The Art of Bonsai Project

That's a great point, instead of just sitting here and waiting for the verdict from the judges, it would be interesting to post here all our impressions, questions, and conclusions about the contest. It could be a very enlightening marathon of a thread..(and may be the judgest could even get some new insight about various things).

Coincidentally, I just emailed Will on this subject and attached an image of one of the entries that's a great bonsai but is poorly photographed.
I did a little Photoshop work on the image that I think made a big improvement.
Mike

There are a lot of submissions that could have been much better with only a small amount of brightness/contrast adjustments to the photos.
There are a few that would have been much better if only a non-distracting background were used.
While we may clean some of these up for future use, they stand for judgement as submitted.

Will

We could file these things away as future references for a future contest as parameters for submission. However; we started reviewing some of the entries at the beginning of this contest and decided that this was a job better left in the hands of the judges. So--if we decide to do and apply some, or all, of the ideals we have been discussing we will once again find ourselves prejudging the contest on a piece by piece basis. Is this something we want to do? If so will we do it and run the risk of having some of the entrants claim some sort of prejudice in refusing their entry., Not that I really care what some people think in a childish wisdom, there is the problem.

I believe that there should be certain minimum photographic standards to be met before an entry is accepted. The judges have a difficult enough job as it is without having to sort the wheat from the chaff before getting down to business.
IMHO
Mike

We started doing that at the beginning of this contest but it was decided at the time to let it slide. If we decide to change the policy someone will have to manage it, or a committee will have to do it. It should not be left in the hands of one person. I know that sometimes it is as obvious as a watermelon in a punch bowl, but sometimes the difference is subtle.

Vance said: "it is as obvious as a watermelon in a punch bowl,"
Vance, you sure cleaned that one up! Good job!!
Mike

198 entries, almost 15 whole pages worth!
Judging should be completed soon and I am looking forward to seeing the results.
Thanks again to all of you who entered and to all of the sponsors who donated prizes, without you, this contest never could have happened. We would also like to thank the forums, websites, magazines, and organizations out there who either allowed us to announce this contest or took it upon themselves to do so.
It is somehow fitting that a contest meant to enrich the community owes its success to the community.

Is there a deadline for the results or should we just wait en see..... ?

We have the results in from two judges so far, when the third judge completes his judging we will release the results.
We gave no deadline to the judges.
Will

Anyone else biting nails in anticipation of the results?
Good luck to both sides and congratulations to all the entrants on putting up such a high standard.
Ian.

WHAT NAILS?

How about a hunger strike?
Let's threaten not to feed our trees until we get some results!!!

Yeh....

Until now I didn't care about the result (seing so many great trees was good enough for me), but now that you guys are talking about it, I am starting to get some nervous anticipation, waiting for the results.