Tomorrow (September 27) we will start a thread for the September Photo Contest entries. As always, there will be three categories for entries. They are Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Between Tomorrow and Midnight September 30 (GMT time), it will be up to you to post your entry into the appropriate thread. Voting for the September contest will take place from October 1 through October 5, and the winners will be announced on October 7. Just in case anyone has forgotten The theme for this month was Taking it to the Streets. It would really be great to see a lot of entries, and to have everyone vote when the time comes :) OK Onto the next phase. After many hours of serious consideration, some lengthy discussion, a spirited debate and a couple of virtual cocktails, Syyd and I have decided to propose a theme for Octobers Monthly Contest. Before anyone gets their shorts all twisted, we would like to remind you that for each of the past three monthly contests, there has been many more postings to debate and decide what the contest will be than there has been actual entries, or people voting. This has delayed the start dates, and/or prevented some people from being comfortable participating. Our hope is that by proposing a pre-determined theme, we can make the contest more interesting, fun and hassle free for everyone. With this in mind, here is our idea for October: Halloween and the Season of the Spirit World... Halloween, or All Hallows Eve is of Celtic origin. It occurs on the night of October 31 and is celebrated primarily in the USA, Canada and the UK. It is an evening where creatures of the netherworld are said to freely roam the earth. However, for the purpose of our Monthly Contest, we will broaden this concept. Anything from the traditional cultural icons of trick-or-treaters, spiders, witches and ghosts to the more non-traditional icons such as Indian Corn, or pumpkins are fair play. To open this up more we are including any interpretation of spiritual practices, spirits and/or their dwellings. This could range from things like haunted houses/castles to ritualistic beliefs and practices to the spirit of a leaf, or flower. The choice is yours. If this is acceptable, then the theme will start October 1 and run through October 31. If not, then we will need to decide on a theme immediately as October 1st is this coming Monday. The choice is up to you. After all, this is your forum.

I think this is a great theme I am up for it. This should be fun

Ooooo... Hoooo... Ooooo... Boooo... I agree... this should be fun. Happy trick or treating!

We encourage as always, participation from all of you, its such a wide variety of subjects that can be encompassed under this one theme, its amazing. We had a problem once where I mentioned spring because for others of you spring is fall and so on. Good luck everyone, and look forward to your takin it to the streets images!

One problem with this might be that because the contest ends on Halloween iself, their might be a lack of stuff to shoot.

Well in this instance, and thank you for pointing that out, we can simply change that. Halloween night could be a great night to get some garishly good results...don't you love all those "g"s?

Interesting. OK. Fair enough. Bsteph

Sounds fun. And we can accept little moderator tyranny with matters like this. g Halloween in Finland is plastic witch masks in local supermarket, but I'll aim to that spiritual side. .n

Eh? what happened to my message? unless that's what happened when I got kicked offline...darn it! Anywaze, I think it's a cool theme and already have a cool idea of combining one recent suggestion with this one - if I do a self-portrait it'll be the scariest thing on RR so it HAS to win, plus it can double up if you print it out, it'll keep the kids away from the fire/tools in the shed/whatever just by putting the picture there. (",)