diff --git a/dist/image-sequencer.js b/dist/image-sequencer.js
index 621ca0d7..da8ea2bb 100644
--- a/dist/image-sequencer.js
+++ b/dist/image-sequencer.js
@@ -184151,6 +184151,7 @@ ImageSequencer = function ImageSequencer(options) {
   options = options || {};
   options.inBrowser = options.inBrowser || typeof window !== 'undefined';
   if (options.inBrowser) options.ui = options.ui || require('./UserInterface');
+  options.initial_image = "";
 
   var image,
       steps = [],
@@ -184235,7 +184236,7 @@ ImageSequencer = function ImageSequencer(options) {
     image.onload = function() {
       run(image);
       if (callback) callback(image);
-      document.sequencer_image = image;
+      options.initial_image = image;
     }
     image.src = src;
   }
@@ -184382,7 +184383,7 @@ module.exports = function ImageSelect(options) {
 
           image = new Image();
           image.src = e.target.result;
-          document.sequencer_image = image;
+          options.initial_image = image;
           el.html(image); // may be redundant
 
           // this is done once per image:
diff --git a/index.html b/index.html
index f2da254c..69e26e43 100644
--- a/index.html
+++ b/index.html
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@
         $('.add-step').click(function(e) {
           e.preventDefault();
           sequencer.addStep($('.select-module').val());
-          sequencer.run(document.sequencer_image); // later we might only run this step, if we can fetch the image output from the previous
+          sequencer.run(sequencer.initial_image); // later we might only run this step, if we can fetch the image output from the previous
 
         });
 
diff --git a/src/ImageSequencer.js b/src/ImageSequencer.js
index 88723dd9..c366a13c 100644
--- a/src/ImageSequencer.js
+++ b/src/ImageSequencer.js
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ ImageSequencer = function ImageSequencer(options) {
   options = options || {};
   options.inBrowser = options.inBrowser || typeof window !== 'undefined';
   if (options.inBrowser) options.ui = options.ui || require('./UserInterface');
+  options.initial_image = "";
 
   var image,
       steps = [],
@@ -89,7 +90,7 @@ ImageSequencer = function ImageSequencer(options) {
     image.onload = function() {
       run(image);
       if (callback) callback(image);
-      document.sequencer_image = image;
+      options.initial_image = image;
     }
     image.src = src;
   }
diff --git a/src/modules/ImageSelect.js b/src/modules/ImageSelect.js
index d9a8f660..4285e882 100644
--- a/src/modules/ImageSelect.js
+++ b/src/modules/ImageSelect.js
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ module.exports = function ImageSelect(options) {
 
           image = new Image();
           image.src = e.target.result;
-          document.sequencer_image = image;
+          options.initial_image = image;
           el.html(image); // may be redundant
 
           // this is done once per image: