Well, it's possible you and everyone else might find out sooner than usual...
We're having discussions in the Staff Room about Things To Do With The Challenges and one option we're considering is having a poll for members to choose -- or at least recommend -- the 300 Worder image from a selection of 3 or 4. It does mean a little more work for us, getting permission from several different members to use the images and then setting up poll thread and monitoring it etc. And whereas when we choose we think carefully about other recent images so we try to pick something that has a very different feel, and yet will provide as many different types of story as possible, there might not be quite so much attention paid to that aspect by people voting. However, we thought it might enliven things a little, and perhaps encourage more members to take part in the 300s, which last year had a falling-off of entrants.
As I say, it's only an idea at the moment, but if it meets with general approval here, we can always test it to see how it works. In the meantime, we're always on the look-out for images we can use, so if anyone knows of any image that might work as inspiration, point us in the right direction or send a copy to one of the Challenge mods (preferably one who knows how to manipulate images, so not me!). We are acutely aware of copyright restrictions and the need to have permission to use images, so please, no trawling of internet sites and the like. We prefer images created by members here, so it is all home-grown, but we will consider (and have used) images created by friends/family if we're sure of the provenance. I'd personally like to see more paintings/drawings used as inspiration, as we've not had many of those, so artists among you, look out your creations!
