During my time at the University of Oklahoma, I was behind the camera for almost 125,000 pictures. It would’ve been impossible to capture anything worthwhile without getting into some pretty unique, crazy and wild situations. Here are a few of my favorite stories from behind the frames…
The Great Reading Room
The Great Reading Room (aka mini-Hogwarts) at the University of Oklahoma is one of the most beautiful and quiet places on campus. It is a place reserved for the most intense study sessions with technology being mostly restricted from the space. Ever since touring the campus in 2009, it was a dream of mine to take pictures there.
In the summer after my first year, I stayed around campus to take a few extra classes and get ahead in my degree. To my delight, the summer also provided a unique opportunity to take pictures of quiet spaces like the Great Reading Room. For this specific shot, I wandered over one afternoon with my camera to notice only one person working in the space. After waiting for about 20 minutes, this person took a quick break and left the room. THIS was the chance I had waited for since first visiting in 2009.
I quickly propped up my tripod and captured only about~20 pictures. Luckily, this one turned out to be a shot I will keep for the rest of my life and one that was featured in a number of Oklahoma magazines.
Lightning over the Campus
Do you know what lightning feels like? I didn’t until the night I took this picture.
It was a pretty standard night, standing on the top of the football stadium parking lot with several friends taking pictures of a strong storm coming into town. We were alone and the crept closer with each picture we took. Then, one cloud-to-cloud strike canvased the sky directly above us. Both my roommate and I immediately felt a tingle throughout our entire body. Every hair on my body stood up for a second and at that moment, we knew it was time to get off the roof!
Luckily, at the end of the day no harm was done AND we captured this incredible shot. As an aside, i’m not sure where this lightning struck thought it does look like a small piece actually hits the student union (the brightly lit building in the center)!
Camp Crimson
I’ll never forget taking this picture. I was standing on a 24 inch subwoofer that was jamming out to some bass heavy rap song, leaning over the crowd holding the camera, while hundreds of people jumped up and down. SOMEHOW, I was able to capture this. If you look closely, every emotion known to mankind is being displayed in this single image.
This party was during Retro Night at Camp Crimson, the pre-semester orientation for first-year students, a time where hundreds of students learn about the history, culture and rituals at the University of Oklahoma while having a bit of fun in the process.
Oklahoma at Night
My favorite picture I took during my 5 years at the University of Oklahoma and one of the most spontaneous! Late one Saturday night after a football game, one of my roommates and I decided to take a walk late a night. It was a calm night, outside of some drunk students rambling through campus. Around 2am, we began heading back towards the dorm when we noticed an extremely dense fog rolling off of the football field, and we were blown away.
We ran back to our dorm room and quickly grabbed a tripod, my camera, and a wide-ish angle lens. After setting up, it only took a few minutes to grab some incredible shots. The above picture was the result of combining 3 pictures each shot at a different level of exposure. By taking 3 pictures of the same scene at different lighting levels and combining them, you can capture the details in both the light and the dark areas of the picture at the same time. You’ll notice in the top that the bright areas under the stadium lights are detailed while the ground on the road and grass is equally exposed and detailed. This is called HDR photography and was made popular by Trey Ratcliff.
Passion at Lloyd Noble
This young fan sat courtside to almost every home basketball game, and good thing she did, she was the most passionate fan in the building. Whether it was good or bad, she was always on her feet cheering.
I hope I always bring the passion this young lady had to everything I do.
Frozen Camera
For a few moments, Jawanza and I hid inside the football stadium from 30mph winds in temperatures below 0 degrees fahrenheit. The night before, more than a foot of snow fell across campus yet Jawanza and I thought it would be a good idea to head out around 7am for a photoshoot.
This was the first and only time my camera has ever been impacted by weather. About halfway through this shoot, our cameras began to freeze. No, it wasn’t the software freezing, the camera literally began to freeze. The shutter mechanism within the camera began to slow and blur the images.
As an aside, throughout all of my photo adventures at OU, Jawanza was by my side including almost every photo on this list. We’ll always be brothers and I can’t tell you how much your friendship means to me!
Silent Rave at Bizzell
My first finals week at college looked like this, how the hell was I supposed to study?
Since I couldn’t find a way to focus, I grabbed my camera and captured some magical moments. This ‘silent rave’ was started by several students who posted a playlist and a simple idea online a few days before: bring a pair of headphones and this playlist and dance without making any noise. If the group was silent, they couldn’t be kicked out of the library!
Within a few days, the event had several thousand likes on Facebook and the interest of almost every OKC news station. It turned out to be incredible and even though attempts were made, it was never seriously recreated. Truly a once in a lifetime event.
The Kind of the Foam
Imagine thousands of square feet of foam spiraling around you, dance music blaring, and hundreds of students dancing their hearts out. This is the foam party, one of the first events every year at OU.
I didn’t find a reason to go until my senior year and even then I had to use sneak in using my camera but wow!! Yes, my camera was covered in foam. Yes, I was covered in foam. Yes, I had an incredible time!
Peanut Butter Nose
If you find yourself in the middle of hundreds of students running around performing ridiculous challenges, you’re likely at Camp Crimson during the relay race. “Smash an egg on another students head”… “Use only your nose to write OU on another students face using chocolate syrup”… and the above picture “eat a Cheerio covered in peanut butter off another persons nose” are only a few of the insane challenges incoming students face as part of the race. You can imagine, being in the middle of this was a wild experience.
You can also imagine my delight as I was somehow able to capture the above image, in focus, with good lighting, the moment before the Cheerio was eaten off her nose. I was over the moon with excitement!
Focused and Ready
I will never forget spending Saturday afternoon with 85,000 of my best friends all cheering for the home team. The Sooners football team has a special ritual. Just before the game begins, our team runs out of an inflatable tunnel for a huge welcome from the fans. For a split second, the team pauses, yells, cheers, and then runs out. This photo was captured in that split moment before the team erupts from the tunnel.
Tom was especially focused on this game — he was wearing the number of a friend and teammate who tragically committed suicide in the previous offseason. Inside the tunnel as the team was getting pumped, yet Tom kept his focus straight forward for what became the most emotional photo I took during my 5 years.