Winners of the 26th annual photo contest showcase an incredible research community at the Batten School & VIMS
William & Mary’s Batten School & VIMS recently recognized the most memorable and impressive photographs captured by talented faculty, staff and students. Participants in the 26th annual photo contest submitted an array of amazing images from the field and laboratory, with winners determined by the contest selection committee.
Judges deliberated the most noteworthy pictures from a record-breaking 203 entries, ultimately selecting one grand prize winner and six winners for the categories of Marine Life, Aerial/Drone, People at Work, Students, Landscapes and Seascapes, and Microscopic.
To view high-resolution versions of this year's winning entries and honorable mentions, visit the photo contest gallery.
Standing out across all categories, the 2025 grand prize was awarded to Phillip Baker, a marine ecology researcher. His photo, Mantis Shrimp, featured a top-down shot of the titular organism’s head, showcasing the shrimp’s stunning eyes. Baker caught the shrimp as bycatch while collecting samples of juvenile blue crabs in Cobb Bay on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
In the Marine Life category, Aquaculture Facility Manager Lauren Gregg took home the top prize for her photo, Freshly Cleaned Oyster Broodstock, captured in the Acuff Center for Aquaculture on the Gloucester Point campus.
The newly introduced Aerial/Drone category was won by GIS Specialist Matt Smith. His drone photo, Terry Farm Boat, captured an aerial view of an aquaculture farm owned by H.M. Terry Co. in Northampton County.
Ph.D. student Mary Bryan Barksdale won the People at Work category with her photo, Willy Reay Programs an ISCO Barrel, which featured Reay, a Batten School & VIMS professor and the director of the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Virginia (CBNERR-VA). The photo was taken on Metompkin Island, one of Virginia’s 14 barrier islands, and depicts Reay working at a fixed water quality monitoring station.
The winner of the Students category was Erin Shields, an assistant research scientist with CBNERR-VA. Her photo, Seagrass Monitoring, captured Charlotte Henderson, a Ph.D. student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) who recently completed a graduate fellowship with CBNERR at the Batten School & VIMS. In the image, Henderson throws a quadrat as part of seagrass monitoring research at the Goodwin Islands reserve.
First place in the Landscapes and Seascapes category was awarded to Associate Research Scientist Donna Milligan for her photo, Rainbow Over Penniman Spit Living Shoreline. The image showcases newly planted marsh vegetation on Penniman Spit, which was saved from eroding into the York River thanks to a Department of Defense-funded collaboration that supported military readiness at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown.
Finally, Batten School & VIMS Eastern Shore Laboratory (ESL) Director Richard Snyder took home the top prize in the Microscopic category with his image, Diatom Ditylum sp.
The selection committee was led by Graphic Designer and Media Production Supervisor Sue Stein, who has organized the contest every year since its inception 26 years ago. “This is one of my favorite initiatives,” she said, “because each image captures the beauty and spirit of the VIMS community, from our fieldwork and lab research to the people who make it all possible.”
Stein noted that the contest is not only fun, but also practical. “Beyond their beauty, these photos have real value for our communications team. We use them throughout the year in our publications, website pages, social media and fundraising materials, all to help tell the story of the Batten School & VIMS and inspire others to support our mission.”
The selection committee also recognized nine photos with honorable mentions:
- Anna DeMotte, Sunrise on the Striped Bass Seine Survey
- Ari Siegel, Sea Urchin Mouth Under Microscope
- Kelly Gonzalez, Mussels
- Elizabeth Oliver, Flying REU Student
- Elizabeth Oliver, Scenic View of Rowley, MA Marsh
- Mary Bryan Barksdale, Algae-Covered Sand Ripples on Hog Island
- Piero Mazzini, Mooring Deployment in Rough Conditions
- Rochelle Seitz, Net Sampling
- Samantha Dowiarz, Bay Anchovy Pile Up
A People's Choice Award contest was also held on the Batten School & VIMS Facebook page, where the winning image that garnered the most likes was Lauren Gregg's photo, Freshly Cleaned Oyster Broodstock.