This may be the only time people can see elephants, a Roman viaduct, and a blood moon against a clock tower all in the same place. It’s the current gallery in the CUB featuring photos from the Outdoor Photography Contest.

The gallery’s photos originated from the third annual photo contest hosted by the Outdoor Recreation Center and the Student Entertainment Board. Among the range of landscapes, animals and historical locations include night skies, firework sparklers, Asian temples, and a capture of the Bryan Hall clock tower coupled with a blood moon.

Senior and fine arts painting major Kyla Lakin, CUB Gallery programmer for SEB, said the contest process started with the ORC. People submitted photos through a Flickr page and then the ORC went through a selection process. From there, the photos were sent to SEB for printing and organizing into an exhibit.

“Most of my job is reaching out to the artists and planning the layouts for exhibits,” Lakin said.

The contest features five categories: action adventure, wildlife and still-life, landscape, cultural, and fun with light. The genres open a wide range of creative opportunities, as one of the key rules is that the photos are taken in an outdoor or otherwise natural environment.

Along with the CUB gallery, the ORC features a People’s Choice contest where the pictures can be rated based on number of likes on Facebook. The winners are announced at the film festival in January.

“I love everything about coordinating exhibits,” Lakin said. “Talking to artists, picking their art, designing the layout. There’s so much interaction with the events.”

The picture of the Roman viaduct was taken by community member Eugene Allwine, who said he originally took up photography as a hobby because he does a lot of traveling and backpacking. This was the second year he participated in the contest.

“I don’t know why I do it but it’s something I do,” he said. “(There are) a variety of contests in the area I enter.”

Most of Allwine’s work included historical locations and landscapes from backpacking trips. He said capturing the photos is one of the difficult parts of photography. The timing is critical to get the right moment, and one of the highlights of backpacking trips is always being out there at any time.

When taking photos out in the wilderness, it’s easier to decide to get up early in the morning, wait until the evening, or just take the photo during the day, Allwine said. It’s different from doing something at home, when he has to do more planning to shoot specific things like sunsets or moons.

“That’s why (my wife and I) travel,” Allwine said. “If we travel a lot and I have my camera it makes it a lot easier.”

One of the many animal-themed pictures includes a “Happy Pup” trotting through grass in the mountains. WSU senior criminal justice major Kayla Anderson, who took the photo of the dog, said she enjoys being outdoors and taking pictures as she hikes.

The “Happy Pup” was taken during a hiking trip over the summer, featuring Anderson’s own dog. Anderson said the photo was spontaneous, as her dog came around the corner while she snapped the picture.

“(My dog) really likes hiking, and I like her little smile,” Anderson said.

Lakin said she only ever did photography as a hobby, but has wanted to get more into it. Much of what she knows about photography she taught herself.

“I paint animals, especially dogs,” Lakin said. “So I wanted to learn how to do animal portraiture with photography because it captures the dog itself.”

Photography includes a level of difficulty, Lakin said. Simply taking pictures for memory or documentation’s sake doesn’t involve much focus in composition or the different ratios of the photo. This is different to finding compositions in nature and then cropping it or trying to compose it a certain way.

“Being in the right place helps,” Anderson said. “I like just being able to capture the moment and what you’re seeing at the time.”

It’s easy to hit a button and capture the moment, and it’s become a lot easier with digital photography, Allwine said. The sophistication can depend a lot on the camera itself and whatever it can do in terms of light filters or flashes. It’s easy, but still involves creativity from the photographer.

“(It’s a) big difference between just taking for fun … compared to (making) art,” Lakin said.

The Outdoor Photography Contest artwork is currently on display in the CUB Gallery. Visit https://www.facebook.com/orcgnome to vote for the People’s Choice Awards by liking favorite photos.