Ash, in my opinion, without clear judging criteria and a clear and agreed upon judging process the PEG has little relevance or credibility in the real world of photographic exclusivity. Right now it depends only upon the subjective opinion of anonymous judges who cannot be held accountable for their decisions. Posting a bunch of lovely pictures as examples of what makes a great photo (in your opinion) is not a set of criteria for all of us wannabes.
To be truly valuable for both the members of this forum and the wider audience you hope to attract to the Pentax product, the PEG needs a set of judging criteria laid out with a rating check box system, as well as a general comment section at the end.
Standardize the process.
To be a judge on an exclusive gallery one should not only be qualified (another set of standards that should be developed and applied) but the judge must have the time and the interest to deal with each member's submission. If they don't have time for this then they should not be a judge in the first place.
If this is serious business as you are claiming it to be, then it needs to be taken much more professionally by those of you behind the scenes. The Ad Hoc approach is not going to make the gallery famous.
Here is an EXAMPLE sheet for judging I drew up quickly (just an example, needs expert input). Whatever set of criteria and whatever judging process is developed must be made available to all prospective PEG artists by posting it on the submissions page:
PEG JUDGING FORM
A great picture should be at least as good as what is photographed, perhaps better, and even something the viewer could not conceive of in the first place.
RATE BETWEEN 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) 1. a. Technical Excellence (Check box)
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Composition
Focus
Colour
Light
Etc.
1. b. Post Processing
Contrast
Saturation
Sharpness
Etc.
2. Impact (this is where clearly defined criteria needs to be agreed upon and established by the Pentax administration.
Originality
Immediate Impact
Lasting Impression
Etc.
3. Comments
____________________________________
____________________________________
_____________________________________
Thank you for your submission.
The Pentax Forum Judging Team
I am going to forward this post to Adam.
cheers all,
tess