Duncan,
Absolutely, my friend, I would not have held this without your blessing. One of the main reasons I limited this contest to new photos is actually to keep the contest fresh an keep old entries from your run's out of it. I don't know, I figured it would go on with your original ideology of getting out and enjoying everything, at least that is what I took from your contests. I remember a few days I did not really have the motivation to get out for a walk but your contest got me up and I was very happy I did. However I certainly would not want you limited out or anyone else that truly can not get out in the next month or so. For this reason, if your rocking chair on the porch is a favorite spot, out of necessity or just because, this is surely okay by me. I understand and if back yard shot's are a necessity bring them on!
Secondly, I would like to thank you very much for your photos AND especially your reasoning behind them. The thought you put into them makes them so much more valuable to me. Instead of thinking you took the shoot with no thought, we all now know that what was accomplished was intentional and for a very good reason. One thing you mention is the sheen, and this is something when I started around 2007 that I had open thoughts on. I initially wanted to show every drop of detail and when I saw pro's shooting with mainly highs and highlights with very little visible detail (to my eye) I just had to wonder. As time went on I had to remember that a photo is nothing but reflected light and to make that what I want. A friend, Buddy Thomason reminded me of a great thought, "seeing the light" as he helped critique some of my work. I was working with natural light, hdr, focus stacking and basically making one knife photo with over 200 raw images. They turned out pretty awesome but Buddy was correct, a tilt shift lens would have cut down my focus stacked shots a ton. I was trying to keep my aperture below a level to where diffraction kicked in and show all detail with HDR. They turned out pretty nice, but I have never put that kind of effort in since.
For all of my traditional shots I go outside. I try to find a happy medium between all highs and highlights and detail that is easily viewed. I use matte boards to bounce light a lot of the time. Sometimes I just go out. One main thing I try to accomplish is never have blown out highlight, always show the edge highlighted, both bolsters as close to the same brightness as possible.
Here is a shot I worked on with my point and shoot. I just wanted to show this knife once and for all how it looks. If you look at the overall shot you may not see all the detail.
I was so focused on everything else I forgot to highlight the edges, darn.
Look in closer and you can see all the detail really is there even though my point and shoot is fairly low resolution
This to me is a boring shot, it could be much better, it could have much more dimensional and dynamic lighting, but it is what it is and that is an attempt to show one of my favorite knives.
One thing I have read by pro's is a polarizer will not help with knives, but I have found when I aim my camera at my knives for a shot in natural light and I rotate that polarizer the reflection are cut on all surfaces including metal. I don't know for artificial light, I do not use it. Anyhow, another thought is that each photographer will have their own style and Katie will not be judging to who's may match any particular style, but trying her best to pick an overall favorite. A daunting task if you ask me.
Anyhow, Duncan, your comments are truly appreciated and if anyone would like to add similar to their photo's it would make the judging a lot more thoughtful.
Thank you guys and I am glad to see some new shots coming up.
Mike, that is a very beautiful photo, thank you
Kevin
I don't want to win anything. 
