Thanks to Borrowlenses.com and DPS for the contest – I can’t wait to get and use the lens :)

Thanks for the comments, Mark, and the fun competition!

At no point did we question the validity of any of the posts entered into the competition. Our decision was based on merit of the photographic works presented, and our desire to help improve a particular talent. Choosing amongst all of the heartfelt replies was a task too daunting for a single prize and our limited resources.

We appreciate all the comments and entries that people have entered here. We will be running a similar contest again soon, and wish good luck to everyone.

Mark.

Having judged numerous competitions in the past I know it never is easy to make these decisions! Looking forward to growing together with you as we explore these types of opportunities again – we’ll learn together how best to do it for next time.

My name is Mark. I am one of the owners of borrowlenses. I understand that there may be some confusion, and bad feelings generated by our choice of winners. The process of choosing a winner went something like this.

There are a lot of really sad stories. People who have been dreaming about using a nice piece of glass. People who are just starting out in photography. People who have children born, events that they believe are important to them, and of course they are. Overall, it’s just simply overwhelming to choose the best one on simple merit of some one writing about their lives.

We were faced with a real possibility of generating resentment from people being for choosing one person over many just because some one wrote the saddest “sob story”. Especially if later it came to light that the winner did not have a newborn child for portraits, or does not have a child in the HS football team, or whatever else the condition was.

As a result of such fears, we chose a winner with demonstrable commitment to photography. Dawn included a link to her site, not many others have done the same. We chose amongst those who included a link to their work.

I hope that this clarifies our decision making process and that you understand our reasoning.

We are hoping to run this contest very often. Perhaps as much as every month. If you have questions/comments, please feel free to leave them here. I will be checking back often.

Mark.

Oh well, I’m sure they had their reasons and I am sure Dawn is also a worthy winner. No matter who would have been chosen I’m sure there could have been debate about it.

I can appreciate it’s not your fault though Darren, don’t worry, but perhaps reflects a little poorly on the sponsor if anyone.