Golly Jim, please get over this hurt. This is all about getting the best photos for the calander, not the best car or the best buddy. You've posted photos of your car here and it's beautiful. And I know you worked your A$ off to get it looking perfect. Take your car, a camera, a tripod and go get a winning photo for this year.

My photo didn't make it there either.



Actually, that photo sucks. It's off center. The garage is a mess. The color is off. The only good part of the photo is the idea.

My mom used to sail. Her friend had a bag full of Nikon high end stuff. My mom had a point and shoot Nikon idiot proof camera that I gave her for Christmas. The pictures my mom took were awesome. The pictures her friend too with the professional gear sucked. Why? Because he was so preoccupied with setting bells and whitles, he fogot to look through the view finder and compose his shot. Exactly like Vikkie describes, he made photos of friends with sail boat masts sticking out of their head. People in the photos were partly cut off. He forgot to notice the sun faced the camera so he got lens flare and poor exposure. Taking photos is an art. Lighting and composure is absolutely critical to get results. Many folks don't know this, but during some lighting conditions, you get only two stops of exposure range. That makes the photo flat. Other lighting condtions have eight stops of exposure and it's impossible to capture on file or digital format. The result is black shadows and burned whites. A great photographer undertands lighting and only takes the photos when the lighting works. That is why Ansel Adams produced such impressive works in black and white. His photos not only documented a scene but they conveyed a feeling. He understood and knew how to control all these factors. In this calander, Scott is trying to get photos with emotion, not just document a fine car.

I'm sure Scott doesn't find any pleasure in having to make these hard choices. It's not fun to hurt peoples feelings, especially your friends feelings. With only twelve months of photos, a lot of people have to be excluded. It's really a thankless job. I bet Scott had many sleepless nights at the end. If we push this BS to much more, Scott may just bail out. The stress and upset just won't be worth it. Then we get no calander at all. No soup for us!

I have a proposal so that everyone who wants to participate can be included. Package a photo CD along with the calander. It would only cost a few bucks extra. I'll even volunteer to do the CD duplication; just give me the blank media. Every photo submitted can be included on the CD regardless of picture quality. That way everyone is included.