Photo competitions

I've not been having much success in recent photo competitions and I'm wondering if it's my interpretation of the topics or the pictures themselves; could be the judges?

For a competition entitled / themed: food I entered two cat pictures, this one of the lioness licking her lips whilst cleaning the remnants of last nights meal of the bone held in her paws. The picture was well printed and framed in a suitable mount. Not even a sniff of a commended.

Then my second entry is one of my top selling pictures of the year so far. I take it from the fact that I could license it recently for a handsome sum of money that it was a good technically competent picture. Heck maybe it's all down to artistic impression or interpretation.
This is not intended to be a whinge, but I am beginning to wonder if I'm losing a sense of objectiveness about my pictures. I know they are ok technically but I'm wondering if the typical amateur trait of entering the pictures you like (sentimental value, personal faves) rather than the ones that are well shot and fit the brief is the key here. Could also be a hint of laziness, it is too easy to pull a nice shot from the archive and make a well produced entry, but another thing to conceive a shot to fit the project or task at hand. It is at the least food for thought for me.

My brain could also be a bit confused with all the thoughts of strobism and Pocket Wizards that's currently uppermost. It seems like the recent VAT drops in the UK was the kick to the dealers to reprice stuff and factor in that the good old English pound doesn't buy as many dollars as it used to so the price goes up with the combination of the VAT cut and the exchange rate change. I know there's the alternatives like the "poverty wizards" but I'm always one for doing the thing right or not at all, and if that means some validated expenditure only my wallet suffers.

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