November 6, 2025
Contact: Janese Heavin, heavinj@missouri.edu
Photos by Abbie Lankitus, Gretta Cohoon, Sam Cox and Reagan Manis
October at the University of Missouri was packed with thrills, chills and plenty of picture-perfect moments. University photographer Abbie Lankitus shares her favorite photos from a very spooky month.
The new lululemon fall collection arrived at The Mizzou Store and thus a new photoshoot was needed. Student photographer Reagan Manis led the charge on this one. His inspiration for the photo? The album cover for J. Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive.
Anyone in the visual arts will tell you that anything can be inspiration. My favorite example of this is the social media account Art But Make It Sports. While it’s pretty common to get inspiration from another photo, I love that Reagan saw this opportunity and pulled upon an album cover photo as his inspiration for a product shoot.
I had to throw another lululemon photo in this month because I cannot get over how beautiful this image is. I say beautiful because to me, it hits all the points: composition, clear product placement in focus, natural facial expression and hand placement and plenty of room for graphics if needed. There are no distractions in this photo, just a clear focus on the scuba sweatshirt.
When we’re shooting marketing or product images, there’s usually a running checklist of things a photo needs to have to hit the mark. This one hit all of them and more.
Another month, another killer Venture Out photo from photographer Gretta Cohoon. I love the silhouette of the student hanging from the Alpine Climbing Tower, but it really feels like they’re hanging from the skies. The dramatic clouds add to so much to this, but Gretta’s use of under exposing the image makes an already interesting shoot next level.
This month, I had a marketing shoot with the College of Arts and Science of a painting class for non-art majors. The professor, Wilson Minshall, was wearing the coolest painted up apron with our beloved Tiger logo. This was a perfect detail shot and as I was editing it, I began daydreaming of all the paintings this apron has seen and every finger mark upon it creating its own masterpiece of colors and textures.
From the same marketing shoot, I wanted to include this photo that is bursting with color. I talk a lot about storytelling in images or achieving goals with singular images and this does both. First, without having to do a lot of searching, you know that this is about painting. But secondly, with the student wearing a Mizzou branded shirt, it tells the story that you can make art at Mizzou. That may be obvious to us, but maybe not a first thought of a prospective student until they see this. That’s both a story and a goal for the university.
For technical points, I love how the many light sources in this room create a dynamic image. There’s a skylight to the student’s right filling most of the room, but then there’s a sliver of a window allowing light on the left which rims the student’s shadowed side. Not to mention the many (unseen) lights pointing at the subject of the painting that make the colors in the foreground pop!
This was probably my favorite photo I made in October. This is of Dunpeng Cai, a researcher in the School of Medicine who conducts cutting-edge RNA-based therapy research to treat genetic disorders.
The effect was inspired by University of Georgia photographer and friend Chamberlain Smith, who answered my many questions to make sure I executed this well. First, there’s an image projected onto the large backdrop. Second, there’s a plexiglass screen in front of Cai, reflecting the same image from a TV. I have two gel lights on Cai, both with colored gels to match the projected images. And voila, a 3D projection portrait! Definitely going to use this effect in the future with a few tweaks because it was just so fun to make.
One of the unfortunate things about artificial turf is that it’s shiny. And in this early morning light, you can kind of see that happening. On the plus side, cleats pick up the little rubber pellets and create this really cool moment that Reagan captured at the Interfraternity Council Cup at Stankowski Field. And because Reagan’s on the opposite side of the sun, there’s this beautiful rim light on the legs and shoes. Also, this photo can be easily used in future promotions for any kind of sport at Stankowski with plenty of room for text. So, it’s not just a pretty photo, but it’s incredibly useful too.
This is my second year of attempting this photo after former Mizzou photographer Sam O’Keefe got a very similar one that was used as the Winter 2025 cover image for Mizzou Magazine. It’s an incredibly hard photo with a narrow time frame. I’ll explain.
The moon is very bright (more than you’d think), and I have to expose for the moon or else it will just look like a solid white circle with no detail. In doing so, any light on or coming from Memorial Union is too dark to show up. So, the photos I end up editing are somewhere between pitch black and the moon being too bright (but I can see Memorial in the image). It’s a game to see which exposure setting on my camera is the magic one, and I won’t really know until I get it into Adobe Lightroom to begin editing.
While this is happening, the moon is moving rapidly. From the time the moon rises until it sinks beyond Memorial Union is probably around 30 minutes with 10-15 of it actually being in frame with the building and not just off to the side. This may sound like plenty of time, until you factor in the fact that as the moon rises, it gets brighter and there are several things I have to keep in mind including in-camera exposure changes, slight location movements to affect composition and assuming there won’t be any technical difficulties.
All in all, I’m happy with the composition and moodiness of the image. I’m thankful Mizzou has a built-in spooky image for me every year.
Students stepped up and stepped forward to help the Columbia community on Step Forward Day last month. I was particularly drawn to this image from student photographer Sam Cox because of all the color, the composition of the road leading my eye and the shared laughter between the volunteers wearing that quintessential gold (that matches the environment).
One of the best things about living in Columbia is all of the natural areas we have at our disposal. It’s not easy to maintain, and I’m grateful to the city for providing such wonderful spaces for us. And many thanks to these students who helped clean up some honeysuckle bushes at Capen Park. Volunteer work doesn’t end when students graduate. One could say it becomes a lifestyle if you keep at it. This photo showcases one of the many ways students can begin a habit of volunteering and being good neighbors wherever they end up.
I’m personally not a fan of horror movies. My level of Halloween movies to watch begins and ends with Young Frankenstein. However, I can appreciate the art of classic horror and what Ramsay Wise, assistant teaching professor in the College of Arts and Science, brought to this shoot.
The full shoot was several classic poses and facial expressions that I put in a film strip for the story on Show Me Mizzou. My favorite, though, was Wise’s portrayal of the “Kubrick Stare.” Two lights framed Wise with large v-flats to keep the light from spilling too far onto his shirt and face. I just wanted the light to rim the edges of his silhouette. Then there’s a really big and soft light above him to light his face. Below is a reflection disk to make sure there’s that little catch in Wise’s eye. Without that little white spot in his eye, the image falls flat. This makes his entire face come alive.
My second favorite photo from the film strip was his “creepy smile.” I gave him a photo of Pennywise to mirror his expression after, and I literally felt a chill go up my spine before I took the photo. Much appreciation to Wise and his many “horrorific” facial expressions for this photoshoot.
Multicultural Greek Council hosted a cultural showcase at Wrench Auditorium with performances from several organizations. This photo from the Vietnamese Student Association performance, captured by Sam, took my breath away.
Not only is the color vibrant and stark, but there’s the perfect hidden silhouette of the student under the fabric. A smaller detail and another layer to this image are the fingers, ready to reveal the hidden performer. In this photo, I feel stuck in time, constantly mesmerized by the secret of who is behind the fabric while waiting for the fingers to finish wrapping around the fabric and reveal who it is. I just can’t express how beautiful I find this image. Brava to the performer!
I need to end this month on a Halloween note. Once again, the master of light, Sam, captured this perfectly lit silhouette of a child visiting the university’s Museum of Art and Archaeology for the Haunted Museum event. Guests of all ages attended and were encouraged to wear costumes.
Museum lighting is special because of the way it creates focus on the pieces and not the environment. It allows for some really cool photo opportunities. The way there’s just enough l ight to make the red of the costume light up, while everything else is practically colorless, is magical work, for sure.
What’s also magical is how fast October came and went, much to my chagrin. I love the fall season, and it always gets away from me too quickly! On we go, though, marching through the months. I have no doubt November will prove to be just as special for our photographers.
