Reflections Finalists 2021-2022 Photography

I will change the world one smile at a time. This is a picture of a painted rock that I made and left for someone to find. I love painting smiley faces and leaving them at our community garden and parks to bring a smile to someone's day.

I will change the world by… thinking of others before me. When we are lining up for classroom, I will let others in front of me. I will let others pick their toys/candies before me even though I really like what is in there. I always play fairly and give everyone a chance to play even if its my favorite game. In this photo, the last person in orange is me, happily letting others go ahead of me. I have blurred myself to show that I think of others before me. I used portrait mode to click this picture.

I took this photo of a beautiful lake with trees, water and my earth beach ball. The reflections look really nice during autumn. I used Google photo filters to create a black-and-white reflection. The photo shows that the earth beach ball, trees, sky and clouds are green and colorful like our world right now. However, their reflections are black-and-white, colorless and dull. That is Earth’s future if we don’t take care of it. I can change the world by raising awareness about taking care of Earth. It's our planet, our world, our home.

I have the ability to do act correctly, even in the face of discouragement. My photography shows the same. If I am doing the right thing, even though I am alone, I have the courage to do so. For example, in school, if a group of friends bullies anyone, I stop them by doing this. I influence the people around me to do the right things. This will pass on, and they'll also improve themselves. This chain will go on, and it will automatically change the world.

This picture represents our world. The flowers represent everything 'natural' in our world, the book represents ideas and knowledge, and the vase, which is manmade, represents our future. In life, everyone’s born, they live, and die, and the circle of life continues. However, unlike living things, ideas, or knowledge, can live on forever, and help build a better future.

I will change the world by learning from others, contributing my own ideas, and sharing them; thereby building a better future and adding to the book that keeps our vase up, keeping us, the flowers, safe.

I will change the world by showing empathy towards everyone around me. Empathy is the ability to understand the feelings of others. In today's world, it is so important to identify the other person's perspective and understand what they are going through. My photograph " Empathy" symbolically signifies this emotion by showing a pair of shoes to highlight different perspectives. This picture emphasizes my belief in putting myself in the other person's shoes to experience their feelings, and to help them feel better.

I will change the world by reducing the amount of plastic I use so we can save these beautiful creatures from extinction.

I will change the world by showing people they are important. My science teacher told our class one day that people are made of stardust because when stars collapse, they create carbon along with other molecules. These carbon molecules eventually get to earth and through a process get to us. Since humans are carbon lifeforms, we are made of stardust. This fascinated me so I wanted to get a picture of my sister looking like stardust to show her how important she is to me. Everyone is made of stardust meaning we all are important to each other and connected.