What is the reason you think our participation in the contests is so low? This is not a poll

[countryjake]

20. Way back when, I think it was F Gordon who suggested having regular hosts...

from the group do each contest, rather than putting the burden on a winner. That would remove any fear of conducting contests, but put an added extra load on members of the Photography Group.

I know that running this contest is something that I'd never even considered when I submitted my entry for Winter and having never done any poll at all before, without your help, Mira, I might have been freaking out soon.

I thought of passing on the hostessing duty to someone on the list up in that pinned thread, but then I figured, I am an old woman, I can do anything.

That brings me to the pictures, themselves. I am a hopeless amateur at shooting photos but I've loved doing it thru my entire life. When I was young, I even emptied out my bedroom closet, just to try my hand at developing my own pictures (black and white birds, ha!). But nothing I've ever taken compares to those of trained artists in the field or even skilled hobbyists, mine are just pictures very far from works of art. Even some of the kitty pics I've seen on DU almost make me cry when I think of all my dearly departed beautiful pets that never got an image that did them justice.

What I mean is, maybe most DUers just don't take good enough pictures to deem them worthy of entering the contest. Maybe many are like me...I've silently read this forum for ages, first trying to learn some basics and then trying to figure out how to decipher all of those icons and settings on a new-fangled camera, which was a freebie to begin with.
Good cameras do make a difference and knowing how to use them makes all the difference.

That's what I think is the amazing aspect of this contest and all of the photos that I've admired here over the years...the utter skill with which you all wield your cameras.