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HUMILITY
HUMILITY
kanaj


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Motivational Poster V (Extended Editing*)
Collection: Portfolio
Camera: Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
Location: Carmine, TX (USA)
Date: Jun 29, 2025
Aperture: 1.8
ISO: 50
Shutter: 1/918
Date Uploaded: Jun 29, 2025

 Couldn't fit the whole motivational phrase in the title, so I decided to just let the main word stand on its own. Hopefully no one will penalize me for that.

I'll be interested to see whether this thought and image pairing resonate with people. It's tempting to "explain" it here, but I think that would probably be a mistake. Either it works or it doesn't. I wouldn't be terribly surprised either way.


*** AFTER RESULTS ***

I'm grateful this one (mostly) seemed to resonate with others. I thought about many different ways to phrase this saying, settling on this one after several others workshopped poorly with my friends. But here's the basic idea I was after:


It has been said that humility is not thinking less of yourself. It's simply thinking of yourself less. It is the art of being right-sized and thinking with gratitude about your place in and contributions toward the larger picture of the interconnected and interdependent world around you. Sometimes, that means you're the glorious sunflower, hogging the attention and basking in the light of others' admiration. Other times, it means you're the lowly bee, toiling away in obscurity and being treated as a pest, when noticed at all. But the truth--something both the sunflower and the bee recognize intuitively--is that each flourishes because of the activity of the other, and the world would be significantly diminished if either were doing any differently. Humility means basking in the light without forgetting those who toil in the shadows of the platform that lifts you up. But it also means toiling away gratefully at the work you're given to do, even when it doesn't always result in your moment in the sun.

No ChatGPT there. I'm sure it would come up with something far more profound. But I'm also quite well aware that neither bees nor sunflowers experience gratitude or care about the petty things we human beings do. So it's all just glorious nonsense anyway, right? :-P

Statistics
Place: 4 out of 20
Avg (all users): 6.8182
Avg (participants): 6.3846
Avg (non-participants): 7.1000
Views since voting: 43
Views during voting: 71
Votes: 33
Comments: 11
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
 07/18/2025 11:26:38 AM
Your AFTER essay made me Smile broadly! This whole package is wonderfully delightful. Congrats on the ribbon!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/18/2025 09:58:23 AM
Lovely and a top pick. Congratulations.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/18/2025 09:04:40 AM
Thank you for your essay! It was deeper than ChatGPT.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/18/2025 08:57:37 AM
This is beautiful in everyway. Your image is stunning, your title and motivational expression is perfect and actually very humbling, good food for thought.
I love reading your commentaries along side your images they are not only beautifully written but inspirational too.
Congratulations on this truly fine work.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/18/2025 07:59:28 AM
Definitely resonated with me. I thought the Blue for sure. 8 from me.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/18/2025 04:32:50 AM
Originally posted by glad2badad:
The format choice seems a little odd (square format for a poster?).


I agree. It's probably my biggest regret with this one. I think I probably should have cropped a little tighter along the bottom of the image to take it from 4x6 to 16x9 perspective, but by the time I realized that, I had already sunk enough time into this design that I decided to stick with it. But I think if I was pitching this for a print project (as opposed to a meme to share on social media), I'd definitely be asked by an editor to work on a reformat. :-P
 Comments Made During the Challenge
07/17/2025 03:28:18 PM
Well captured image for this poster. The format choice seems a little odd (square format for a poster?). I like how you incorporated the text and your styling choices.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/16/2025 10:58:02 AM
Actually, blossoms don't care about light. They just want to turn on the bees.

It could be argued that the bee isn't grateful. He's hard at work.

And what does any of this have to do with humility? Please write an essay about this, and don't use ChatGPT.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/14/2025 12:17:31 PM
My pick for red in this challenge.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/11/2025 03:22:05 PM
Lovely image and wonderful sentiment.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/11/2025 06:45:18 AM
nicely composed poster
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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