Color, Symbol, Image

Colour: Blue

2014 is the year of the Wood Horse. In addition to the Wood Element's Colors, the Colors of the supporting element, Water, namely blue and/or black, are also lucky.

Symbol: Wooden Horse

2014 is the year of the horse, but apart from that, 2014 is also the year of the Wood element. This makes 2014 a year of the wooden horse.

Image: 

A fortune cookie is a crisp cookie usually made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and sesame seed oil with a "fortune" wrapped inside. A "fortune" is a piece of paper with words of wisdom or a vague prophecy. Usually eaten during Chinese New Year.

-Ian (26)

Reflection On The Past 3 Weeks

In these 3 weeks I have learned a lot of things. I notice that this module tends to get us involved with a lot of pictures and our lessons mainly revolve around them. As a photographer myself, I always used to think that taking photos was only about finding the best angle, using the correct amount of zoom and clicking on the shutter at the right time to get the very best picture, but this module has taught me that photography is more than just capturing the most beautiful photo. I have learned that photos can be used to tell stories. I'm sure most of you have heard of the adage "a picture expresses a thousand words". Most of the time we look at a picture, and we think about what is in the picture, and we try to find that story the photographer is trying to tell with the picture. In this manner, pictures are similar to books, but this is not the only aspect in which they resemble each other. While a book can have a plot twist, the story told my a picture can be more than meets the eye.

I learned that trying to understand what a picture tells us by merely looking at it is like judging a book by its cover, and doing this is always misleading. We were shown two photos. One was of a man on the streets begging, the other of a woman carrying a child, also begging. When asked which one of the two the class would help, we came to a unanimous decision to help the woman, as we judged "a book" by "its cover". We came to this decision as we felt the man was less worthy of needing help as he could still support himself with a job but the woman had to provide for herself and her child, which caused us to pity the woman more. But, as I have mentioned, we judged "the book" by "its cover". We learned that the man who was shown begging was actually handicapped and desperately needed money for himself as he could not get a job, while the woman was working for a beggars' syndicate; which is, in a nutshell, an organization of people posing as beggars to beg for money. Even the baby the woman was carrying was most likely fake. After our class came to this realization, some of us changed our minds about helping the woman and decided to help the man instead. Through this I learned a lesson that photography is not always about taking the best photo. Photography can also be used as a means to tell a story, and that story is not always what it seems to be. If we interpret it as what it seems to be, we may be judging a book by its cover.

-Ian (26)

Reflection for past 3 weeks

  During the pass three weeks, I learnt alot of things. I learnt not to judge a book by its cover. Lots of people judge people based on their first impression. However, we need to know about their background before coming to any assumptions. I also learnt that behind every photo, there is a story. Our CID teacher showed us a picture about a vulture waiting for a skinny child to die. I learnt that not everyone is as blessed as us and we should learn to appreciate things and not take them for granted as always.

  During another CID lesson, our teacher showed us 2 pictures,both displaying 2 beggars. One was a woman carrying a child while the other was a man. At first, we judged them based on first impression. Our teacher asked if we had the money, which one should we donate to. Majority of us wanted to donate to the woman carrying a child as we all thought the man had the ability to earn a job for himself while the woman needed more money to feed her child. Then, our teacher told us each of their background. It was then we realised the woman was working for a beggars organisation while the man got robbed of his stuff and just needed some money to get back up. Majority changed their decisions and went to the man's side. However, I honestly feel both deserve donations. If the woman could not beg for money, she wouldn't be able to survive too. we were also supposed to take picture according to their themes. The photos were then judged by the class whether it was suitable or not. From this, i learnt that behind every photo, there is a story and reason for it. We should understand the photographer's reason for taking the photo before coming to any conclusion.

-Keefe

 
 
  

CNY Colour, Symbol and Image

Colour:

Green symbolises  good health and luck.

鱼生 symbolises prosperity,abundance and vigor.


Picture:

We wish out relatives happy new year with this:)
-Keefe

Colour, Symbol and Image (Chinese New Year)

Colour

Red represents good luck, good fortune and joy.

Symbol

This means 福到 because the word “福” is pasted upside down which signifies the arrival of blessings.

Image

Mandarin oranges are used to wish our elders a Happy New Year.

-Kah Ghee (15)

Reflection on what I have done for the past three weeks

For the past three weeks, I have learnt to look beyond what is on the surface of everything and learnt not to judge a book by its cover. Many times, we may have judge a person according to our first impression of them but they may have a different personality from what we assumed them to have so I have learnt that although first impression is important, we have to learn to dig deeper of something or somebody because not everyone is who we seem to assume them to be. I have also learnt to be more aware of my surroundings and observe my surroundings carefully. I have learnt that we can describe a picture in three different descriptions: factual, process and emotional. Factual description is using our five senses to observe the pictures. Process description is thinking about the picture, like whether anything caught my eye and why did it caught my eye. It makes us think critically where we can use the eight elements of thought to think and reflect. Emotional description is what emotions does the picture contain that we can often neglected and that we can reflect on the picture. Therefore, I learn that a picture paints a thousand words because we can reflect so much from a picture.

The lesson today teaches us to be more observant to the surroundings. For the past week, we were supposed to observe what is school life like in RVHS. We were also supposed to take pictures which suit a certain theme. When we were told to write down words to describe the environment, most of us wrote the same things but minority of us wrote something different and unique. I think it is because they were very observant of the surroundings and made detailed observations so they were able to describe the environment in a different yet unique perspective. Interestingly, we can infer something by observing or interacting with someone so this proves that the observing differently can lead us to have different inferences so I learn that we must always observe our surroundings carefully. For the next activity, we were supposed to share with the class the photos taken for the photo challenge and the class would decide whether it is suitable for the theme. Some group's photos were not so suitable for the theme because the pictures did not bring out the idea of the theme but other group's photos were suited for the theme so there is a lot to learn for capturing appropriate moments and photos. The pictures that were taken must have three descriptions which are factual, process and emotional so the descriptions must have something to do with the theme for the picture to be suited for the theme. I learn that we can actually communicate with pictures by observing them carefully and interpreting the photographer's reason for taking that certain picture.

-Kah Ghee (15)

CNY Color, Symbol and Image

Color:

Gold represents wealth and success.

Symbol: 

Chinese New Year reminds me of the 12 Chinese Zodiac as every year represents one of the 12 animals.

Picture:

Chinese New Year reminds me of red packets as we get them every year from our oarents and relatives.

 -Jessie (2)

Consolidation for the past three weeks

I have learned about interpreting a picture by describing what is shown in the picture. I also learned how to look beyond what is on the surface and how to observe things around me. I learned that there are three different stages of pictures: facts, process and emotions. Facts mean just describing what people see, process is elaborating on the picture and emotions is knowing how to empathize with the picture and understanding its true meaning and story behind the picture.

There is a lesson about understanding the importance of looking beyond just what is on the surface. During the lesson, we were shown two pictures: one is of a man with a sign asking for help as his items have been stolen; the other is of a woman, carrying a child, who is asking a stranger for help. We were told to decide who to help. Some decided to help the women and some wanted to help both but no one chose to stand with the man. People say that the man could go and work to earn money but the woman had to take care of the child and could not work, hence they chose to help the woman. However, when their stories were revealed, the decisions made by us changed drastically. Aparently, the man had only one arm and he was from an orphanage. Someone stole his belongings hence he was begging on the streets. On the other hand, the woman was from a group of syndicate beggers who would trick people by carrying a child and asking for money or pretending to be handicapped in one way or another. Most of  the money they earned was taken away by the syndicate so the beggers weres still poor at the end of the day. When we found out their stories, many majourity of the people decided to help the man instead, saying that the woman was cheating people. A few still stood up to the woman, saying that the woman was still poor and they wanted to help the woman as much as they could. I initially decided to help both and in the end I still decided to help both but I was very surprised by the drastic change in the decisions. It was only then that I realized how deceiving looks could be. From this exercise, I learnt not to judge a picture just from what is looks like as there might be a story behind the picture that contradicts what the picture looks like.

 -Jessie (2)