Updated 7/18/2008
Video clips are now available for all winners from Q3. Click on the thumbnail image to load the video.
Half the stories in this category were worthy of a national first place. Two of the stories were finalists of all the judges.
“The Cops Won't Talk” had plenty of action, the photographer was in the right place at the right time, capturing out of breath cops, eye witnesses moments after it happened and the arrest of the subject. It was a great job, but “Perfect Day For Flying” was slightly better. What won over the judges was the way the photographer was able to take a limited opportunity and make the most of it. His ability to get tight shots of the victim and the evacuation put this story over the top.
Half the stories in this category were worthy of a national first place. Two of the stories were finalists of all the judges.
The judges felt the winner, “Snowball’s Saga” contained lots of natural moments and the story wasn't forced. It had good visuals and was a well told story. They also felt a lot of the stories weren’t General news stories.
It was hard picking a winner, but we came to the conclusion that “The Trumpeter of Hawthorn” is the best of the best.
We liked it for its outstanding photography, stellar editing and an interesting character. The story having no reporter track held together well.
Sometimes when there isn’t a narration, the story either has little focus, or moves very slowly this did. We also liked the reaction shots of the drivers listening to the trumpeter.
Needless to say, all of the stories were impressive. But we narrowed the best of the best to four stories. The Walworth, Field of Dreams, Fit for a King and Walking with Bears.
We all loved the texture and the photography of Field of Dreams. It had that incredible wrath of god feeling to it. Our jaws dropped when watching the bears story. Simply incredible, but we were all in agreement it better be. We thought it was kind of like shooting fish in a barrel. You better deliver when you have so much there to shoot. And Scott did deliver a great story. Jeff Christians worked his butt off on his story. Tons of work went into making The Walworth story. Jeff was everywhere, on the boat, off the boat and he delivered with a great story.
But we kind of went against the grain with our winning story. The Walworth and Walking with Bears scored big wins in the Best of NPPA contest, but we ended up picking another story. Fit for a King.
Steve Rhodes is the Tiger Woods of photography. Tiger Woods made golf cool. And in the same way Tiger made golf cool, Steve Rhodes has made Indiana cool. Story after story, Steve Rhodes makes Indiana seem like the coolest place on the planet.
With Fit for a King, Steve once again delivers. The shooting, the editing, nobody comes close to this guy's track record. Quarter after quarter this guy delivers. Another fantastic story to add to already long list of winning stories.
Video clips are now available for all winners from Q2. Click on the thumbnail image to load the video.
While there were 10 terrific spot news stories, the panel was in agreement for the winning entry. For “They Thought They Had It”, the photojournalist showed tremendous poise and patience gathering compelling sound and pictures of a small town’s church burning, while the fire was still raging. Extra points were given to the photojournalist for not missing dramatic visual moments from the fire- and gathering outstanding interviews to propel the story. It was apparent that the reactions to the event were genuine and in the heat of the moment while the fire was still beyond the fire fighters’ control, and not gathered after the fact when “it was safe.” The panel was very impressed with the ability to gather moments while not missing the action.
There were a few other outstanding stories to select from- most notably a terrific natural sound piece about a woman who went to her parking space to find a note telling her that a snake had crawled into (and was still inside) her car- and a compelling story about a nighttime school bus crash on an icy roadway. In the end, the urgency of the moment, and the gutsy storytelling of “They Thought They Had It” won our top praise.
A VERY HARD DECISION!!! In the end, we can only pick one unfortunately. Some entries lacked nat sound breaks that would have added to the story, but that’s being picky. All entries were more than worthy of a national first. One thing every story had – INCREDIBLY COMPOSED SHOTS!!! WOW!!! The winner, DNR, had captured amazing moments that set itself apart from the rest!!!
There was a big variety of stories, so it was kind of hard to pick. There were good, solid stories throughout, but only one or two stood out. Creativity in shooting and editing was lacking.
There was poor sound on some entrees, they were over modulated (bad dub or bad audio... hard to tell). Overall, a lack of creativity. The cream came to the top... overall I was a little disappointed with the entrees.
Great work from all the photojournalists—they all did a great job in shooting, editing, lighting and overall storytelling. “Abby” won because it had all the elements to tell a compelling story; it had natural moments, surprises, and incredible emotion with a great story being told through the camera with sound and wonderful pictures.
“The 3:01” was also well done with awesome sequencing that had action! The photojournalist also did a great job in using what he had at the location to tell a compelling story.
“Abby” just had the whole thing when it came to a wonderful story incredible job by the photojournalist and the reporter to allow the moments to tell even a more emotional story. The little girls innocence and joy really came through it was a classic story of hope and put an adorable face on it—Abby’s Face. It was a quality piece of work.
Video clips are now available for all winners from Q1. Click on the thumbnail image to load the video.
Honestly, "Stampede of One" was clearly the best! We loved the nats, pacing and the story was well told. Wonderful shot variety and we loved the interview shot of the kids on the second floor balcony. There was a logical beginning, middle and an end. This is an example of storytelling and obviously the reporter and photojournalist were on the same page. But above all, this story had the 2 most memorable shots in the entire category. The photojournalist did a great job of capturing the buffalo jumping between two cars!! Then there was the helicopter shot of the buffalo being shot. We did hope there was some discussion of whether to include the shot as we believe some newsrooms would have objecting to using it. But clearly, this station did not have a problem with airing it. Overall, the photojournalist and reporter should be proud of the story and work they did!
This group of photojournalists has talent and everyone clearly put forth a very good effort. There was something great about each story. Some photojournalists had obviously thought about their ending shot, some stories had fantastic pacing, great nats, nice shot selection and a few captured some good action-reaction. That said, the exact opposite could be said for some of the stories and they could have been better. A few of the stories could have been stronger had they not contained soo many wide shots and had more shot variety. In a couple of the stories, the natural sound or even the sound bites could not be understood! Pacing seemed uneven in a few and the reporters and photojournalists were not always on the same page. In a few stories the video and reporter track had nothing to do with each other... aside from the fact that it was video from the same scene... a fire. But again, overall we did enjoy the work we saw. The effort comes through!
General news is usually a strong category, and this group did not disappoint. All of the stories were well shot and creatively edited. But Region 8’s “Neither Rain Nor Sleet” had it all. The time and effort put into the shooting paid off with some great moments. The photog and reporter followed the story from beginning to end, working together to create a memorable piece.
We felt like the entries in the category were solid overall. There was a lot of good storytelling, but 2 stories stood above the rest. “The Envelope” was a very well-done piece. We thought the photographer did a great job chronicling a non-visual, but interesting story. There was good story structure, especially considering it was a nat package. Also, a nice job capturing emotion and natural moments at the end. But, we all felt “A Sentimental Journey” was clearly the best story we saw. It was simply beautiful.
It was carefully crafted and sequenced...you could tell a lot of thought went into each shot. The sound was clean and crisp and consistent throughout. The shot variety was great and there was a clear beginning, middle and end.
Wow, instead of one or two stories standing out, we had to decide between 11 great works of art. Every piece rocked in its own way. Five judges debated at length—in fact at times an old fashioned shouting match. In the end the piece that took top honor won because of its pure beauty and heartfelt storytelling. Overall the level of NPPA photojournalism has been cranked up a notch.
