this was definitely a failure on my part on a few levels. it sort of had the effect i was going for, but i failed to take into account different monitors. the main problem is that i work on an SGI 1600SW flatpanel monitor that is REALLY bright. This image looks pretty cool on my monitor and I was happy with the effect. But it definitely scored low because most people have darker monitors and just saw some black.
Thanks for taking the time to check out some old pictures. It makes this site a little more fun.
I viewed this on more than one screen (I am an systems admin in a large corp.) Depending on the setting, a user would see pitch black all the way up to a vague, indistinquishable shades of grey. I had to download it to my computer and adjust the cantrast up to even make out what you photographed.
My comment is intended neither as bad nor good but only as a possible reason this picture rated so low.