All photos are uploaded to dx, these are the 10 photos selected from the 35 uploaded. When first asked to brainstorm ideas of the scene to create, the sea immediately appeared in my mind; no human could deny its natural beauty-the way the waves rise and fall, the shape of their crest, and the way they break against the shore or each other are all breathtaking views, and the rhythmic, soothing sounds of the waves crashing on to shore also creates a soothing and calming effect on our minds and bodies. This repetitive nature of the waves’ motion is like a natural form of meditation, even just the sight of the ripples gently, rhythmically lapping on to shore acts as a source of comfort and reassurance, helping us enter a state of tranquility and peace; its expanse stretches far beyond the horizon, as if it has merged together with the sky, giving the impression as if it is infinite; this eternal, endless, presence evokes wonder and revere, reminding us of how incredibly small and insignificant we are compared to the vast, natural world; its depths remain largely unexplored, hiding away things that only exist upon our imagination-ancient treasures, systems of life, shipwrecks…and so on, we never know what’s hiding underneath that ever-changing, calmly, rippling surface of blue,  beneath the waves, an unseen world thrives, and this mystery is also where the beauty of the sea lies.  My partner Erica’s idea of creating a scene of winter-which became our final idea-a sea with ice on the beach, so that includes both the beauty of the sea and the beauty of winter; and the works of a famous Japanese photographer – Tatsuya Tanaka inspired us of constructing the scene, the photo that we used as a reference consists of white stones as the sand/land by a river, and the river is created by a plastic wrap, giving it a glimmering effect;  We chose to use black and white stones of different materials and sizes to create the beach, add actual ice on top, and use blue fabric to represent the sea, to make it more realistic we also tried pulling a few foldings and wrinkles to create “waves” and laid another layer of white pearlescent silk cut from a dress at the bottom to create the shimmering feelings of the sea. The figure that we chose to use is a small, transparent, fish-since it will enhance the realism of the scene and the sense of story, bringing it to life, since fish are the most commonly seen figures within the sea; furthermore, the texture of it-which appears smooth and fluid, almost liquid like, gives it a sense of delicacy and fragility, because all the light could pass through it, and that the light will be refracted, it will create a unique kind of light that is incompatible with the rest of the environment, providing it with a soft and gentle glow. When selecting the photos I first quickly went through all and marked out the ones that stand out at first glance based on visual appeal-interesting composition/positions, is clear and shows detail, conveys emotions/feelings/sense of story-for example I really liked the third one in the first row because of the unique composition and placement of the elements-the pebbles in the left corner below transition into a row of ice, with the sea emerging from it and the fish positioned in the middle of the sea, as though the fabric were actual flowing water and that the fish is a part of this living, moving environment- this placement makes the photo more vivid and dynamic compared to the others; I then sorted the photos according to different perspectives-for example I might have took 5 from behind the fish and 5 from on top, and I would choose the best one taken from each group/perspective to maintain novelty and the diversity, since selecting too many photos with similar perspectives/angles can lead to aesthetic fatigue and dilute the overall visual impact; within the sorting and selecting of the photos in one group/perspective I will first choose to eliminate photos that have obvious defects, such as photos that appear blurry, and/or have poor lighting and depth of field (ex: I eliminated all photos of one group that showed the fish figure positioned on the right side of the photo with ice behind, since the poor depth of field made the ice behind the fish figure in focus and rather the fish itself)-in the photos left I will then prioritize the ones that convey stronger emotions and sense of story-for example,  the first photo in the second row is chose from three of the same perspective, this photo stood out because the in the rest the fish figure was either focused to the right or to the left, giving it a sense of distance, and in this photo the fish figure is positioned in the center-to me I think that the center position gives the figure a sense of importance and dominance, able to draw the viewer’s attention to it immediately. However if the photos left have no difference then I might just randomly choose one. I also adjusted the ISO and focus a bit, relatively low ISO was used-(Around 100-200). the low ISO in good lighting conditions can result in better quality photos. Also, the fish figure is captured clearly, which shows that it has been mainly focused.