Why don't you send it as an hidden input field? After you post the form, you can do whatever you like with it using php.
Something like this:
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function(){
$("plugin").change(function(e){
$("input#image").val(e.image);
});
})
</script>
<form>
<input type="hidden" name="image" id="image" />
<input type="submit" />
</form>
<?php
if(getenv("REQUEST_METHOD") === "POST"){
$image = $_POST["image"];
// do what you want
}
?>
Haven't tested this, but it should be enough to help you get going.
If you want to display the image, just do something like this:
<img class="thumbnail" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlh9AEZAdUyAK6VZqBmUNjRrNSon+7">