October in Review

Welcome to the first "In Review," a series where we look at the previous month's best and favorite images taken by the photography team at West Virginia University.

In this first edition, we're rewinding to October and looking at a collection of photos dominated by fall's changing colors and the scenes they bring to town, West Virginia's evolving soccer landscape, Homecoming in Morgantown, and promotional imagery for the fall sports.

Fall in West Virginia introduces a revolving door of colors and provides the perfect opportunity for our staff to explore Morgantown, the quilted hills that surround it and create images for the University to use in our news releases, social media and marketing materials.

These scenes are the highlight of our October selections and really help to show what makes West Virginia University, and the state that surrounds it, such a special place to spend your time.

Our Jennifer Shephard, David Malecki and Alyssa Reeves truly embraced the October colors and the golden light that helps them sing.

This first set of images, with contributions from each of them, does a tremendous job of highlighting the Downtown and Evansdale campuses as fall's peak colors take hold of Morgantown.

Campus Scenes

While much of our photography focus is typically concentrated on what's happening on campus — what we call "campus scenes," we'll occasionally take day trips around the state to capture — you guessed it — "state scenes."

Inside baseball always comes with the most complicated terms, doesn't it?

October's state scenes were dominated by a selection photographed and edited by Malecki, a dependable, creative and multi-year student photographer of ours who now serves as a graduate assistant to the photography department.

It's rare that our Monday department meeting goes by without Malecki seemingly willing a chance to capture state scenes into existence. The schedule doesn't always allow for it. When it does, though? Malecki delivers.

October found Malecki on a day trip to Dolly Sods and Blackwater Falls in search of fall foliage and state beauty.

"October is always a wonderful time of year for West Virginia, so I would be remiss to not capture the scenic splendor the state has to offer," Malecki would say of his chance to find colors in the hills.

State Scenes

“ I would be remiss to not capture the scenic splendor the state has to offer. ”

— David Malecki

Our Home Among the Stars

While Malecki was able to capture some of the state's beauty on his third annual of such trips, he went far, far away to give us a glimpse of our galaxy as seen from the minimally light-polluted country roads our state offers between the cities.

"This year, I was lucky enough to pull over on a hilly road just outside of Terra Alta, W.Va.," Malecki said. "With good timing and great weather, I was able to capture most of the Milky Way as it aligned with the straight paved road."

This one really deserved room to breathe on its own:

Mountain State Derby

From state scenes to the scenes: The Mountain State Derby, as it has been dubbed, found a surging No. 5 Mountaineers men's soccer program hosting their in-state rival and No. 1 rated soccer program in the country — Marshall.

Beyond the existing rivalry between the state's Division 1 programs, the fire was kindled deeper in the state where West Virginia Head Coach Dan Stratford and Marshall Head Coach Chris Grassie coached together at the University of Charleston.

Heading into the October 18 derby, Stratford had never beaten Grassie head-to-head. Mountaineers striker Marcus Caldeira, who would finish the regular season among the league leaders in scoring, had a plan to change that, though. You could even say he had three plans as Caldeira starred with a hat trick in the Mountaineers 5-2 win over the Thundering Herd.

Cheating a bit and talking about November, the Thundering Herd would get their revenge on home turf as they defeated the Mountaineers to secure the Sun Belt Conference Championship. The win secured Marshall the No. 1 seed heading into the NCAA Tournament with the Mountaineers finding themselves at No. 5.

The dream derby, of course, would be a rubber match finale with the National Championship on the line, but any potential rematch would have to settle for a semi-final meeting between the West Virginia teams as they ended up on the same side of the bracket.

Time traveling back to the massive win in Morgantown, though, let's take a look at a selection of the best images from the day.

Once a Mountaineer ...

October wasn't only for celebrating nature and sport, but for celebrating the Mountaineer spirit across former, current and always Mountaineers. Both Fall Family Weekend and Homecoming took place in October and provided a chance to connect generations of Mountaineers with their families.

A highlight of Homecoming weekend is always the parade along High Street. That proved true once again, despite raining — quite literally — on our parade. In the figurative sense, though? It could never.

Let's Go, Mountaineer(s)

No matter the month, there's never really a better way to close out a collection of photos than with a look at our 69th Mountaineer Mascot, Mikel Hager. Our department works closely with the Mountaineer each year to help document their time as the University's mascot, providing them content for social media, providing the University with marketing material and helping to define the image of, quite possibly, the most recognizable mascot in the country.

A lot of times, that's capturing the mascot around campus, at obligations or at sporting events — as seen during the soccer team's win over Marshall. Possible bonus points on the table if you capture Hager accidentally taking a Snapchat selfie with a Lord of the Rings filter enabled. Other times, like with state scenes, it means driving elsewhere in the state to capture the Mountaineer in a different type of state scene as Persinger contributed below.

These monthly photo stories will run each month with a look at the previous 28 to 31 days' work. They, like the trees each month, will evolve, but the goal will always be to connect alumni, students and fans of West Virginia with what is happening on, and around, campus through our photography staff's lenses.

We'll see you in December with the next set.

Let's Go.

Active Campus Alert

Campus Scenes

State Scenes

Our Home Among the Stars

Mountain State Derby

Once a Mountaineer ...

Let's Go, Mountaineer(s)

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