Photo Journal: Elements

A week ago, I was invited to join a Black and White Elements contest on Instagram. I have over a thousand pictures uploaded on my photo gallery, but I don’t join contests. While I’ve received numerous positive feedbacks from my daily posts, being invited to join a contest was an honor. The hosts are not professional photographers themselves. All are teenagers expressing their individuality through photography. The contest ran for  a week and I’ve seen a lot of really good entries. Only four entries were chosen as finalists, and none of my photos made it.

Two days after the contest, one of the hosts, who happens to follow my feed, said: “I just wanna say I love your photos and you were so close to being a finalist in our contest.” I wasn’t in it for the win. As I’ve mentioned, I joined because I felt that it was an honor to be invited to participate in the contest. It’s one thing to join contests on your own; it’s another thing to have one of the hosts invite you to post your pictures. Besides, I’m not as experimental as other photographers. My gallery is composed mostly of nature-related pictures, and I capture nature’s beauty as I see it with my eyes. Here are my entries for said contest:

{wind}
“Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.”
— W.B. Yeats

{earth}
“If all the beasts were gone
men would die
from a great loneliness of spirit,
for whatever happens to the beasts
also happens to the man.
All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the Earth
befalls the sons of the Earth.”
— Chief Seattle

{fire}
“I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great.”
— Robert Frost

{water}
“For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
It’s always our self we find in the sea.”
— e.e. cummings

{wind}
“A cold wind was blowing from the north,
and it made the trees rustle
like living things.”
— George R.R. Martin

What do you think?
I hope these photographs brought a smile to your face!