I think if all the submissions were by number instead of name we might get more people interested. This way none of us would be embarrassed if our picture sucked, but we would find out why. The winner would still be posted by name and the pictures could be critiqued by their number. I like it do you? Let me know if this is feasible. ;-)

I'm following the crowd ... whatever you all want.

Alex

Wouldnt matter for me...all my pics have my name on them :p

Seriously, I dont see any reason for somebody to be ashamed by a pic they put up. I hope that everybody sees this as a place to post a pic, and get constructive advice on how to improve. I dont think any of us here are going to point and laugh and otherwise belittle somebodys efforts.

Some of my first pictures really sucked. Nobody insulted me over them. However many people did give me lots of advice and were a great help in assisting me in my improvement.

If there is anybody reading this who would like to enter the contest, but you are afraid of emberassment, dont be. I think the only thing you will find here is friendly help in how to become better.

Oh yeah...I guess I should tell everybody, I tend to ramble on and otherwise be long-winded....one of my little quirks I guess....feel free to ignore my babbling posts :p

Richard ...

Sir, you are a Gentleman's, Gentleman! :)

And correct, too! This is about creating a weekly diversion from the noise and sparks ... a way to work hard together to create a fun reason to improve our photography skills.

Here's something worth mentioning ...

A great photo never hurt the sales of a knife ... but bad ones do! There is no sense building these awesome works of art, unless we also build the presentation skill necessary to bring out their greatness! If you are one of the participants that sees this contest/event through for a while and focuses on the effort with the desire to win (the carrot), we can force each other (through competitive spirit) to elevate our ability well beyond the other 20,000 makers out here that don't. If you can achieve top 5% presentation quality eventually, that means 19,000 other sellers are behind you. That translates to sales ... I can prove it!

However, look at the images most people out on the web are showing around ... I would venture to say, you can break into the top 1% with ease, given little effort. Now, I'll take a tie with 200 others and be ahead of 19,800 any day of the week ... especially when "image" is everything out here!

Alex

I don't think we have to worry about people being embarrassed. Just click here and you will see there is no shame in this crowd: pub42.ezboard.com/fcustomknifedirectoryforumfrm12.showMessage?topicI D=31.topic (http://pub42.ezboard.com/fcustomknifedirectoryforumfrm12.showMessage?topicI D=31.topic)