I love the challenge, and have participated in many of them, and enjoy seeing a new one every month!  (Quite honestly, by the time we've been doing it for 30 days, I'm bored and want to move to the next one!)  January's challenge was tough for me.  I guess my brain just didn't click in to "New Beginnings."  I thought about it a lot, but never came up with any ideas about what to shoot.  There's nothing new going on here!  LOL! 

If I had to come up with a new challenge every month I think my brain would explode.  I love the idea of asking for suggestions.  In addition to opening a thread, perhaps when you put up the next challenge, you could put out a request for ideas, and then once a week (four times during the challenge period) remind people that you're looking for ideas.  You'll be targeting the people who enjoy playing and have an interest in continuing, as well as hitting the general population.

Everybody has subjects to which they return over and over again, and everyone has their pet themes.  I would love to see a challenge on architectural detail, for example, because I would enjoy seeing how other people address the subject.  Heck --- you could go through the genre list and do one a month (skipping the ones that don't pertain to photography, of course) and keep the challenge going for two years!  That might seem boring, but it really isn't.  We're all here taking pictures, excited about what we're doing, and posting in those very categories every day.  I wouldn't have to think twice about architecture, but insects would be a huge challenge for me!  Someone who takes a lot of insect macros might be really challenged by landscapes.  We can all use more experience in those areas in which we typically don't work! 

I like Clive's reference to action shots and leaves.  (Just examples, I know, but good ones.)  You could think about the "Flowers/Plants" genre and have a challenge on one specific thing.  Leaves, for example.  Or flowers.  Trees.  Flowers/Plants growing within one mile of your home and photographed within the last week.  Whatever.

Apparently I'm just a font of ideas, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.  Heck ... this is a creative community!  That's what we're here for!  Anybody here who says they can't come up with one or two ideas probably just thinks their ideas aren't good enough.  Maybe you could tell people they can send you ideas in private.

DON'T GIVE UP! 

I know it's easy to get burned out being a coordinator or a moderator, and to run out of ideas.  (Why do you think I'm not doing it?  LOL!)  But there are things we can do as members to help out without signing up as a coordinator.  You can have all the ideas you want! 

Abstract themes are fun, but concrete themes are easier.  If you tell me to take a picture that illustrates "New Beginnings," I'm dead in the water for 30 days if I can't come up with a way to show that.  If you tell me to take a picture of a tree, I can go out every day for the whole month and take pictures of trees without any trouble!  The challenge in that would be to take GOOD pictures of trees in the middle of winter.  That's why it's a challenge!! 

Okay ... I could go on forever, but I'll stop.  You get the idea!  :D

 

 

 

"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough."  ...  Robert Capa