Steve, you have some great astro gear and clearly love imaging and you post your work all over the world for peope to see so why not put it in a competition where even if it doesn't win or rate an honorable mention then it may well still form part of a travelling exhibition that will be seen by over 100 000 people Australia wide for the following 12 months? No harm in that.
The form of the David Malin awards is fantastic for astronomy and astroimaging in my opinion as it provides several categories to cater for a diverse take on our passtime and another stage to have your work seen by lots of people who will appreciate the spectacle, why just stick to web forums and hopeful submissions to astro mags?
The notion that there is somehow something wrong with people entering images in a competition is ludicrous in my opinion. We compete in many things why should astroimaging be any different? The only issue with the DM awards is that it is only one judge and no matter his obvious authority on the subject his eyes are just that, his and when all things have been considered, two similarly technically well done images may ultimately be seperated by a single individuals taste only. However, as I said, many images will be recognised and for various reasons so the chance that your work may be favourably critiqued by David Malin is worth throwing your hat in the ring for in my opinion.
If Luciano Pavarotti had found even one nice quality in my operatic voice and told me I would have been mighty proud (rest his great big fat booming voice soul in peace), so too if David sees even some merit in any one of my entries I will be very proud too but if he doesn't I wont have lost anything but the cost of the entries (paper, ink and entry fee) and my entries may still make it in the travelling exhibition...but that's just me
Mike