I don't take offence Peter, why should I?
When I talk about our standard I'm talking about taking and editing a photo to show on this site and potentially for selling with minimal effort. I could spend a lot of time setting up prior to taking photos and a lot of time editing them but I choose to spend as little time as possible to get an optimal photo. Given that there is a lot of criticism on the site about photos without a lot of instruction or forum wide help then I take it on myself to do it for those with less knowledge than myself to allow people to use the same method as myself. I agree that Terry, Vic and Jims photos are absolutely superb nowadays but they didn't learn from general shared information and they also spend a reasonable amount on each picture and that is excellent if they want to do that and I also agree that that extra time shows. If it came to selling a pen on-line then I also agree that if put side by side then theirs would outshine mine and would possibly sell easier but if they're not side by side then I wouldn't think that it would make any difference unless one is rubbish which I don't think my photos are but that is my opinion. I think we differ on what the reason for taking the photo in the first place is and also the desire to spend time on photography, which for me is a means to an end.
I'm not having a go, just my thoughts and I think that we are coming from different angles.