Shqipëria ime ~ The pomegranate's blog

It all started as a simple photography contest in our school based on the 100th anniversary of independence in Albania. Me and my friends were feeling guilty because we hadn't participated in any other contest that had been already held, such as the drawing or the best essay ones, so we decided to give it a shot.

We spend a whole day thinking what we could do but finally one of us came up with the idea of making a photo from up high were the students would be creating different shapes from down there. Certainly, we all agreed and we were really excited for it. At first we thought of using students to write sentences such as "100 vjet pavarsi" or "100 vjet shtet" that can be translated as "100 years of independence" and "100 years of state".. But that would require a great number of people and we couldn't find them within two days. Having no other choice we agreed to make the symbol of independence (in case you don't know it, here's a photo of it).

We all knew that it would be hard and there were moments we felt like we were going to fail, but words had spread and we had to do it no matter what, and most important of all we had to do it right.

We went to some classes, mostly senior ones, and announced our project. We explained it all to them, we invited them to come and we lied when we told them it was obligatory because we desperately needed their presence. Our whole work was in the palm of their hands.
However, we got different reactions. There were students that supported us and promised to come, there were students that found it uninteresting and told us we wouldn't make it and there were others that didn't want to come because it would be saturday and they wanted to sleep instead.

That definitely upset us, but we still managed to make a list of around 100 students that would come.

Our next step was finding a place to do it and a place from where we could take the photo. We had dozen of options in our minds but we chose to do it at our school yard because next to it we had this ten floors palace.
It was friday, november 16th, when me and some other girls took some chalks and a meter and started to draw some auxiliary lines so it would be much easier for the students to find their standing positions the next day.

--DAY ONE--

This is the finishing work :)

--DAY TWO--

It was early morning, we were rushing to our school and on our way we had bought some black and red balloons. We were a little surprised when we arrived because there were some guys waiting for us seated on benches, we didn't see that coming. We asked their help to blow the balloons and obviously they said yes. By the time we had finished others showed up, but I have to be honest, not all the 100 students that promised to come, came for real. 30 of them deserted :)
The majority of those who came weren't wearing any red or black T-shirt at all, as we had asked them to, but luckily we had brought some extra ones. After that we were all set.
I wasn't wearing any red or black because I was going to be the photographer.

When we realized that noone else was coming, we started from our work. Me and another girl went to the ninth floor to take the pictures while the others were trying to put everyone of them to their place. It was hard and tiring and it was extremely hot. We were all shouting and screaming so they could be synchronized, I was all the time with the camera on my hands and the phone on my ear, talking to my mum who was down there trying to help. They didn't know how they looked but we almost started crying from joy, cause it look extremely beautiful from there.
You can still see this pictures, there's no need for words.

Now they're getting ready for the upstanding photo :)

I asked for a red tongue, they hadn't noticed it was missing.. :p

Well, this were some of the best photos and some "backstage" ones :p In this picture below is me with my friend in one of the apartment's window, after we had successfully finished our work.

This balloon was filled with helium and was supposed to be released at the moment I was taking the photos, but the girls that was keeping it let it go before everyone was in his place.

And this is the group of girls that made it happen, doing the eagle with our hands..

And finally, here are the best photos that we picked from all of them. Photoshopping them wasn't easy, that's why I'm showing you the original photos and the final work, to make sure you see the difference. We are so happy we did it and it's way better than we had ever thought it would be.
Mission accomplished :D