Photography Contest - We have a winner!!

[Assassin]

Alrite boys and girls, its finally time to start.

In this thread i will give you the basic layout of the contest, and explain how things work.

First things first. The contest has 24 participants, 4 brackets, 4 rounds and 13 objects.

Here is a visual example (it shows 8 people/tier, but ignore that. it was an initial draft):

Example Setup

This is how it'll work. We've split the 24 participants into groups of 6. Each round will take 1 week to complete. In the first round 2 people will be eliminated from each bracket and the remaining 4 will move on. In round 2, another 2 people will be eliminated. Round 3 will have one person kicked out, and in round 4, the remaining participants from each bracket will compete for the title.

The participants have already received a pm from me telling them what they will be photographing for the first round. To keep things interesting, we've decided to keep the brackets anonymous for the first round. Only the mods know which 6 people are competing against each other and we'd like to keep it that way, so please refrain from discussing with each other for the time being.

The rules are simple.

1) No photoshoping
2) No outside help (ie: can't get your uncle who's a professional photographer to do it)
3) The subject/object can be portrayed in any manner of your choosing, so long as the focus is on that object.
4) Action shots, black & white, artsy pics...its all fair game. Do whatever you think works best for you.
5) Final judgment will be based on how interesting the picture is, not necessarily how 'good' or 'professional' it is. What does that mean? well thats all up to the forum goers as they will be the ones voting.

The schedule for this contest will be as follows:

Monday - Subject/Object released. Entries must be in (PM'd to me and xan) by thursday nite, 11:59 pm eastern time.

Friday - Polls go up and voting begins. Voting lasts till sunday nite. Results go up monday and winners move on to the next round.

Ok, now for the voting. We've decided that it will be an open poll, one for each bracket (So each friday there will be 4 polls). To ensure we dont have people just voting for themselves, the participants are not allowed to vote for their own bracket. In addition, all participants must vote in every round. That is, in round 1 there should be a minimum of 18 votes for each poll. Failure to do so will result in disqualification. For each round thereafter, those who are kicked out are encouraged, though not obligated to vote.

Any questions, post here or pm me. The first polls open in 4 days. Good luck to you all.

Edit:

Just a clarification. By 'no photoshop' i mean you can't use photoshop or the like to 'improve' the picture. However, any photographic effects are allowed, so long as they can be done by anyone and dont require any special skills/programs. If you have a high end camera with built-in effects, its fair game. Just no outside editing other then something basic (like a black/white photo to enhance the effect for example).