I'd also like to take a quick moment to mention just a couple of small things that cropped up.
I personally think that if it's going to be anonymous then it should be so until voting closes. I say this just so that no-one feels a bit hard done by and isn't left with any doubt that people didn't vote for them because they didn't personally like them, only voted for them because the were chummy, or didn't vote for them because they had won before, etc. I know it might sound silly to say, but if it is kept anonymous then it is just about the pictures.
Secondly, I felt a bit hurt this time around because someone seemed to be suggesting that my photo was either a stock photo, wasn't entirely my own work, or wasn't entirely my own idea. I spoke to this person and they said that they had mis-phrased it and that they had perhaps been at the vino, which is fair enough, but it did bother me because a) it was of course my own picture and b) I didn't take anything (the lighting, the 'joke', etc) from any other source. I say this because, well, I am not the person to cheat and much as I don't want one person thinking this of me I certainly don't want something said in a thread to make others think this of me.
For the record the first shots I took were useless because the lighting was too bright and the pencil, being an HB and also having been dropped on the floor so the lead was shattered - which was also the source of the 'joke' in the final shot - meant you could not read the words on the page, so I had to close teh curtains, buy another pencil (2B, for a darker line) and then re-took the shot.
Here is one where I was trying to get the position right, and failing:
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I also forget to re-white balance my camera after closing the curtain and setting up the lamp, which is why the shot has a reddish/sepia tone, but I thought that a happy accident and so kept the shot I eventually settled on.
Now, I am bringing this up because I think in future we are all going to have to just accept that the photos are the member's own work, and that no-one here is going to cheat on a photography competition, for one thing there'd be no point as there would be no sense of achievement. I worked quite had to get my shot and put a lot of thought into it, and though I know that the person who made the comment maybe didn't get across what he meant to say in quite the way he intended to and so just upset me a bit because he was being a bit clumsy in his words, it kind of marred the contest for me because all teh while I was thinking 'oh no, but what if now loads of people thing I have cheated!', but didn't want to say something that would reveal the picture was mine before closing.
OK, well, probably just a few teething points, but it was teh best contes so far - some realy god, visual entries in there.
I'm off today to try and get a shot for the next contest, wish me luck