I entered this into a contest where the theme was "friends," but some people complained that my picture didn't fit with the theme. I thought it did, and the best photographer of the site in question agreed. He said, "I absolutely get the intent. The cards I thought were really creative...a red flush surrounded by black face cards was a really creative interpretation of the strength of friendship."
It's too bad, because I was in the running for another win (I was 2nd place in the voting poll when both me and the 1st place person got our pictures pulled out). I think it's sad that just because we didn't enter pictures with a bunch of people being goofy in front of a camera, people complained (I am willing to bet it's the people that were losing) and had our pictures disqualified. The contest moderator let our pictures in since they fit in his mind, so it's too bad he caved into the pressure of the whiners. Caging creative interpretation is not in the spirit of art!