Jim, I totally agree with what you said. Let’s not take this down to calling names though. Civility is not a luxury, but a necessity. Its easy when things are going smoothly. The real test of our civility is when things get rough.

Roman

You're right Roman. That was actually my attempt at injecting twinge of humor while getting the point across that he is being stubborn. I guess my attempt failed :-(

Hi Everyone,

I believe that we have past the bounds of what is acceptable. Attila, I think that you need to please calm down and step back a bit. John sent me an email the other day saying that this image was absolutely not a composite image. You follow it up with essentially calling him a liar. I do not think this is fair or right. My wife and I have known John for several years and have seen exhaustive amounts of his work. I can say - categorically- that if John says this to be true that it is. Nhe is a man of unmistakable integrity. John was a film photographer for over 30 years, having worked at the UN.

Attila, I do not want you to become a black sheep here. You are a talented person (as evidenced by the photos you shared), however, you are helping to create a real sense of frustration from many of the members here. As a group, the moderators of this forum and I decided that we should try to work with you after the initial round of miscommunication between yourself and others in this forum. I think we are now in a second thread which is bordering on name calling and accusations. This just DOES NOT HAPPEN at NWP.

So, let us please ratchet this down a notch. There is nothing wrong with strongly held opinions here. There is nothing wrong with disagreement here. There is, however, a problem when the level of discourse degrades below being civil. I think we are well past this point.

John recently sent me a long email going over the exact specifics of the minor things he did to this image (I.e a little dodging, burning etc). I have chosen to not post this now because it is really secondary to the larger issue. This type of discourse is unacceptable here. As was said earlier, you will find this community very accepting as long as you do not look down your nose at everyone here and treat them as equals. I will say that i cannot continue to allow this to go on much longer. It damages the forum community and sense of safety if I allow it to do so. I do not wish to ban anyone from this forum. It has literally happened only twice in five years.

Thankyou,
James

Hey Everyone,

I think it is a good idea to lock this thread and let feelings cool down for a bit.

Thank you
James