How nice! Congrats to Keith and Tzorben, and thank you to those who took the time to vote for my image. There were some really beautiful entries!

Well, I've stayed out of this one as long as I can. I do in fact think that Apo flames can be beautiful, and can be considered art - but I have one big old soapbox issue with a lot of the flame images posted here. Actually, it could be any fractal image, but some flames are particularly glaring.

My issue is with the way the images are what I call "finished". By that I mean that the image is clear, full, and not surrounded by tons of negative space. I've seen some perfectly beautiful flame thumbnails - only to click on the image (sometimes as large as 400KB!) to find a sparsely, barely visible splotch of color surrounded by a ton of black space. For 4 months of the year I am blessed with a fast internet connection, and I am more than likely to go ahead and view some of these 400+kb images. For the remaining 8 months, when I am on a dial-up connection, I don't waste my time. Renderosity is a meeting place for people from all over the world - and some of them have to pay by the minute for internet connections. How much is that huge mostly black image worth?

My personal rule is that if the thumbnail looks better than the final image, then something should be done to the final image to make it better.. increasing the density, zooming in, rendering at 2 or 4 or 8 times the final size: whatever it takes to make the flame show at its absolute best.

One does not have to shell out big bucks for a graphics program capable of resizing/anti-aliasing any digital image. Irfanview and the Gimp are freeware, and both do excellent jobs.

Artists improve technique as they gain experience with any graphics program - and I am not at all adverse to seeing beginners post their works here at the fractal gallery. I actually enjoy watching the progression of works as each artist finds his/her own style and improves over time.

What irks me is those artists, whether they be beginners or not, that do not take the time and pride to show the best possible side of whatever they decide to post. Again, this is just my opinion, but I don't think that the speed, size or frequency of posts is what counts - it is always the final product that gets my attention.

Panny, getting off her soapbox

Message edited on: 01/03/2006 22:00

Message edited on: 01/03/2006 22:03

What a special surprise! Thank you for this excellent idea, and for all of your hard work on our behalf!

Congratulations to the winners! Beautiful entries:) Panny

Welcome back, Steve! Tresamie has it right- the FWW and FVS are the best new features here in the fractal gallery!

Yay, Joseph!!! A stellar image among some awesome competitors! Congrats to all, and a HUGE pat on the back to you! Panny

Thanks, Barb, for including one of my images in the FVS! I'm honored to be among such stellar company:)

Nice going, Linda! A truly deserved tribute to your lovely works!

Thanks for posting here! It gave me the kick in the pants that I needed to go visit your beautiful gallery. I can see your thumbs just fine... but I have experienced what you are describing before. Have you tried dumping your browser cache and revisiting your gallery? And I'm sure you already know to use different names for the image and the thumb.... other than that I don't have a clue:)

A wonderful selection:) I am delighted to be included!

Well, I'm going to jump in. This was my first year as "co-editor" (and let me tell you all, Linda helped me every step of the way, and I am eternally grateful)... The process was fun, but Linda is right - it is VERY time consuming. We received over 600 images. We bent over backward to include a great variety of images that met the submission requirements - the rule of thumb was to submit at least one image from each and every fractal artist that sent in an eligible fractal. This includes flames, XD images, and images from many different fractal programs. We wanted the pubisher to see as many different types of styles and fractal generators as possible. But as Linda told me over and over, "they choose what they choose" :) Our personal images were sent in addition to the over 200 requested by the publisher for making their selections. I was as shocked as anybody that Avalanche took two of mine. If it were up to me, I'd have only chosen the "one" that we are allowed for editing the calendar. Thanks to all the people who have thanked Linda and me for the work we did this year. The whole goal is to allow fractals to be seen by as many people as possible:) This year's submissions were outstanding. I'll guarantee that the printing will sell out, as it has in the past several years. I'm game to do this again next year. I'm thrilled that so many quality artists participated:), and working with Linda was a real treat. For those that do not know her, Linda is a real class act. I'm also thrilled for those artists whose submissions were chosen. And I hope that as many or more of you submit images again next year, if Avalanche decides to do another calendar!!!! Panny

Wow! Nice direction changes, Matt and Linda!!! Panny

I'm done:) Thanks to Keith for a wonderful starting par, great depth and masking from both Rick and Keith! I learned a lot! Let's do this again, soon! Panny