Thursday, October 18, 2007
CSA photography contest winners announced
By Rebecca Wyatt Thomas, OU Web writer
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| Eric Zaleski's first-prize winning photo. |
The Center for Student Activities held a digital photography contest in conjunction with the university’s 50th anniversary celebration. Eric Zaleski and Barbara Klocko took first and second place respectively in both the “people’s choice” and also the best overall categories.
The student body selected Zaleski and Klocko’s photos for the honor on Friday, Oct. 12. The photos were displayed in the Fireside Lounge for students to vote on in the “people’s choice” category. CSA professional and student staff selected the same photos for the best overall category. For each win, the students will receive SpiritCash in the amount of $100 for first place and $50 for second place.
This was CSA’s first strictly digital photo contest. Contestants were able to use whatever techniques were available to enhance the photos. All of the photos had to have been taken during the month of September, on OU’s campus with a visual relation to Oakland.
First place recipient Zaleski is a senior majoring in management information systems with a minor in computer science. Zaleski’s subject is a group of flowers outside of Meadow Brook Hall, which was once the home of OU’s founder Matilda Dodge Wilson. He said that while walking around the hall, he saw the flowers and tried to frame the picture as a close-up of the flowers with the hall in the background.
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| Barbara Klocko's second-prize winning photo. |
Using the color accent feature on this camera, Zaleski captured the pink color while everything else was black and white. He then used Microsoft Photo Editor’s embossing feature to give it crisper edges.
“Over the last few years, I’ve really been getting into photography and decided to see how I could do in the contests,” Zaleski. “Plus it gives me an excuse to go out and do more photography.”
Zaleski entered OU’s photo contest last winter and hopes to enter more photo contests in the future.
Klocko is a non-traditional student and graduate assistant in the educational leadership program. In June 2007, she retired from serving as a school principal and teaching for 18 years.
“When I saw the photo contest on The News @ OU, I thought it would be something I might enjoy doing. It was a beautiful fall day and it was very nice for me just to walk around campus and take some pictures. I felt like I was becoming part of the campus again,” Klocko said.
Klocko’s picture is of a statue in the “Saints and Sinners” fountain located in front of Kresge Library. She said she was looking for something that related to the 50th anniversary of OU. She said many students remember sitting outside the library near the fountain studying between classes.
For her photo, Klocko adjusted the brightness, turned it black and white and then colorized it to give it the pink hue.
This is not the first photo contest Klocko has entered. She entered the Carhenge photo contest this summer. Carhenge is a display in Nebraska that is a replica of Stonehenge but with cars. The same day she learned she won second place in OU’s photo contest, Klocko’s received word that a photo she took received first place in the Carhenge contest.
The photography contest is held by the Center for Student Activities annually.