ThinkSeries Snapshot Competition 2010 – Senior Section

Faith

Caption

The hope behind the darkness

Commentary

Do you believe in yourself? Have you ever felt hopeless or frustrated? There are many challenges in our lives. Sometimes we cannot handle them properly and are frustrated. People may want to give up because they do not know how to solve them. The future is full of darkness. In fact, obstacles always appear and block us from success. The trees in the picture are like a barrier that separates us from brightness. Our life may become hopeless because of it. Nothing is impossible. Perhaps there is no brightness behind the darkness around the trees. Giving up makes people stay in the dark and wait for somebody to save them. That is not what we want. We can positively face and tackle the obstacles. Fighting them is essential. Moreover, other’s help is not a must. The best way is to face the challenge or problem and do not escape. There is no excuse to do nothing and just wait until the problem to disappear automatically. That means that we are defeated, and would rather stay in the dark than finding a way out. Certainly nobody cares whether you escape or not. However, you will feel upset because of the failure. So, when you face the problem again, you will be in trouble again and feel helpless. Thus, we should find our way to brightness.

With Cheerful Cheeks, Faith will Fill

Caption

A cheerful boy holding his lovely pinkish balloon in Stanley, looking hopefully into the camera in the winter of 2008.

Commentary

Nowadays, people are passionate about technology and precision. Complexity is the word to depict the 21st century world of modernization. The successfully re-sited Murray Building at the back may be a sign of “progress” in the context of modernization. Yet, it annoys me, we need less of these constructions with drills and axes; meanwhile, what caught my eye is this lovely little boy with his refreshing pinkish balloon – the rejuvenation of life by the energetic young child. According to “The Free Dictionary”, faith is a belief not resting on logical proof or material evidence, which is cold, detached and dehumanized. Faith should bring hope and warmth, which children are innately gifted with. It seems like his beam of cheerfulness and liveliness is radiating, spreading his joy to everyone around him. It is his loving little smile that soothes our frowns and illuminates the dark, eradicating the evil substances in the world, like adversity, jealousy, distrust, and exploitation. He stands out from the background, he is the centre, the sun, smiling and shining. Children’s simplicity and kind-hearted innocence are qualities that the world should embrace and reinforce further to create a more trustful society. Why be so commercialized, competitive and profit-oriented? Perhaps this faith in children will eventually purify our minds and achieve mutual trust between people and nations, eliminating inter-personal suspicions and the possibility of war and conflict. Just ignore the seeming wonders of technology and the sophisticated materialistic world, and be more down to earth and reflect upon our life. Children are literally the youngest; they speak the least yet their power to influence people could be the greatest. Their tiny gestures can purify as well as empower others. Faith can move mountains, and faith in children may change our minds, move our soul and alter the world.

Sun, which brightens your days and mine, shimmering and sparkling

Caption

On the plane from Melbourne to Hong Kong I saw the sun, the light of the sun. The sunlight is between the sky and land.

Commentary

When you look at this photo, do you see the sun is connecting the sky and land or the sun is separating them? Is there anybody connecting the rich and poor? Is there anybody separating them? Is there anyone breaking the ice between the blacks and the whites? Or is there anyone who wants to widen the gap between them? This photo gives me a lot of introspections. Gaps between different people seem impossible to solve. Everybody knows and understands but does not take action to help the relationships between people. People, sometimes, are selfish and greedy. They don’t want to be in “TROUBLE” and ignore everything around them. As I ask myself, what do I see in the photograph? I saw that the sunlight in the middle is very important. It brightens the sky and the land. Without it, we won’t know what color the sky is nor how does the land looks like. We can only see the darken sides of the sky and the land, like the four corners of the picture. No matter how bright the sunlight is, the corners are still darkened as there is only one sun. Light cannot pass through everywhere, so when we are blessed, share that blessing with others in order to light up all those “corners”. Although things may not always run smoothly, we should not give up. Wait for the sunlight, wait for help. Sunlight is like a blessing that will connect one to another. Two people sharing a problem is better than one. The other thing I can see in the photo is that the sun looks like both rising and setting. How do we determine it? Thinking positively is an important factor to make us have better decisions. Let’s take actions and start to build good relationships between people. Learn from the sun… the Sun, which brightens your days and mine, shimmering and sparkling…

Help or Not

Caption

Give out helping hands from the bottom of your heart!!! (ISO-80, f/4.6, 1/2000 sec)

Commentary

In this photo, there are two hands together with the sun rising behind the buildings. The two hands symbolize friendship, while sunshine means joy and hope, and the buildings means difficulties. When two hands hold together, we can triumph over the adversity by happiness and hope. We want to use this photo to bring a message about overcoming difficulties by trusting and cooperating with your friends. There are many difficulties in life, such as financial problems, doing group projects, having academic problems etc. that we cannot solve by ourselves. So we need to seek help from our friends. Also, if we overcome some adversities and dilemmas, our friends can give us support and advice by holding out their helping hands. We need to have faith in our friends so as to establish a mutual trust. In contrast, if our friends face problems, we can also try our best to help them. So a mutual relationship between friends can help us solve problems easily. Therefore we should not hesitate and take initiative in helping our friends. Friendship is one of the most important things in our life. We need to have faith in our friends and treasure every valuable moments with our friends.

Faith@ Life

Caption

The blind woman was led by a dog. She may not know where it will bring her, but she still trusted it. This is all about a word, FAITH

Commentary

Faith is a matter of trust. You want to have it when things are out of your hands. You don't know how important faith is, not until you need it. That time you count on someone. That time you believe in God. And in this case, a woman relies on her dog to keep her safe and give her directions. She never sees how the dog looks like, but she still put her faith in it, believing it will guide her everywhere. We're all blindfolded in life. What will happen in the future are the things we can't foresee, even though we have plans about that. We don't know what our destiny is. However, we all believe that the future will be colourful. Therefore, we struggle, even when we're having a bad time, because we know that after such a time there will be a bright and shiny road ahead. Faith is a glimpse of hope. You need it when you are desperate. When we are in deep trouble, we still have faith that everything will be OK. It is because we all know that life has ups and downs. We can change the future by the way we choose right now. Be aware that we can plan the future, but how it turns out to be is an unknown. So, sometimes, we just need to take a leap of faith, and wait for the outcome.