Two Eastern Middle School students from Silver Spring, Md., entered their anti-bullying photo in a contest sponsored by Hey U.G.L.Y., a national anti-bullying advocacy group, and won $250 for first prize, the Maryland Gazette reports. We congratulate Julia Valverde and Mikey Panner on their photo and message.
Looking at the photo, we see a ripple filter has been applied everywhere except where the two students join hands. The PhotoShop work is clearly used to illustrate Julia and Mikey’s point about standing up to bullying.
“The picture makes you stop and think, What are they trying to say? That is exactly what we want students to do when they see bullying,” the Gazette quoted Betty Hoeffner, co-founder of the northwest Indiana-based nonprofit, as saying. “We want them to stop and think about the safety tips we developed for them with the police department.”
Hey U.G.L.Y. still hasn’t posted information about the photo contest, so we are unable to confirm the report independently of the story in the Gazette. We do, however, apologize for our delay and, once again, congratulate Mikey and Julia on an excellent photo that thoroughly addresses a very important subject.
“Bullying is kind of a problem,” the paper quoted Julia as saying. “We saw this contest as a way to maybe get more people to think about it. … Witnesses shouldn’t just stand there; they should help.”
What other filters or special effects can you apply to photos to emphasize key words or phrases in an important message? Give examples of messages you might have. See Common Core seventh-grade English language arts speaking and listening standard SL.7.5 for more information.
