that in the numerous other photo sharing sites I have tried out. I certainly fail to see how any of those benefits can be translated in any meaningful way on Instagram. Instagram is not a photography site. It doesn’t have the necessary tools and features to be a productive photo sharing site. That may seem counterintuitive since Instagram is all about posting photographs. However the focus of Instagram is not photography. On Instagram the posting of photos (with numerous limitations on size, quality, aspect ratio, publication of metadata important to serious photographers, etc.) is meant to be a means to enable social communication and interaction. What the YourShot community has enjoyed for the last 14 years is a site where photography is it self the end goal, not the mere means to facilitate an entirely different goal.

  • Rory

    I have been a photographer for most of my life….and an active member of National Geographic Your Shot from the first day I found out about it in 2014. Your Shot has been and is the most wonderful website I’ve ever participated in, allowing me and thousands of others (and not just photographers) to not only see so much of this amazing world we live in, but to meet and interact with others we would otherwise have not been able to get to know. Our world so badly needs this kind of unifying influence and I thought that in essence this was part of the National Geographic philosophy…to recognize, educate and share the beauty of other cultures, environments and people. The Your Shot membership surpassed the 1 million member mark awhile ago and has continued to grow. It was also nominated for a Webby….a great honor for any website. I don’t know the reasons behind the decision to destroy such an amazing group/platform, but in reading the discussions now happening on the site, it makes it clear that all of us are shocked and appalled by this decision. Not only is something unique and precious being destroyed, but most apparently putting a lot of very talented people out of their jobs. I’m guessing that the primary reasons are financial, but I’m sure that with over a million passionate members, that if a financial need is truly the reason, many or most of us would be willing to pay a small membership fee to keep Your Shot alive….it means that much to us. Even a $1 membership fee would net over a million dollars!

    In the past I have participated to varying degrees on other photography platforms, but there has never been a one that came even close to Your Shot. I’ve made wonderful friends there from all over the world. I’ve been mentored and mentored others there. My life has been touched deeply and I have touched the lives of others. One fellow member became a dear friend of mine (and still is) when she saw a photo of mine that was published of my mother a few days before she died. Her mother was also terminally ill and seeing my photo (a memorial to my mom) started a conversation between us that helped her and her mother take some “last” photos they each very much wanted, but were afraid to do. Without Your Shot we never would have met and she would not now have those treasured moments and visual memories of her mom. This is just one story, but there are thousands of us on Your Shot that could share similar experiences.

    My passion and my art have grown immeasurably from participating on Your Shot and although perhaps it sounds dramatic, many, many of the members are in deep shock and disappointment over the recent decision to end it. The editors and members have poured heart and soul into the site for 14 years….that should count for something, and a site like Instagram does not even come close. From what I’ve read, one cannot even easily upload photos there from a computer, but only from a cell phone! This is an ill-advised decision so why not find a different course of action to solve whatever the issues are that led to thinking ending Your Shot was best. Ask the community….for indeed we ARE a community and we care about the beautiful creation that Your Shot has become over the years.

    I hope that those making this decision consider carefully the course they are taking for it truly has an impact on our world greater than they may realize. I’m not sure who all will see this letter, but I do hope and respectfully ask that it be forwarded it to all decision-makers who have a part in the future of Your Shot…or it’s demise.

    Thank you,
    Rory Sagner

    http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/profile/759148/
    http://rory-sagner.pixels.com/
    https://www.facebook.com/RorySagnerPhotography

  • mzvelebil

    Your shot community is not only a site where photographers post their
    photos, it is a world wide (in the true sense of the word) community
    that learns from each other, supports each other and most importantly
    gets to know “the other” without prejudices. It breaks down barriers
    between cultures and beliefs through our photographs.

    I joined in 2016 and it took me a few months before I dared to post a
    photograph, but the support was so positive that it gave me confidence
    to post more, soon an Editor liked one of my photos, and within a year a
    photo was published. Since then I have had more publications, which in
    turn led to publications in a few magazines. The environment here has
    helped me to change from a research scientist to a photographer despite
    being physically disabled. A community like this is very precious.

    • Kat-Renee Kittel

      That’s what happened to me in 2014. Took me awhile to put up a photo and the encouragement was wonderful! I was sure I would get criticism or no favorites… and then I took the best photo by a mere lucky shot and I knew I had found a place that could see I had talent – just needed help to develop it.

  • Kris Orr

    YourShot has truly been a treasure to me. It has forever changed how I see the world. It taught me to see, light, shadow, texture and color differently through each assignment. It showed me places I will never go, getting glimpses into lives very different than mine. I am thankful for the years of support, input, opportunity and encouragement given to us by the editors and the larger, amazing YourShot community. I thank all the members and editors for all these wonderful things and I hope others will see the value in this special site and save YourShot. #saveyourshot

  • Vanessa Hirsch

    I have been a member of YourShot since around 2009 shortly after it launched as MyShot in a simpler platform. It is a unique photographic site where novice to professional photographers can post and participate in assignments and interact as a community. It is world wide and I have developed a true sense of community and connection with a variety of photographers from all over the world. Unlike other photo sites, it provides more than just a collection of likes from other photographers. One receives critical constructive feedback from other members as well as from the editors. Due to exposure to the wide variety of photographic styles of the members and to the impetus from the assignments, I have definitely improved in terms of my photographic skills. I will miss the interactions and sense of community, the push to improve my skills and I cannot see how a platform on Instagram can come close to replicating YourShot’s unique qualities. Much of its unique quality can also be attributed to the dedication of the editors who may or may not have retained their positions.

  • nctrnl

    …and when Instagram goes away…

  • gerald s

    I’ve been a Your Shot member since 2013. I first picked up a camera in August 2003 and so many of those photos have ended up on Your Shot. My whole photography life since 2003 is displayed on Your Shot through the 4,543 photos uploaded as of today. The Your Shot platform has done more to bring people together through their love of photography than the United nations and all governments combined. People, who while their governments are fighting each other over many serious issues, are sharing photos and stories of their countries, their lives, their dreams and their heartaches. Because of Your Shot, I have been able to see thousands and thousands of places from all over the world that I will never, ever in my life be able to visit but yet through the kindness of others I have been able to be awed and astounded by this planet of ours. I hope the decision to close Your Shot will be reversed and I will not lose the creativity, imagination and visions through photographs from people all over the world.

  • Kat-Renee Kittel

    When I joined Your Shot in 2014 I was looking for a platform where I could display my photography that I specifically wanted to show copyright, that could not be downloaded easily without my permission and to get encouragement from more experienced photographers! I do not have a professional camera but am saving money for one. This community has been so welcoming to me as a budding photographer in a way that no other place would have done. Professional photographers have favorited my photos to my humble surprise. Without Your Shot, I would not have kept trying to improve my skills. Apparently to more experienced amateur and professional photographers, I have talent. I am an artist who lost most of my sight in one eye, I have an essential tremor making it hard to draw now – Photography has become my artistic outlet. Instagram as a non professional platform without technical support and does not provide copyright security would not have given me that inspiration to take another photo to keep trying.

  • Magdalena Adamczak

    I joined the YS community only a bit more than a year ago, but it soon became the most important photography site for me. During this year I posted around 700 frames, get 11 publications and over 100 Editor’s Favourites, gaining huge confidence and incredible support – mainly from other YS members. I post a lot on FB, but there is no comparison between social media and YS, it’s totally different philosophy. To be honest, I have difficulties imagining my future photography way without YS.

  • Sue Lockhart

    I have been a member of Your Shot since 2014 and what I have learnt in those five years has been invaluable. I have seen photographs from photographers from all over the world and all at different stages in their quest to improve their techniques and make impactful photographs. I have seen people make their first tentative steps (like myself) to being invited to be joint editors on assignments. The Editors have been second to none and encouraged us all in our aim to become better photographers. This was not another platform where you posted your pictures and waited for the ‘likes’ to flood in. It was a site where likeminded photographers helped each other in a very safe and encouraging environment, where you could share intimate shots you would not share on any other platform. The editors encouraged us to articulate WHY we liked a particular shot and set us regular assignments where everyone had an equal chance in being published in the final story. I am so thankful that I had one published shot, quite a few Editors Favourites and many of my comments were used as Editor’s Notes. There will never be anything else to compare to Your Shot, the community it has fostered and the stories it has told. I have made so many friends in so many countries and the community is at a loss to know WHY as the silence has been deafening!!! It was nominated for a Webby this year so that must speak volumes.

  • When I started photography in 2013 I was feeling like a lost child, there were many photo portals to upload but no one helping me in my queries, and one day in 2014 I saw YOUR SHOT by chance. I made my id and understood that, that this is what i was looking for. I Tried to participate in all the assignments which gave me an insight of how what when where and whom to click. Your Shot makes me what I wanted to be ( A better human and a better Photographer.) In this journey from 2014 to 2019 I got 41 EF One published and one Top Shot. It gave me more courage to do what i always wanted to do, This is Travel. I am not sticked to one particular subject but I like clicking nature which includes Landscape birds animals insects and flowers. I have a fairly good passion of clicking kids and portraits. But With YS I understood how to click stories. How to evoke some emotions of the viewer. But today in this time I am feeling like a lost kid again in my age of 47 as YS is leaving us. I can’t imagine my walk without it. Because YS is not a photography site for me it is family. A family which have millions of member connected to each other , helping each other to grow, Where Editors are taking s much pain everyday to select photos, think assignments and stories this is too much for them still they were happily doing it. I have never seen anyone to taking so much pain on any website. On Ys we see trues stories around the world we share pain love laughter and grief all kind of emotions on YS, Instagram is not a justice to this. Instagram is a fancy stuff Here in India everyone wants to be on Instagram to post anything to scroll and like any post blindly. there is no comparison between YS and IG then how can we accept that change. There is no growth, it is like scroll down for years and endup with nothing.

  • Annalia S.

    I have been a member of the Your Shot community (for this is what it is, a vibrant, creative, multiethnic, supportive community) since 2013. I am only an amateur (perhaps just a dabbler in photography, really), but found substantive encouragement and mentorship there, as well as opportunities to grow and develop. The community surpassed 1,000,000 membership a while ago: a veritable army of volunteer photographers contributed to its outstanding collection of images, creating a fantastic body of work, a resource (not only to its members or photography aficionados, but to educators, researchers, environmentalists and to the public at large and at a truly global level) that will be lost, at least in its present unified form, once the site is taken down. The way the disbanding was announced to the community I find also utterly disrespectful: a sudden announcement, with no warning, a reminder that the company retains the right to use our images for its promotion, directions to move to Instagram without clarifying the details and a rather perfunctory-sounding thank you. All editorial activities ceased immediately upon the announcement and even technical features have already begun to break down despite the proposes closing being nearly two months away. A dismissal that this community of committed volunteer photographers, who put hours upon hours of their time and skill into making the platform worthy of a webby nomination, certainly does not deserve.

  • Amanda

    I can’t express my disappointment when I saw that the YourShot platform plans to be “discontinued.” The thought of such growth and inspiration being “discontinued” is heartbreaking. I have been a part of the community for 6 years. It has inspired me along with countless other photographers to be engaged with our world. It has helped us to grow. It has helped us to realize that the world is within reach, and that working together we can make it a better place. It has opened my eyes to countless photographs and fellow photographers. This has helped me to grow as a person and as a photographer. I have met people, I have been inspired by people and I have been pushed by other members as well as editors to be a better photographer. I am grateful for the work these editors have put into helping mold us as photographers. To take this platform away would be travesty.

  • Many of us have invested thousands of hours of our time to grow this platform, passing on instagram means losing, for thousands of photographers, a hard-won curriculum.

  • Xenia Iona

    Closing down the ‘Your Shot’ platform is a crying shame. With over 10 million photographs submitted, this , unique platform is much loved by a wonderful community. Over the past three and a half years, I got to ‘know’ quite a few photographers and always looked forward to seeing their photos, as well as photographs from literally all over the world. I visited almost daily, at times, last thing at night, to look at something beautiful, to read of something incredible and amazing. And it has been fantastic to be able to upload the occasional photograph and to strive to do better, and to give and receive encouragement.
    Instagram is Instagram. ‘Your Shot’ is ‘Your Shot’. The 2 platforms are very different albeit they both feature photographs. To the powers that be: Please keep Your Shot.

  • Madhu Thangavelu

    Images uploaded to YourShot appear far more rich and crisp than anything on Instagram, a messaging service that folks use to communicate, really, not a platform for photographers or photography from around the world.

    Maybe Disney, a worldwide leader in bringing happiness and pleasure to all will reconsider and reverse decision to shut down such a joy that is Your Shot.

  • Warren Fiekd

    It doesn’t sound like a decision made by a rational photographer, more a desperate economist.
    Photographs need to have impact, otherwise why bother? That means, to view it a a reasonable size. Instagram has always been a ‘matchbox gallery’ a ‘stamp album’, as great as the images are, it just doesn’t do the images justice. I use it and enjoy it, but the current YourShot is the best way to view images. National Geographic is having its hair lopped re: Samson. As successful as Instagram is, it is the sheer size restriction that limits the work of the photographers. It encourages ‘quick flicks’ through images, not taking n the essential elements of the composition. It’s lazy viewing essentially.

  • Warren Lowe

    Along with the horrible decision to move YS to Instagram, and all the ramifications to the Community, I mostly fear for the futures of so many of the staff such as David, Matt, and so many others that have guided us along, and invested so much time and effort into this segment of NatGeo.

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