I could not edit my post quickly enough to say more. I will relate these comments to other forms of creative and technically demanding work, such as what I do professionally as a jewelry designer/maker. If I stick only with the old traditional methods, I can make pretty things and I can suffer in that. I suffer in creative outlets and suffer in wrists torn up from years of traditional method of hand-work. So, I use power tools when I can, make nice things, still it is jewelry. There is no person on a pedestal telling me my work is not jewelry. There is not a person telling me a particular form to which I must submit. Today, the computer is a power tool of photography. For example take something as simple as saturation and color rendered on film and the very well selected paper. We are beyond dodge and burn under the red light and that is not a remark against film. I love the well executed image, whether from film or digital capture. Yet, I am here for one primary reason: To learn from the creative and technically accurate work of others and have fun in the meantime. A look at the monthly challenges give some insight into both technically accurate and often excellent photography while presenting the often oddball but challenging images creative use of the photo (or photos). I do not want purists on ivory towers telling me that what I do must be the kind of work they dolest it not be real photography. I want to see the images of 3dguy, Cynlee, Tedz(!!), logiloglu..Lostpatrol..ah the many others. There in is diversity and from a personal point of view, I need diversity to grow. I do not need an ivory tower of specific criteria to decide if my image(good or bad as it might be) is a photograph IN ESSENCE. Whew..