How do you feel about using photos as submissions (once put through a vector program)? I understand copyrights and everything so obviously not somebody else's photo. However, much more than I am an artist by hand, I'm good at photography.

I consider photography to take a lot of work because you do have to see it as an art--you have to get the right lighting, the right framing, shutter speed, angle, everything.

Running it through a program on the computer is easy after that, but do you consider it still art having once been a photo?

Thanks for the opinions!

It turns out that my skills of staring at a screen and now a shirt are apparently impaired.

I was explaining this shirt to my 7-year-old neice:
See, there's an elephant holding up a giraffe holding up a rhino holding up a lion holding up something holding up a person who's trying to get a star.

And she corrected me:
That's a tiger on the lion, and it's not a person. It's a monkey.

And I: Okay, a tiger. But it's not a monkey. It's a little person.

And she: No, it has a tail.

I: Oh. Right. Well a monkey is trying to get a star.

She: I like it.

Silly 7-year-old. I know a monkey when I see one and there is a person on the shirt (with a tail), and I was arguing it with a monkey! I'm sure of it!

I love this shirt. In addition to the general joy of the concept and the happiness of wearing it, I've been pretty amused by the reactions to it as well.

There are of course the general "what's it mean" questions and "I don't get it" comments. So far, though, this is my favorite:

I went to the library to pick up a few books on hold. An overly cheerful librarian retrieved them for me (if it'd been more that a few feet, he may have skipped) and dramatically waved them through the scanner. Then he stopped. He stared at my t-shirt and finally said, "That's an interesting shirt. It's very.... [long pause] unique." He smiled, told me the due date on my books, and told me not to turn them in late.

By "unique" I assume he meant either
1) He did not understand it whatsoever but was pretty sure it was supposed to be cool OR
2) He simply did not approve of the idea.

I decided not to ask.

Does anyone know when this is going to be announced? It's been a long time and the contests that ended after it have all been announced. Is there a general time frame or can it go unannounced indefinitely?

My boyfriend thinks the little person looks like a flea. I think it looks like a little hiker, if a rather spherical hiker.