Yeah, I tend to agree with Fred on this one Ryan - it is much nicer to keep it "friendly"and besides that - everyone is so subjective, and photography is really a matter of opinions rather than something that can be given an overall scale. This is why I detest the photo.net rating system, as it can never truly give a representation of the quality of your work, due to the large variation in people's likes and dislikes.
Also, now with the added "Open" gallery, how do you judge an image that is submitted in for eg the "animal" category such as this month's and then a portrait of a child that is submitted into the "Open" gallery - two very different genres of photography there. And THEN, you have the difficulty of judging colour images against black and white... Believe me, I know, it is more trouble than its worth. I am the steward/co-ordinator and main judge for the past 2 years (this year will be my 3rd) for the Photography Section at our local show (hehe, our small version of the EKKA), and last year I completely re-did all of the categories to try and make it easier, and more objective for the judges and to give fairer competition to the various types of images submitted. Prior to this there had been colour images up against black and white, landscapes up against portraits, it was just crazy... Anyways, you can all tell me to pull my head in if you like, but those were just my thoughts on the idea, and I hope I haven't offended you Ryan, by my voicing them... tan. Fred said: > No. Trying to combine "Friendly" and "Best of Show competition" > gets you an oxymoron. > > Fred > > >