I tire of these magazines having contests to sell magazines and web
hits. A contest never made anyone a better photographer.

Can't afford to advertise? *plonk*

Off topic.

Blair Howard = Spam.

For those who aren't aware, Blair Howard constantly spams usenet with
this rubbish.  His site is childish and covered in ads, and with a
contact page that is permanently (presumably deliberately) broken.  And
his registrant is GoDaddy.com - any questions?  (O;

Spam = Blair Howard.  Spammer. (Forgive the repetition - just ensuring
anyone who searches on his name gets the facts.)

Oh, wow, Blair - what a revelation, what an idea - using 'photographs'
to illustrate a photography article.  Who woulda thought???? Gotta hand
it to you.

Well, they *might* if they were any good.  Bored, I briefly visited the
'sample' (you have to pay for everything else at Blair's site), and the
'illustrative' images are not only poorly selected (here's a tip for
*you* Blair - use images with *shadows* to illustrate the angle of
light..) but they are also badly composed, unsharp, muddy, awful
colours, and check the posterisation on the silhouette!  Maybe Blair
should attend some photography and imaging courses - there are plenty
of free ones that are written by very competent people. (eg
www.ronbigelow.com).

The sad part is that Blair doesn't realise he is a joke..