STEM Photo Contest
Snap a photo, submit, win! Capture the magic of science through your camera lens!
What?
Unleash your inner shutterbug, put your artistic talents to use, demonstrate your STEM knowledge, and compete in the 2024 STEM Photo Contest. Your photo should reflect a concept, principle, theory, or phenomena of Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics.
The subject of your photo can either appear naturally, or be contrived to show what you would like to demonstrate. Need some examples? Check out these photos from the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) annual High School Physics Photo Contest.
Contrived Photos
Siyu Wu
Description
Essay Title: Jelly Strings
Category: Contrived
Photo Number: 8827
School: Ningbo Binhai International Cooperative School
Teacher Name: Not Available
Jelly Strings
This photo shows how the strings of a guitar vibrate at high speed and twist in the photo. This image is based on the Rolling Shutter effect of a camera and the fast-frequency vibration of the guitar’s strings. Most modern cameras have rolling shutters instead of global shutters. It means that when shooting a picture, the camera’s CMOS sensor scans and exposes the light in a row of pixels in order to receive it. When the guitar is positioned slightly vertically in front of the camera and the strings are plucked, the strings vibrate leftwards and rightwards at high speeds. When the camera’s shutter speed is adjusted to extremely high, the resulting image is hard to blur and becomes clear when moving at high speeds because the camera exposure time is reduced. Therefore, when the strings vibrate at a high speed, the displacement speed of the strings is faster than or equal to the scanning speed of the camera CMOS, resulting in the deviation of each row of pixel images on the CMOS from the previous row, and finally presenting such an amazing scene of strings twisting like jellies.
Only Rainbows After Rain
Sophia Uselman
Description
Essay Title: Only Rainbows After Rain
Category: Contrived
Photo Number: 10103
School: Columbus School For Girls
Teacher Name: : Kevin Sweeney
Only Rainbows After Rain
While I was watching a TV show on my iPad, a drop of water fell on it that seemed to create a small rainbow within the droplet. This rainbow is caused by the lensing effect that water droplets create due to their shape. The water creates what is called a convex lens, which bends light rays inward and makes objects appear closer. The distance between the lens and its focal point is called the focal distance of a lens, which increases as the curvature of the lens increases. The distance from the individual pixels on the screen, which create the checkered effect on the droplets, is fixed and depends on the thickness of the glass. The blurrier, more colorful droplets have focal distances that are closer to the distance from the pixels to the screen than those that are more checkered and colorless, which makes them more effective at magnifying the pixels. Apple uses LCD screens, or liquid crystal displays. These displays use red, green, and blue subpixels within each individual pixel to display a full range of colors. Since white light contains all wavelengths of visible light, red, green, and blue pixels are utilized in displaying a white screen. The water magnifies these subpixels and acts as a prism to show a variety of mixtures of colors, creating a rainbow effect.
Natural Photos
Leo Kim
Description
Essay Title: Tiny Convex World: Natural Optical Lens
Category: Natural
Photo Number: 10274
School: Woodberry Forest School
Teacher Name: Greg Jacobs
Tiny Convex World: Natural Optical Lens
Optical lenses are objects whose purpose is to converge or diverge light rays. They are used everywhere in our lives such as camera/telescope/microscope lenses, corrective/magnifying glasses, etc. Water is cohesive. It naturally bonds together in the shape of a sphere, and in that shape it functions as a miniature lens that will refract nearby objects. In my photo, the droplet of water hanging from the stem acts as a converging lens, due it its spherical shape and the higher refractive index of water than air. Since the distance from the real flower is greater than twice the focal length, when the rays pass through the surfaces of the droplet, they will converge on the side opposite the flower to form an inverted, smaller, real image, located between the droplet and the camera. The shape of the droplet is not perfectly spherical due to gravity. It is more like a convex lens. The incident light first reflected from the actual flower into the droplet and changed direction and focused on the focal point to form the image.
The position of the actual flower and the droplets must be parallel to each other to obtain a clear and complete real image. Therefore, the position of the flower reflected in each droplet is differently reflected along the convex side of the droplets in relation to my position taking the picture. As sunlight enters from the front, luckily, the light splitting phenomena on the surface of the droplets are also captured.
Sabrina Greenberg
Description
Essay Title: Game, Set, Magsafe
Category: Natural
Photo Number: 9923
School: Saint Andrew’s School
Teacher Name: Paul Gresser
Game, Set, Magsafe
I recently purchased a version of the magsafe phone case that has a magnetic ring in it to attach accessories. While playing tennis, I put my phone on the clay court and when I picked it up, I was surprised to see a ring of clay stuck to the phone, as shown in the photo. The magnet field had attracted a material in the clay. Most clay courts, like those used in the French open, are red colored and made of crushed brick, a mixture of clay and sand with no magnetic properties. But, it turns out that green clay courts, which are found almost exclusively in the Southern US, are made of metabasalt which contains a high concentration of iron oxide, which is magnetic.
Who?
All current students, faculty, and staff are invited to participate. Prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place will be awarded in the student category, and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place will be awarded in the faculty/staff category. You can submit as many photos are you would like, but you can only win once.
When?
Photos must be submitted no later than April 5, 2024. No entries will be accepted after this date. Winners will be announced on May 6, 2024. Finalists will have their photos displayed in the atrium of the Applied Technology building as well as the website for viewing and voting. All SUNY Broome employees and current students will be invited to vote via the website. Keep a lookout for further information on casting your vote.
How?
It’s easy! Submit your entry by selecting the link below. Fill out the form and upload your photo. You will be asked to provide a title for your photo, as well as a brief description of what your photo demonstrates.
Important Things You Need To Know
By entering the contest, you certify that you are the sole creator of the submitted photograph.
If your photo is taken using an aspect ratio that does not lend itself to printing as an 8×10 photo, please note that while all efforts will be made to avoid it, the physical photo that is posted for viewing in the atrium may appear cropped. The full image will be available on the website, and is what will be considered for voting.
You must be a current student, faculty member, or staff member to participate.
Group work/collaboration is allowed, but only one prize will be awarded for each winning photo.
The uploaded image must be a jpeg file with a minimum of 300 pixels per inch.
You photograph can be either color or black and white.
The concept, principle, theory or phenomena that your photo exhibits must remain unaltered.
Questions? Email stemphotocontest@sunybroome.edu