Campus beauty shots on display courtesy of shutterbug students

Junior nursing student Tina Vasilescu snapped the top photograph in the Wright State Woods between Allyn Hall and the dorms.

Before the fantastic fall foliage was lost to another changing of the season, Wright State University students went on a mission to capture some of the best campus beauty shots of the season for the Get Outside and Click photo contest.

The winners of the contest were recognized Monday by Wright State University President David R. Hopkins in the Student Union Gallery where their photographs will be on display through January.

Contest coordinator Linda Ramey announced that a similar photo contest will also be held in April during the week of Earth Day.

Nursing student Tina Vasilescu took first place with one of the most unique photographs submitted, a group of mushrooms on a log she spotted in the woods between Allyn Hall and the dorms.

“I thought the perspective was interesting on it. It didn’t look like most macro photos. It sort of blurred out the back. I like how it turned out. A lot of my pictures are just trial and error,” said Vasilescu.

Sponsored by the Office of Sustainability and Gang Green—the Environmental Action Group (EAG) student organization, the contest urged students to go on the hunt for natural beauty on campus.

“I love lying underneath trees and staring up at them. Who hasn’t done that, especially in their youth,” said marketing and photography student Adam Wik. “It’s just one of the habits you form as a photographer to look at different angles and break away from your normal, eye-level perspective.”

“We really wanted to get students outside and give them an opportunity on their own to get to know the natural side of campus,” said Ramey, Ph.D., associate director of the Office of Sustainability. “The photographs they’ve submitted truly reflect how picturesque our campus is.”

With so many natural parts of campus to use as inspiration, including 200 acres of woods, students were encouraged to take a camera and take a walk.

“I found it behind the cemetery. I was searching for pretty places and I thought who knew this was here? It was like a little treasure hunt,” said third-place winner Catherine Meyers about her photo, Autumn Drift.

Photos were judged on aesthetic quality but also on how well the photographer captured the unique perspective of a natural location on campus.

Surveying the photos in the gallery, Munir Ragas, a Ph.D. student in biomedical sciences said there is so much beauty especially in the fall on campus, that he had a hard time picking just one photograph to submit and he’s sure the judges had a hard time too.

“All of them are just amazing, fantastic pictures. You can’t tell which is first or second, they are all so good,” said Ragas.

The three top photos for the Get Outside and Click contest won cash prizes, though all 11 photographs that won, placed as a runner-up or as an honorable mention are on display in the Student Union Gallery.

Check out http://www.wright.edu/sustainability/ for more information about sustainability efforts on campus, future events and contests.