I know a lot of people that I will be included in the 5% of the submissions. Some very excellent photographers with some excellent work. So, to you budding and professional photographers, get some of your pictures included in the Microsoft Personalization Gallery. I know I visit the gallery to spice up my desktop backgrounds a bit.

So, how difficult is it to get into the gallery? Actually, there’s a lot of competition! We receive so many thousands of submissions that fewer than 5 percent end up being chosen. The sheer volume of submissions also means that the time between when you submit an image and when it actually appears on the gallery can be quite long–up to six months or even longer. I’m part of a small panel of reviewers who look at every single submission we receive, and carefully assess each photo or artwork before making selections and preparing them for publication. It can be a very time-consuming process.