texas a&m meteorology student captures unique campus photosice cream photo by stephen thomas 22 caught the o&m building at a rare anglejun 17 2019moon behind the tamu aggie doppler radar (tamu-adrad) (photo courtesy of stephen thomas)stephen thomas 22 spent his freshman year at texas a&m university pursuing two passions: science and photography when he wasn't studying for coursework in the texas a&m college of geosciences he was shooting unique photos on campus and across texas thomas is minoring in meteorology in the department of atmospheric sciences and majoring in recreation park and tourism sciences in april he captured a unique image of the moon behind the o&m buildings tamu aggie doppler radar (tamu-adrad) like a fish drawn to texas a&m growing up thomas always had a passion for the ocean he said he was fascinated by its depth and mystery i would visit my grandparents on the coast and loved to stay out on the water he said while applying to schools across texas he noticed there was only one school with an oceanography undergraduate program and that was texas a&m i realized that texas a&m as the only college in texas that offered oceanography as a major and that was perfect because a&m had always been my dream school along with being the only school with a major in oceanography thomas was interested in texas a&m because the college offered a multitude of clubs for geosciences majors some highlights of my freshman year have included joining clubs like tamu ocean and tamscams (texas a&m student chapter of the american meteorology society) which have given me opportunities to meet new people within my major and exploring around the bryan-college station area at nightentry to campus looking at the administration building at texas a&m (photo courtesy of stephen thomas)david g eller oceanography and meteorology building (photo courtesy of stephen thomas)capturing the perfect picture like a true aggie thomas enjoys the history of texas a&ms campus its really cool to see pictures of aggieland from decades ago and to see how things change because campus is constantly changing he said i really like photographing the o&m building because its the tallest building on campus and i think its unique trying to capture the true beauty of the campus at night can prove to be a challenge some campus lights need to remain turned on for safety reasons this can make night photography more difficult if you are looking to do astrophotography taking photos of the stars galaxies and nebulae then it is very challenging because of all the light pollution from campus and bcs thats all in the fun of it if it were easy then it wouldnt be as adventurous he said "i taught myself night photography junior year of high school he said after school i would go home and spend hours online looking up papers and videos on how to do astrophotography and long exposure thomas loves photography because it allows him to escape from the stresses of school it gives me time to think and clear my mind because unlike most daytime photography you don't get the image back in a second; each picture can take from 10 seconds to 5 minutes to process he said view more of thomas photography work by rachel swindell 19