@Photogames was born out of a conversation one evening between @jarvie, @derekkind and @caseygrimley. They were brainstorming ways of encouraging interaction on their posts and of finding new and fun ideas for bringing both photographers and non-photographers together. There are many successful photo contests on Steemit, but they all follow the same formula: submit photos to fit a theme. The @photogames founders saw an opportunity for games that would go beyond just photo sharing and be fun for everyone.

The idea quickly became a reality and we, the @photogames team, are happy to say that after seven weeks of regular games, we're off to a great start, thanks to the wonderful participation from so many fine Steemians! It's only the beginning: we plan to be doing this for a long time and we have many ideas for the future, but it's a lot of work, and we want to make sure that the games are sustainable before expanding too quickly.

Today we're taking a big step forward, welcoming @gabyoraa as the first new member of the team! Gabriela has been one of most active participants in the Photo Games and we're thrilled to have her play as a regular Photo Star. She will be helping with the management of the @photogames account and the curation of the daily games; with her creativity and enthusiasm, we think she'll be a super addition to the team. Welcome, Gaby!

Currently based in Utah, Jarvie has extensive experience in many types of photography, including weddings , portraits and landscapes. He has been a full-time photographer since 2008, is a world traveler and the author of three books.

For his Faith In America tour, he spent thirteen months on the road in an Airstream, photographing churches across the United States.

Scott has been actively involved in the photography community for many years as an educator, organizer and contest judge. He is always looking for new ways of bringing photographers together, especially through healthy competition: he is the founder of the Photography Decathlon, a unique two-day team photo sport.

Derek is a self-taught landscape photographer from Ottawa, Canada. After a second trip to Iceland in 2012, he began to focus on photography as a potential career, traveling and slowly building up a portfolio.

He likes to go on extended adventures: the most recent was a three-month-long Canadian road trip, photographing National Parks all across his homeland.

A two-time winner of the Photography Decathlon, Derek loves the way photo competitions inspire him to try new things and to push his creative limits: he believes in the idea of using games as a learning tool.

Casey is a photographer based in Ogden, Utah. His focus is on landscape, nightscape, dancers and portraits. He has been pushing a shutter seriously for 5 years now. Casey enjoys the mountains of Utah, Idaho, and Montana and can regularly be seen around Ogden photographing his home mountain, Mt. Ben Lomond.

Because of his love for starry skies, he is a big advocate for preserving the night sky and has played a role in helping a local campground (North Fork Park) achieve Dark Sky recognition.

Casey is also known among the dance and circus world for his "Dancing with the Stars" photo series, where he shoots dancers and aerialists underneath the starry night sky.

Gabriela was born in Venezuela, and from age 7 she has been a resident of several different countries from East to West. Consequently she considers herself a citizen of the world, still deeply in love with her home country.

Photography has always been her passion, but it wasn’t until her role as a photo journalist in the protests of 2017 in Venezuela that she decided to pursue her dream of becoming a professional photographer.

Gabriela currently lives in Venezuela and is studying documentary photography.