Ken,

I have not doubt that you as well as the other judges will take the judging very seriously and I may be overstating the desire the general membership has in participating through the voting process and I wholeheartedly appreciate and support the drive for improvement and excellence but you should always consider that there are many things in life that are inherently subjective, anything that is not measurable, quantifiable can be subjective, even excellence. It may all depend on a point of view, just as a profile is different from a frontal shot, point of view.

Here is an idea with a couple of twists that could incorporate some general participation.

Judge the photos as descried but, run the voting poll as always with the results hidden from everyone, including the judges, until after the judges have scored the photos then do one of two things.

1. Let the winner of the voting poll equal some small percent of the winning photo. I don't know, 10%, 15%, you guys decide.You wouldn't even need to display the results of the general vote. With this, everyone still has a bit of a say but it wouldn't be enough of a say dramatically shift the results.

or

2. Judge and declare a winner as described. The results of the popular poll mean nothing but print the voting results, use it as a challenge to those who vote by encouraging them to vote based solely on the published criteria for voting. It could be harmless fun to see how the general vote turns out. Having a winner by a judging panel as well as a popular winner is very common in many types of contests.