Quote - If a camera was used it's a photo in my opinion no matter how harsh the manipulation ;-)

Exactly, your opinion.  As a photographer and graphic artist, there is a difference between the two.  They do need to be judged on their own merits, separately.  Photography is photography, and graphic artistry is graphic artistry.  They should be separate. I have taken classes in art, graphics, graphical arts, Photoshop, and photography.  There is a difference to all the instructors I have ever taken a class with.  Photography here is really not showing the merits of photography, but how much manipulation to a digital image can be made.  I still object to classing them all together this way, when there is a 2D section here, and photo manipulation section.