2011 - Competition Shortlist!!

2011 competition shortlist:

Ladies and Gentlemen, after an unfortunate and longer than anticipated delay I give you the short-listed pictures of the 2011 competition. Our judges are beavering away selecting the overall winner and we'll be announcing the final results as soon as possible, but for now, we give you the pictures still in the running....

Lots of other pictures received credit from the judges (we'll publish a full list shortly), but these are the ones which they have selected to battle it out for the first prize.

Congratulations Miss Aniela and Ciril Jazbec, one of you will be claiming our amazing first prize!

PTD

A story of change

“Please sir can you spare me some change?

I’m here all alone, abandoned, estranged.

I’m cold and I’m hungry, and it’s starting to rain,

And these sores on my body are causing me pain.”

The man reached in his pockets and tossed him some coins…

“That’s very kind of you sir but you misunderstand.”

And he collected the coins and held out his hand.

“See your money can help for an hour or two,

But the change that I need takes more effort from you.”

The man looked confused, “So what change do you need?”

“The change I am after can’t be thrown on the floor,

It’ll take an effort from thousands, or millions, or more.

Each man and each woman must reprogram their thoughts,

and remember some basics that they were once taught.”

More intently now, “go on…”

“You see when we are young we are taught we must share.

We are taught not to fight and consider and care.

But whilst preaching these things, those who set out the rules,

Disregard them themselves and consider us fools.

They ignore that their actions have a knock-on effect,

So they act for themselves and just dish-out neglect.

And as actions always speak so much louder than words,

Those who learn from these rule-setters forget what they’ve heard.”

Realising his faults, “So what must I do?”

“Well with each step that you take you must pause and must think;

“Will I step on someone, or cause them to sink.”

If the answer is yes, don’t just continue and say;

“Well it may hurt some others, but it’s quicker this way.”

You must rethink your route and a new way arrange,

And if we all act this way, then it’s this is the change.”

Some pictures of change...

We just thought we would provide you with some great pictures we feel represent change, to provide some fuel for thought....

A beautiful sunset shows the changing of the day to night....

The stunning pink and oranges of the autumn leaves are a beautiful image of the changing of the landscape in preparation for the oncoming winter

Our judge Alf Kumalo's incredible image captured n the civil uprising against oppression in Sowetto.

This incredible image captured of the fall of the Berlin wall

Wedding pictures also capture a day that represents a huge change in people's lives

Environmental change....

A butterfly emerging or a chameleon

The possibilities are vast, and there are some great pictures hitting the gallery already, now it's your turn to show us what change means to you!

PTD

How is this being allowed to happen, when we can all see it is?!

I'd urge you to watch this video, see how desperate the need is and please take action, donate money, enter our competition and we will donate money for you, just do something.


There is enough food to go around. It is all to easy to put this out of mind and pretend it isn't happening, besides it is so far away, and settle back into the comfort of knowing that when you're hungry you can just quickly pop into the kitchen or out to the shops to grab a bite to eat.


This is not the reality for them, they just don't have that option. We need to stop being selfish and start thinking as a whole.  Each and every person has a heart and a mind.  Every single person feels the heavy burden of despair, they experience the sorrow of loss, and the pain of crushing hunger.  


Why should we have plenty whilst they have nothing? I guess we just won the lottery being born here rather than there....


Please do what you can to help


PTD 

Creative giving

Having spent the last few weeks working manically to get things ready, launch is finally upon us. The website has, fingers tightly crossed, overcome its teething problems (couple of add ins still to drop in tomorrow) and I think it looks and feels fantastic. Now we just need your entries to make the gallery truly exceptional! 

For the last little while, I have dreamt of the difference we could make if we can just capture the hearts of the public. The small difference our donations will do to help to equalise the tragic unbalance of wealth that seems to be fostered from a deeply engrained culture of excess.  People want more, more than they have, more than their peers have, more than they could ever possibly need.  Hopefully we can use our creative methods to generate fresh donations from those that can afford and help to redistribute this wealth to those that really need it. And we mean really need it, people that can't afford to feed themselves or their families on a day to day basis, whole communities of people that can't afford education, who live each day with the tragic knowledge that their offspring may never have an opportunity to fulfil their potential.  But more than the difference our donations could make, we dream of small seed dropped into the mindset of people, something that may foster a change in the mindset of needless accumulation of wealth, we could grow a culture of giving, and the use of minds and talents to help those who need it.

So we dream of change, and to that extent we ask for your visions of change. Upload your pictures that best represent change to you.  It is a versatile but powerful subject. Use your creativity to display not only your talent behind the lens but your ability to turn a picture into a story. Pictures play such a huge part in raising awareness, countless times an image can make a whole country unite behind a cause, what better medium to help to start our revolution.

Please take up our challenge, join us in our revolution, and Picture the Difference we can make together.

PTD