Love it...

My favourite is the Brimstone head-on shot... nicely different!!

And I have read the rules before... I can see nothing about leaving comments.... there is a vague comment about discussion needing to be on the thread for the competition [if started].... but naught else!!

I am the person who commented.
And I have apologised directly to Stan....
but, despite having been a member for a long time, sorry, I did not know that that was a rule.
The only rules I was aware of were to do with camera types...
and the monthly having to be shot during the month!
Mea culpa!
Sorry folks...

And, in response to stu62:
As John has said....
"You have to compete to win it"....
or get "the coveted second place"....
and michaelblue has put it very succinctly!
And, compared with the lottery.... entering one of these competitions doesn't cost a penny!!

Not with whisky I hope!?
And please, try some still life pix with your stone bottles...
I, for one, would like to see what you come up with....
once I've finished the current bit of construction here, I might be able to find mine!!
Then I'll put some up, too.

In fact, I think I'll do a series of pix around a still life before I finish the building work....
it'll help me relax in the evening.

And I was sad that you withdrew...
I had already judged your picture....
this is what I wrote.

"Reused and Repurposed Bottle by JudithAnn

Shame it is just the one "wax" bottle...
I like this, it takes me back to my late teens and parties.
You could've put a wine bottle and a couple of glasses...
possibly one glass lying on its side... to create a real composition.
I'm not sure what the almost crystaline border is around the subject itself, tho'....
is it the effect of sharpening... or a leftover of the blurring of the background."

Flames are allowed, they are miniscule, but part of the picture...
also, smoke from a candle is perfectly OK...
I saw a beauty some moons back now... but it still sticks... someone had photographed a still life that had a candle in a candlestick as part of the arrangement. There was also a candle snuffer there... and he'd photographed it as the smoke from the wick was sinking away from the top of the candle.

So, you only needed the extra bottle and accessories as I have commented above.

To answer your question above:
"The judge seems to need it to be very precise, very closed to his idea of a still life."

Not at all... a still life is an arangement of objects... I specified "bottles" because of the play of light that you can get through glass... also because, as a weekly, I wanted to use somethings that people have, almost everywhere, to set up a simple still life if they haven't one in their archives.

John, I have to disagree with you there... part of the ethos of the competitions is to learn from others....
and when I, as the setter and judge, see such basic errors occuring it needed comment.... and not in a discussion thread!
I started this discussion thread because there was too much response to my initial comment.
And yes, those three pictures have been judged... I judge as the pictures come in... as do others.
But when people don't understand the simple concept of "still life"... (an artistic arrangement of objects to a brief, which can be tight... or as I gave here, loose) then I feel the need to say something.
Sorry, but in future, if such a major, basic error appears.... I will do it again.

Apologies, Magdalena...
Your last link has now actually opened....
The early ones are what I would consider "still life"... to me, the "frozen action" pictures... some of which are links back to the first two links art... are frozen moments in time....not an arrangement of objects against a background...
those photos are to me "wow! Wish I'd thought of that.... taken that!"....
BUT, they ain't not still life!!
Not to someone of my age and training, anyway!!
Those trapped in time food ones are something else, though..... phwaorrrr!!
Possibly those need a new description... they aren't still life in the classical sense.... but they do not, by any means, fit into the true, sports mainly, frozen moment photos.... especially when you just know that the camera was on burst... and that was THE pic!

To err is human.... bla, bla, bluurb!

No, being serious, as I replied to Magdalena.... us oldies have been tutored, guided, mentored... to us a still life is "still"... no sign of movement.
I started my art training painting "still life" pictures.,.. until I discovered that i could use my camera , with which I had, until that awakening, been doing what iPhone [and allegedly other forms of portable communication] does today... that is, take pictures to bore the pants off people...
"Won't you come and dine... and be bored to tears as we show you our holiday in Ibiza... via our super new slide projector!!".... not after the first, and last, experience... NO!!

So, to me, a "still life".... is still!!

A "still life" is just that! Still, motionless.... no bleedin' movement whatsoever!! [To paraphrase John Cleese!]
Not one of the pictures you linked to, would I consider a "still life"... I am an old, analogue photographer and artist who grew up on "still life" art... please refer to the link above for a real description of the technique... even if the examples are to be honest... abysmal... Stan's much simpler picture last week is far, far better... but he's an oldie like me!!