15 Seconds of Bravery

It seems that football consumes my life anymore. I found it almost laughable when I found that I could use being the photographer for my brothers game to my advantage. Though, if I was already going to be there, with a camera, and I knew what I needed to do, I might as well! Plus, I was given access to the field this last game, making it all the better.
What I chose to do is take the images of a passing play to show what can happen in a matter of probably 10-15 seconds. I saw the play in front of me and just snapped the shutter as quickly as I could, moving the lens along with the play, careful to line up the horizon line each time to allow an easy progression of time within the mind.
Really, there's nothing fancy, just a fast shutter speed, 1/400, large aperture, f/5, simple alignment within Photoshop and brave boys who are passionate about football.

Michael Champion

I loathe self-portraits. Specifically, of me. I'd much rather be behind the camera rather than in front of it. So much so, that over the course of several days trying to draft an idea for this - I stared at a wall, then a ceiling, then just tuned out. In the end, I conclusively decided that I cannot, nor particularly care to, create a self-portrait of my own device. Instead, I collected images of me taken by others...often against my wishes. However, in reflecting on this, I feel that this is a better representation of myself through others than what I could hope to accomplish with photographic self-reflection.
Technically, there is not much to this image. It's a collection of shots over the course of six years showing a variety of ways other's have seen me. I simply compiled them in a somewhat representative way. The specifics of the images are that I cleaned out noise, various aberrations, and tried (my best at least) to enhance the image containing fire - taken on film, and then scanned...by a gerbil. In the end, I added borders for some compartmentalization. Oh, and made it black and white and simulated ~1600ISO film. I do miss film...
Lastly, I -loathe- self-portraits of myself.  

Ashley Kesweder

During the drafting stages of this project, I knew that I wanted to have myself in the portrait and that I wanted my eye to somehow have a dominance in the photo. I took many photographs and played around with them a bit, but I was unhappy with my results. Those photos all had my eye wide open, setting a more joyful and optimistic tone. After being disappointed with those, I went back and took this picture. I used a larger aperture, f/5, for a narrower depth of field to still give me the focus I wanted on my eye. Having my eyes closed and my head titled down, the mood is instantly altered.
I took the raw image into Photoshop and got a little crafty, I suppose. I took my image and darkened the highlights quite a bit and then completely chopped up the image to give it this collage-like feel. My life doesn't always fall perfectly into place. It has it's ups and downs and it's complications; I wanted to portray that in this piece. Things cannot always be put into one perfectly square picture that's full of bright colors and straight edges. There are holes, shadows and jagged lines, that is what I show here.

Nick Montz

For my self portrait I tried to choose a picture that best represents my personality. I enjoy being outside, and I am never really in a serious mood. It is important to me to not take anything too seriously and try to have fun with my life.