Student snaps spot in photo contest

With the click of his Nikon D80, Aleksey Siman, a junior cinema studies major, won a coveted spot as a finalist in the worldwide 30th Annual College Photography contest.

His photograph was selected as a contender for one of the eight winning entries.

He didn't place in the top eight, but his photograph will still be published along with the other finalists in an annual publication by Photographer's Forum magazine and Nikon titled "Best of College Photography 2010."

The magazine received more than 1,300 entries, but will only publish about 10 percent of the submitted photos, according to Julie Simpson, managing editor of Photographer's Forum.

"I got into photography because I want to be able to tell stories and evoke emotions with my photographs," Siman said. "To become a good filmmaker, you have to first become a good photographer, since the film is made of thousands of photographs."

The College Photography contest has participants from more than 900 college programs and is the largest college photography contest in the United States, according to the Photographer's Forum Web site.

"When I and my best friend Ben Michel, whom I work in the [film department] equipment room with, found Photographer's Forum magazine and looked at some of the compelling images of these professional photographers, we immediately decided to get cheap professional film cameras from eBay to begin creating art," Siman said.

Siman submitted four photos to the contest in late November, and found out in January that one of his photos was chosen.

The photo features Ivon Cardenas, a UCF alumna, and Anjaly Mandania.

"It was fun," Cardenas said. "[Michel and Siman] were looking for photography subjects. [Siman] asked me to pose for them for a creative photoshoot a while back. I had seen his pictures before and knew him from film class so I was like ‘Yeah, why not?' After seeing his photos I was excited to have been asked. They were great."

The selected black and white photo features Cardenas and Mandania in summer dresses sitting in an antique truck while an older woman in the background looks on in disapproval.

"Thematically, it is really country-looking with the old 1950s truck," Siman said. "You see a lady in the background gazing at them trying to find out what they are doing. I liked that for the suggestion of drama. There is a lot of tension in the picture, but you don't really know why that is exactly. It could be because the truck has broken down or that they took the truck without permission and are about to get in trouble. You can imagine pretty much anything."

Siman found the old truck and requested permission from its owners to use it for the one-day shoot.

"The day of the shoot was so hot," Cardenas said. "We were inside this truck that had no air conditioning. It was a beautiful old truck though."

Siman admits using his Nikon camera was a bit challenging; he is more accustomed to working with film cameras.

"I knew I had to set the mood, set the composition and focus it right for it to become just a matter of taking the picture," Siman said.

For him photography is a mix of talent and luck.

"I wasn't expecting to win anything, but I kind of had my hopes up. Luck plays a big part of success," Siman said. "Talent and luck are 50/50."

Siman said he plans to continue to test his luck and skill by entering the contest again next year because he feels it's great exposure.