The hill behind my house was one of the places where I got my inspiration. It was covered with rain forest plants and there was a path leading up. Along the path, there were lots of stems. These parasitic plants were very interesting. After several observations，I found that they were very possessive; they could in just a few days have a plant several times taller than them; they would coil to it. After that, they were still desperately climbing up, as though they must have grown higher than the plant they wrapped around. Their prey was helpless, but there was nothing they could do; they simply had to give in. I grew to admire the amazing vitality of these stems; they were also in line with nature’s law — survival of the fittest.

I found they had different forms, some were bowed up like evil snakes spitting their tongue, some swayed in the wind, and some seemed to be staring at me, wondering if they could reach out to me.

I suddenly had an idea. I leaned down and uprooted a seedling. When I got home, I planted it immediately and placed a delicate bottle next to the seedling. My plan was to see if it would invade the bottle.

Photography
A few days later, I found this had grown exponentially, almost as tall as the bottle. The intriguing thing was that I thought it would coil and wrap around the bottle. But it was different from what I thought, it nestled in the bottle, as tame as a sheep; the once hostile, domineering character was gone. This seedling seemed to have a spiritual nature, but what caused the change in temperament, it is not known.

I moved the computer screen next to the seedling and the bottle, and I used a program I wrote to generate the light and hue. The light was just right; the plant and bottle were subtly shrouded in darkness, but illuminated.

The soft light created a great atmosphere.

Through the lens, I saw a subtle and moving scene. As far as composition was concerned, there were many forms of contrast, the rigid versus the softness, the strong versus the weak, the brightness versus the darkness.

I have learned a great deal creating the piece, especially creating contrast.

The idea of contrast was applied every where, including the page you are reading. The size and colors of the title of this page, in contrast to the size of text and colors you are reading.

Contrast is every where.