NJPPA OCTOBER 2007 CLIP RESULTS

This Contest was judged by: The Post-Tribune in Merrillville, Indiana. Clip Coordinator, Staff photographer Scott M. Bort Judges: Photo Editor Andy Lavalley, Assistant Photo Editor Jeff Nicholls, Staff Photographer Stephanie Dowell, Freelance Photographers Guy Rhodes, Chuck Mitchell, Scott Brandush and Jason Coons.

News
1st Place: Michael Karas, Herald News, Praying Chairman
2nd Place, Bryan Littel, Bridgeton News, Mourning Family
3rd Place, Thomas E. Franklin, The Record, Car Fire

Comments: A thin category- what, not much news going on in the Garden State? The top three rose to the top quickly. 1.) Good moment, very clean. The news value skyrocketed once judges realized it was the hospital board chairman. 2.) A good emotional moment with the mother. 3.) Very clean image that reads immediately.

Feature Single
1st Place, John O’Boyle, Star Ledger, Hard as Nails
2nd Place, Tyson Trish, The Record, Slyfox Hug
3rd Place, Kevin Wexler, Herald News

Comments: Judges felt this was one of the weaker categories. And, the lack of cutline information, including names, was surprising. 1.) Nice moment but judges were surprised other images from this shoot (as seen in the multi-media category) weren't entered. Lack of the subjects name nearly knocked the image out of contention. 2.) Decent moment with good colors and layers. 3.) Lovely light on main subject. The background worked against this entry.

Sports
1st Place, Marcin Szczepanski, Courier Post, Soccer Header
2nd Place, David M. Warren, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Just Missed
3rd Place, Bryan Littel, Bridgeton News, Shower for the Coach
HM, Greg Pallante, North Jersey Media Group, Basketball Portrait
HM, Greg Pallante, North Jersey Media Group, Fencer Portrait

Comments: Lots of soccer headers and diving receivers. 1.) The best of many, many soccer-header photos. Nice light, clean background and peak action. 2.) Good shot - Judges agreed any of us would have been pleased to come back with this on a Friday night. 3.) A nice celebration shot. Nice job of sticking around to get something different. HMs.) Strong Portraits – Surprising to see portraits in sports in light of there being an actual portrait category. These would have been strong competitors in the portrait category.

Portrait
1st Place, Thomas E. Franklin – The Record – Libero Portrait
2nd Place, Leslie Barbaro – Herald News – Local Artist
3rd Place, Kevin R. Wexler – Injured Dog

Comments: Judges struggled after the obvious first-place choice. 1.) Well conceived and executed. 2.) Well lit but it felt contrived in the overall feeling of the photo. 3.) News value kept this in third place. We debated if this belonged in news instead of portrait.

Feature Multiple
1st Place, Leslie Barbaro, Herald News, Halloween Weddings
2nd Place, Leslie Barbaro, Herald News, Soccer Practice
3rd Place, David M. Warren, The Philadelphia Inquirer, KTW Syndrome

Comments: First place went mostly to the tightest edit. Second and third each had a few strong images but contained others that didn't seem to belong. As an aside, Each of the entries had single images that would have competed well in the single categories. Do your rules allow shooters to pull individual images out of multiple entries?1.) Tight edit and overall best images made this first. 2.) Not bad for a daily feature package. 3.) A better-edited entry would have been first place – Good story, but poor execution.

Multimedia
1st Place, John O'Boyle, Star-Ledger, Mural Painting
2nd Place, John O'Boyle, Star-Ledger, Charles and Bette
3rd Place, Marcin Szczepanski, Courier Post, Family Harvest
HM, Jose F. Moreno, Courier Post,The Monster factory Old-Time Wrestling

Comments: We enjoyed watching these entries. Different styles of both video and audio slideshows. 1.) Well thought out with graphic shots. Good editing on a long-term project. However the time line on this project seems to jump at certain points which we found awkward. 2.) Great news story – Typography was awkward – We felt it could have been edited tighter. 3.) Surreal cranberry footage – The story cohesion doesn't come through. HM.) This piece needed a tighter edit. It was a fun story with good audio and visuals.