@King - that will always be a problem. I know we are supposed to rate images on merit, and not compare (and that's a valid argument at the very beginning of a new theme), but you're kind of asking for it when you choose to post an image we have seen already in various styles and genres.

@psychodudu...we're on the same wavelength, dude.

Billy Joe writes and posts a short story about an old guy out fishing.
Next, Emily Sue writes and posts a short story about an old guy out fishing.
Later, Ernest Hemingway writes and posts a short story about an old guy out fishing.

Get my point? I know it's not the case that quality will always be identified as such (by the masses). But it doesn't hold that a later submission is inferior to an earlier submission, just because one has seen something like it before.

Mozart wrote variations of his own work partly to show that there was not one best way, and that equally beautiful and valid avenues of expression were simply waiting to be revealed.

I was simply making the same point in my style as you did in yours.

Ta Da! Congratulations, Lucas, on a well-deserved, featured image.

I agree whole-heartedly! Congrats!

Thank you all for your comments... and valuable debate from King and psychodudu!