Jafar AlObaid (Questrom’26), AlUla, Saudi Arabia.

Photography

Check Out These Dazzling Images from BU Global Programs Annual Photo Contest

Event showcasing BU’s worldwide adventures and experiences drew more than 1,080 submissions

Almost 1,100 photos depicting scenes from around the world vied for the top prizes in BU Global Programs 13th annual photo contest. The two winning entries were taken on opposite sides of the globe, about 6,400 miles apart, one in Saudi Arabia, the other in Connecticut.

The contest, open to all BU students, faculty, staff, and alumni, showcases the adventures of Terriers across 91 countries and 35 US states. Photos were submitted from entrants from every BU college and school, including BU Virtual, as well as from several administrative offices. The contest had record participation this year, according to organizers.

Willis Wang, vice president and associate provost for global programs, describes the contest as engaging and visually inspiring. “Our annual photo contest continues to be a wonderful way to showcase the creativity of our global community,” Wang says. “This year, our 13th year running the contest, we are thrilled to have seen record high levels of participation from Terriers—both in voting and submitting photos.”

MBA student Jafar AlObaid (Questrom’26) won the People’s Choice award for his photo of the Maraya building, an iconic landmark in AlUla, Saudi Arabia. “Maraya” translates to “mirror” in Arabic, AlObaid says, and the building is the world’s largest mirrored structure.

Last November, AlObaid took advantage of a day when the sky was filled with “dramatic, beautiful clouds,” a rare experience given AlUla’s desert climate. He headed out to capture the moment. “The reflections of the sky and nearby mountains on the mirrored surface made the scene feel surreal,” says AlObaid, a semiprofessional photographer who has participated in several local and international photo contests, including the renowned Hamdan International Photography Award in Dubai. “I wanted to document this unique combination of architecture and nature at a perfect time of year,” he says.

The winner in the judged category is Scott Lynde, a Metropolitan College administrative sciences adjunct professor of project management programs, who came in first. He submitted a photo of Saybrook Breakwater Lighthouse, which sits at the mouth of the Connecticut River as it flows into Long Island Sound. 

Last summer, Lynde was out on a boat with his family, headed to historic Essex Village for lunch. Leaving the restaurant, they saw a storm approaching and jumped back in the boat to head home. When they reached Long Island Sound, “the wind picked up, the water was choppy, and the menacing storm loomed over us,” Lynde recalls. “We raced to escape it, but I just had to grab my camera to try to capture it while getting tossed around in the boat. It was thrilling! But a little bit scary, too.”

He started pursuing photography as a serious hobby 20 years ago when his son was born, and says he enjoys the endless opportunities for learning and discovery that taking photos provides. One of his favorite things to shoot is lighthouses—at dawn and at dusk. “As I like to say, Mother Nature does the hard work, I just show up at the right place at the right time,” Lynde says.

Winners of this year’s contest could choose between a GoPro Hero package and a Meta Quest 3 VR headset.

Photos by this year’s 14 runners-up range from a photo of a macaque monkey taking a dip in a steaming pool in Jigokudani, Japan, to another of fresh churros coming out of the fryer in Mexico City to one of the sun setting behind the Boston skyline, taken from Comm Ave.

View the gallery of finalist images below.

Mingyang Wang (COM’26), ShenZhen, China.

Qimei Ren (CAS’28), Ontario, Canada.

Nicolas Rocca, Central Administration, staff, Boston, Massachusetts.

Raahi Mehta (COM’28), San Francisco, California.