The photo contest “A Day in the Life” held on Sept. 21 encouraged BYU students, faculty and alumni around the world to share what they did on the day of the Holy War.
Almost 200 entries were submitted through Instagram, Facebook and Twitter depicting the stories of BYU’s students and affiliates ranging from watching Cosmo crowd surf at the rivalry football game to American soldiers in Afghanistan showing their Cougar colors. The winning photos were chosen based on their uniqueness, humor and quality.
Best Photo
Andrew Whiting submitted a photo of an old Arab sheikh in Amman, Jordan, who was writing a poem in traditional Arabic calligraphy. Whiting and his wife had stopped by a local falafel shop after a long day on Arabic studies when they saw the man and took the photo.
Most Unique
Beatriz Wittwer shared a photo of her trip to Hobbiton in New Zealand with her husband, Wyler Wittwer, where the “Lord of the Rings” saga was filmed. The couple was standing in one of the round doorways of a Hobbit home from the movie. In the caption for the photo, Wittwer mentioned that they are living in New Zealand because she is doing a BYU internship abroad.
Funniest
@toricarlton submitted a photo on Instagram of her grandmother sleeping in the car with the caption, “Grandma didn’t quite make it.”
Crowd Favorite
Rikki Fernandes, a junior from New Braunfels, Texas, studying photography, submitted a photo he took for an assignment that asked students to show why their lives suck or rock. Fernandes chose to show why his life rocks.
“I’m 5′ 9″ and 130 pounds, so I’m skinny, and I swear I eat at least 3,000 calories a day,” he said. “So my concept is, ‘My life rocks because I can eat anything I want and stay skinny.’ My brother and I ate half of the burgers and even during the shoot, I was eating the burgers. I had to restrain myself from eating my props too quickly.”
Fernandes felt that this photo was an accurate depiction of his typical “day in the life.”
“I decided to enter (the) ‘A Day in the Life’ competition because I shot that photo that weekend and I thought, ‘Hey! This is what I do as a BYU student,'” Fernandes said. “It really shows a day in the life of a student, both what I do for classes and an exaggerated form of how I eat. It’s fun, so why not enter it.”
Losee Jewelers’ Most Memorable
Brooke Adams, a Colorado native majoring in Chinese at BYU, is on a university-sponsored study abroad taking intensive Chinese classes and enhancing her Asian experience by traveling on the weekends. In her winning Instagram photo, Adams took a picture of the sunset at the end of an eight-hour hike.
“Yellow Mountain is a popular hiking destination for locals, recommended to us for its breathtaking views, the fun of camping on top of the mountain, and the inspirational experience of watching the sunrise over an ocean of misty mountain ranges,” Adams said. “I would recommend it to anyone who can make the time while they are in China. It’s one of my favorite memories.”
Mark Walter Brown, a BYU student senior from Orem studying Spanish, teamed up with his wife, Jessie Brown, to grace Provo with a life-size gorilla. The winning photo was taken at the Orem Public Library.
“The idea was improvised,” Mark Brown said. “We had the suit and decided to go somewhere where you don’t usually see gorillas, which is pretty much everywhere, but the library seemed like a good choice.”
Brown said adults who saw them had confused looks on their faces, while children had excited reactions.
Mike Carpenter, a BYU senior from Virginia studying public relations, laughed when he found a “Star Wars”-themed note in honor of the Holy War from his girlfriend in his R2D2 lunchbox.
“I laughed when I found this in my R2D2 lunchbox,” Carpenter said in the caption for the photo. “I think BYU and U of U are both great schools, and while I root for BYU, I’m not terribly passionate about the Holy War.”
