Hey everyone. I have been enjoying your posts and gaining knowledge from those who've "been there". I have a question. I enter in a Vermont photo contest every year at our state's largest attended annual 10 day fair. This year was my 4th. The first year I got an honorable mention, I was so proud. Nothing since, which is fine. I do it for the love of my hobby and the experience of being involved. We're allowed three entries each among the several categories.

My question: Many photos that win are photos I personally think should not even be considered. They're often blurry, out of focus, immature looking shots (to me). I'm very curious to know, what is in the mind of judges? Do any of you judge at for your local contests? This year as we were picking up our entries post-fair we received a paper entitled, "12 Merits of an Image" which I'm sure they're saying are what judges look for in a contest image. There is nothing on the paper which says, "Should be sharp and clear but out of focus is okay too". The paper is all about sharp, infocus, great color, telling a story sort of thing. One judge even suggested that I should have used a different color matting. Isn't this supposed to be about the photo and not about the matting? I am confused.

Thank you so much for reading this and any thoughts you send my way.

I own both the D810 & the D500. I had the D850 on preorder but cancelled it. I was disappointed in the image quality improvements the D850 provides--no significant improvements. As far as the increased resolution of the D850 goes, I also have an A7R2. It's image quality pretty much matches that of the D850. And based on the capabilities of the Sony A9, I believe the next high resolution camera Sony releases-probably within a year-will suppass the D850 in every way. So last night I photographer all of my Nikon cameras and lenses and they will be for sale on eBay on Sunday.