[robski]

Trying not to lose sight that PoTW is meant to be a light hearted affair it does strike me that everybody is making very hard work of it. It is not my intention to offend Mods or past recipients of PoTW but I would like to air my views on the subject. Watching members rallying around and papering over the cracks is doing little to improve matters. Correct me if I am wrong but I thought the purpose was to pick images that showed some merit and stood head and shoulders above the rest. As opposed to picking an image that purely falls outside the spectrum of the posted norm. Maybe I am wrong and we should start a new galley sections called "Shock & Horror" so we can explore our darker side for a change. After studying the 8 PoTW I would only consider 3 of them to have any merit discounting the fact whether they were the best for that week. I suspect other forum member are of a similar opinion and hence the current controversy. In the case of Scott's image I raised an eyebrow because it is a classic cliche / tutorial shot illustrating shallow DOF. The attached example only took 5 seconds to find searching the web. Reading the comments attached to Scott's image was it picked because of his hand written script or the skill in its execution ?

After reading Duncan's explanation of the selection procedure I am left feeling rather bemused. I must admit I am not a big fan of so called committee styled decision making. The fact is committees never make a decision they just agree to compromise. What concerns me is that it is theoretically possible that the committee has reached it's 20th choice before some agreement is struck. In which case it is probably best not to declare a PoTW for that week.

May I offer suggestions, feel free to shoot down in flames if you so desire.

Firstly why restrict it to one outright winner ? If a small number are worthy then why not list them all in no particular order.

Secondly to help prevent the committee getting stuck in a rut with choosing their own personal favourites and styles why not invite a random guest judge from the regular forum members. Even if its just to give the deciding vote. I am sure a few would jump at the chance to help out.