Using the system where each 1st place award receives 3 points, 2nd place receives 2 points and 3rd place receives 1 point, here are the top scorers from 2012 (complete standings below):

1. Parker Michels-Boyce (24 pts)
2. Kyle Green (23 pts)
3. Ross Taylor (12 pts)

Big thanks to our judges this round from the Concord Monitor, photographers John Tully, Andrea Morales and Samantha Goresh.

ILLUSTRATION

1. Kyle Green/Roanoke Times – The color, the lighting, and the concept was well executed.
2. Ross Taylor/The Virginian-Pilot - The humor and subtle details were emphasized by the organized and well-lit frame. Organized chaos.
3. Ross Taylor/The Virginian-Pilot – Nice light and interesting concept that connects back to the story. We understood the hand coming in the frame on the left, but could have done without it.

Comments: Mixed and interesting entries overall. The ones that rose to the top were executed the best. Colors and organization in the frame also helped.

FEATURE

1. Rebecca Barnett/The Roanoke Times – Uses light really well and conveys a level of intimacy.
2. Bob Martin/Free Lance-Star - Nice seeing. The lighting, the color, and composition all line up and work together.
3. Ross Taylor/The Virginian-Pilot – Couldn’t figure out what the dog is doing, but we awarded this because of a level of commitment to the story. We would have liked to a little more of a connection to the people, but the ritual and idea of hunting as a family came across in the photo.

Comments: The category was fairly weak, with the award-winners rising quickly to the top. Most of the images feel like straight-forward event coverage or shoot-and-scoot mentality. We didn’t feel like the photographers brought much to the situations to tell a story.

PORTRAIT

1. Parker Michels-Boyce/The News & Advance – Works alright with space framing the artist’s head.

Comments:We had a tough time awarding images in the category because the portraits seemed like more fleeting moments that didn’t give enough sense of who the subject was.

SPORTS

1. Kyle Green/The Roanoke Times – Great moment, nice light, with a clean enough background. Other emotions add to the excitement.
2. Sam O’Keefe/The News & Advance - This is a common photo we see from cross country meets, but the frame was well-done and unusual. The light was used well and it was a well composed frame.
3. Sabrina Schaeffer/The Daily Progress – Great moment. The eyes made it.
4. (HM) Ross Taylor/The Virginian-Pilot – Sweet story but we wished it was composed a little better.

Comments: The category had a lot of nice images to choose from. The feature photos definitely stood out more than the action photos.

NEWS

1. Ross Taylor/The Virginian-Pilot – Nice composition that draws us in to an emotional moment.
2. Andrew Shurtleff/Daily Progress - We awarded this because it was an interesting take on a news event. Went beyond the obvious photos we often see from spot-news events.
3. (tie)P. Kevin Morley/Richmond Times-Dispatch – Pretty funny moment in a sea of chaos from an overly-staged event.
4. (tie)Ross Taylor/The Virginian-Pilot – Hilarious moment from an annual, often treated mundane, assignment.

Comments: The photos that rose to the top did so because the photographer was able to step away from the obvious, yet still doing justice to the subject.

MULTIPLE

1. Parker Michels-Boyce/The News & Advance – Found an interesting character and stuck with it to get a little bit beyond the surface. A few nice images with some minor redundancies.
2. Rebecca Barnett/The Roanoke Times - Nice photos in a tight edit. Follows the process with a few surprises. Really liked the photo of J.D. kissing Jillian while outside.
3. Kyle Green/The Roanoke Times – Some nice visual photos and details. Strong beginning, but a stronger narrative with a tighter edit would have carried this story in the category.

Comments: We liked a lot of photos throughout the entries, but we like to see more emphasis on telling a story rather than just a collection of images. Some entries would have benefited from a tighter, more thoughtful edits.

*********
All scorers from 2012:

• Parker Michels-Boyce (24 pts)
• Kyle Green (23 pts)
• Ross Taylor (12 pts)
• Sam O’Keefe (8 pts)
• Rebecca Barnett (8 pts)
• Andrew Shurtleff (8 pts)
• Jay Diem (7 pts)
• Sangjib Min (5 pts)
• Rob Ostermaier (5 pts)
• Jill Nance (4 pts)
• P. Kevin Morley (4 pts)
• Bob Martin (4 pts)
• Earl Neikirk (4 pts)
• Ryan Kelly (3 pts)
• Jeff Mankie (2 pts)
• Stephanie Klein-Davis (2 pts)
• Sabrina Schaeffer (1 pts)

This round was judged by Mark Johnston and staff at the Daily Herald in Provo, Utah. Thanks to them!

FEATURE

1. Kyle Green/Roanoke Times
2. Jay Diem/Eastern Shore News
3. Earl Neikirk/Bristol Herald Courier
4. (HM) P. Kevin Morley/Richmond Times-Dispatch

Comments: Nice mix in features. Wish 3rd place would have been more careful with their toning as it’s such a great moment but the large amount of haloing dropped it down. The HM was a great, fun moment, but wish they’d worked more with the composition- shoot the same scene again but exclude everything else but the kid and the reflection and that could be such an amazing shot.

PORTRAIT

1. Parker Michels-Boyce/The News & Advance
2. Andrew Shurtleff/Daily Progress
3. Parker Michels-Boyce/The News & Advance
4. (HM) Andrew Shurtleff/Daily Progress

Comments: Portraits were all nice, from high energy to nice quiet moments.

SPORTS

1. P. Kevin Morley/Richmond Times-Dispatch
2. Andrew Shurtleff/Daily Progress
3. Rob Ostermaier/The Daily Press
4. (HM) Rob Ostermaier/The Daily Press

Comments: Sports was tough. #1 got it for great peak action and emotion with that expressive face. After that it was a hard choice of best peak action as they were all great.

NEWS

1. Rob Ostermaier/The Daily Press
2. Kyle Green/Roanoke Times
3. Jeff Mankie/News & Messenger
4. (HM) Kyle Green/Roanoke Times
5. (HM) Parker Michels-Boyce/The News & Advance

Comments: Nice moment for first place news, (just wish they’d been a bit more cautious with their dodging as they’ve lost the shadows in the face while they’re heavy elsewhere throughout the image). Honorable mention of the bus accident- took me a while to see the kids in the bus watching and wish they’d played with that more. Would have been an amazing image to see it a bit tighter with their reactions included.

MULTIPLE

1. Jill Nance/The News & Advance
2. Andrew Shurtleff/Daily Progress
3. Kyle Green/Roanoke Times
4. (HM) Jay Diem/Eastern Shore News

Comments: Love that young Elvis story, some great moments and overall well composed images. The rowing story was great although a bit repetitive and wish they’d made another selection for a stronger lead image. The HM story about the horses has some lovely frames, but could have done with a much tighter edit to move it up.

Many thanks to our lovely judges at the South Bend Tribune:
Santiago Flores, South Bend Tribune visuals editor
Robert Franklin, senior staff photographer
James Brosher, staff photographer

FEATURE

1. Jay Diem/Eastern Shore News
2. Kyle Green/Roanoke Times
3. Jeff Mankie/News & Messenger

Comments: It was a toss up between first and second for us as both frames included great emotional moments. Third place is a nice everyday feature with nice repetition in the flowers.

NEWS

1. Parker Michels-Boyce/The News & Advance
2. Stephanie Klein-Davis/Roanoke Times
3. Ross Taylor/The Virginian-Pilot
4. (HM) P. Kevin Morley / Richmond Times-Dispatch

Comments: It was tough choice for us between first and second as we liked both frames. Third place included an interesting angle that we often don’t see, especially in a large fire. The honorable mention frame was a nice, unguarded moment.

PORTRAIT

1. Parker Michels-Boyce/The News & Advance
2. Jay Diem/Eastern Shore News
3. Parker Michels-Boyce/The News & Advance

Comments: We really thought the first place frame stood out in this category. Nice ambient light news portrait that helps tell the story well. Also, it’s compositional value is commendable. Second is a nice use of the torch as the lighting source. Third place is a very nicely lit subtle sportrait.

SPORTS

1. Rebecca Barnett/The Roanoke Times
2. Sam O’Keefe/The News & Advance
3. Rob Ostermaier/The Daily Press
4. (HM) Sam O’Keefe/The News & Advance
5. (HM) Kyle Green/The Roanoke Times

Comments: This was a tough category to judge. Very nice peak action, reaction moments and quirky pictures. First place was a quirky baseball park feature that made us all laugh. Second is very graphic and works great in color. Third was a nice job by the photographer to catch the action.

MULTIPLE

1. Sam O’Keefe/The News & Advance
2. Parker Michels-Boyce/The News & Advance
3. Jill Nance/The News & Advance

Comments: The winners stood out in this category. We liked the variety and moments in the first place story, but felt that it could have been ordered more effectively. Second place is a nice profile story, but we saw a couple repetitive frames that could have been trimmed.

Our judges from the Tampa Bay Times* (formerly the St. Petersburg Times) photo staff were: Melissa Lyttle, Lara Cerri, Chris Zuppa and Dirk Shadd.

PORTRAIT

1. Ross Taylor/The Virginian-Pilot – humor is the hardest thing to get at in a photograph, and this has not only that but real personality shining through, with some unexpected candor.
2. “Sangjib Min/The Daily Press - beautiful “active” portrait, with all the right elements: sweet light, contextual clues and a “moment” in that look of concern on her face.
3. Sam O’Keefe/The News & Advance – “how cute is she.” we loved it and wanted to know what the story was immediately. a better background could have helped elevate this photo though, she just feels haphazardly placed in the frame and shot with a lens that was a touch too wide.
4. (HM) Kyle Green/The Roanoke Times – the officer looks both proud and like a total bad ass. like all the leading lines and the framing of the shot.

SPORTS

1. Ryan Kelly/Christopher Newport University – love the seeing, it’s fun. it automatically rose to the top. i feel like we’ve all seen a million free throws at a million games and never come away with that picture.
2. Kyle Green/The Roanoke Times – it’s a different angle on the celebration/jube shot, it’s a nice story-telling image. they’re all down but not for the same reason.
3. Kyle Green/The Roanoke Times – like that the photographer took us somewhere we can’t normally go on a diving image. wished it was a tad wider, looser, on top and bottom to emphasize the graphic elements and reflection, but it’s really solid.
4. (HM) Rob Ostermaier/The Daily Press – great lensing, solid moment.

FEATURE

1. Earl Neikirk/Bristol Herald Courier – simple, gorgeous, painterly and refreshing. eye-catching beauty.
2. Parker Michels-Boyce/The News & Advance – nice moment. innocence of the moment transcends. great info in caption as well.
3. Sangjib Min/Daily Press – nice lensing and clean angle, pretty backlight works well, and it’s just different enough from your typical shadow feature. the shadows of tree branches add to the nice composition.
4. (HM) Jill Nance/The News & Advance – again, nice lensing, repitition of shapes really helps isolate the one lone kid. nice way to illustrate the slow ski season.

NEWS

1. Kyle Green/The Roanoke Times – intimate way of telling a daily story. nice moment, nice information with the layering as well. really takes you into their home and makes you feel the situation.
2. Bob Martin/Free Lance-Star – really strong moment, caption added to it. having names in such a personal moment helps elevate it. the photojournalist took the time and effort to know what was going on to know the story.
3. Kyle Green/The Roanoke Times – pure, heavy raw emotion just hits you in the gut.
4. (HM) Rob Ostermaier/The Daily Press – one of the better candle light vigil shots we’ve seen. nice light and composition, but felt like it’s lacking a moment necessary to elevate it to one of the top spots.
5. (HM) Sangjib Min/The Daily Press – nice way of layering and showing sophisticated storytelling. it was a harder read and took time to figure out, but that’s one of the things we liked about it too.

MULTIPLE

1. Parker Michels-Boyce/The News & Advance – we loved the feature single from this story and were glad to see it develop into a story, knowing more was there. always nice to see a photojournalist dig deeper. there are some sweet, tender moments, and obviously some trust built and a certain comfort level established to allow the photographer to blend seamlessly into the scene.
2. Sangjib Min/The Daily Press – there are some decent moments in here, but it feels like it’s lacking in depth and very day in the life-ish and superficial storytelling on the part of the photographer. every photo seems to be a process photo, and nothing elevates it past that verb-layer for us.
3. Kyle Green/The Roanoke Times – we really really wanted to like this one more, but poor editing brings it down. the last two photos were weak and unnecessary (and had us scratching our heads), and the sword fighting photo could have been helped by better composition. the opening shot of the storm trooper was great though, and graphically pleasing, liked the 2 bathroom moments and the little girl encountering r2d2 as well.

More on my blog and at The News & Advance.

Kevin Ferrel (right) holds onto a guide rope that keeps the specially designed batteau aimed straight as crew members behind him struggle to hold their position against the strong rapids of Balcony Falls on the James River near Glasgow, Va.

Members and friends of the expedition stand on the shore of the James River before setting up camp for the night.

VirginiaPhotojournalism.com arose from the belief that Virginia-based photojournalists can benefit from an online forum for sharing photos, ideas and contact information. What good is the work of any journalist if it is not shared? How can we grow in our craft without meaningful critique? And how can these discussions start if we don’t even know who each other are? Combining these three missions is as simple as posting a photo every so often and responding to the work of our peers. I have tried to make the process of joining and participating as simple as possible. If you have any questions there are resources on this site to help and I am always available by email. 

In the last few months I have been talking to the officers of the Virginia News Photographers Association and we have all expressed interest in combining our efforts to bridge the gaps that we feel exist between the talented photojournalists across this state. If it comes to be that they choose to house their organization under this roof, I am optimistic that the pooling of resources will benefit everyone.

However, just like this site, the VNPA is only as useful as the dedication of its members. So please take a minute to sign up, create a profile and start participating in the discussion! 

To all my friends in Roanoke this weekend: I regret not being able to join you but I hope you all keep the momentum going both for this site and the VNPA. There is a lot of potential in this state and I feel very lucky to be working alongside all of you. Congrats to all the contest winners and I look forward to another inspiring year!

Thanks for visiting,
Parker Michels-Boyce

Thank you to our judges from the Indianapolis Star (who also gave our entries some wonderful titles!):
Matt Detrich – Staff Photographer
Danese Kenon – Assistant Director of Photography
Robert Scheer – Staff Photographer

FEATURE

1. “Mariachi Band” – Sam Dean/The Roanoke Times – This photo took first because there weren’t a lot of moments in the category so the cool feeling , composition and light helped this come together.
2. “Children’s Museum Extravaganza” – Ross Taylor / The Virginian-Pilot – Again no moments but the cool light and composition and timing helped this.
3. “Meeting Snoopy” – P. Kevin Morley / Richmond Times-Dispatch – This pic had a moment but it was almost there…sweet face on the little girl and way to be ready when it happened.

ILLUSTRATION

1. “Antsy To Find The Perfect Picnic Spot” – Ross Taylor | The Virginian-Pilot – PERFECT execution and full of fun information and a joy to have in anyone’s portfolio!
2. “The Rise of Zombie Games” – Ross Taylor | The Virginian-Pilot – Another illustration packed full of cool visuals with a story telling edge!
3. “Running Back” – Kyle Green / The Roanoke Times – Great portrait but we felt this should have been in the portrait category as we didn’t see any Photoshop manipulation.

NEWS

1. “Protestor Charged” – Robert A. Martin/Stringer – Super story telling image with great emotion that stood way above the rest!
2. “Where Are The Jobs Protest” – P. Kevin Morley / Richmond Times-Dispatch – Nice “In Your Face” emotion that takes the reader where they need to be!
3. “Grieving Father” – Kyle Green / The Roanoke Times – Another great emotion – great face but the photo could use a major crop to help get right into the emotion.

PORTRAIT

1. “Strong Co-Captain – Ross Taylor | The Virginian-Pilot – Greta portrait approach with all the emotion and sense of place but now as we look closer should this be in the illustration category as it looks enhanced with photoshop.
2. “Missing Mother” – Sam Dean/The Roanoke Times  - This was a fairly weak category…we felt this could have been lit better as the cross is blown out.
3. “Track Star” – John Boal(?)/News & Messenger – We thought the lighting was flat and could be a little more dramatic but nice idea.

SPORTS

1. “Celebrate and Complain” – Andrew Shurtleff / The Daily Progress – Great reaction photo of one girl celebrating while the other disputes the call. Fantastic job of capturing it all in one frame!
2. “Exhausted Runner” – Kyle Green / The Roanoke Times – Another great shot that is helped by light and composition…great execution!
3. “Celebrate Winning Goal” –  Jill Nance/The News & Advance – Super face anchoring the photo but a tighter crop would give it more impact.

FEATURE MULTIPLE

1. “Bass Elementary School” – Jill Nance/The News & Advance – Great in-depth story that is well-rounded and really shows the life and celebrations of the students and faculty!
2. “Toys “R” Us” – Sam Dean/The Roanoke Times – Another well told story from a daily event. All bases were covered showing the craziness of the event!
3. “Fox Hunt” – Andrew Shurtleff / The Daily Progress – VERY well shot story but started well and kind of fell off at the end. The three starting photos were awesome but the style fell off at the end where we though  there might have been more.

Managing this website has been a learning process for me, since the site was conceived one year ago, then researched, built, launched, taken down and (is currently being) revamped. In the last few months I have been working with a graphic designer and a WordPress programmer to help smooth over the look and functionality of the site. I feel like the improvements are (or will be) undeniable.

Please stay tuned for more updates. In the meantime, I encourage you to create an account, have a look around and let me know what you think. I appreciate your interest and I hope you return often!

-Parker Michels-Boyce