Thank you guys. All kidding aside, your encouragement and support really means a great deal to me. Thank you.

I'm sucking it in and moving forward with it. It's still kind of nerve-wrecking, but you have to make that leap sometime. Guess this is my time. :)

Sheila - They just judged the image itself. Now I have to do the presentation/competition ready version (matted, framed, etc). I thought about it and the judging part didn't bother me one bit. It's having my work hanging before 5,000-10,000 people. I don't know why that bothers me so, but it does.

Jack - It really is sad when something that beautiful (at least, from what I can say) is taken in that way. You'd think a few thousand years of nude sculpture and people would stop reacting that way.

Nongo - It's in mid-April (don't have the dates handy).

Thanks again guys and I'll let you know how it goes. I'll, of course, be shooting images of the festival when I attend. I don't think I'd know what do with myself if I attended an event and didn't have a camera in my hands. :)

-+>Donald