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2000 Better Newspaper Contest — Photography

Division 2, Dailies 7,000 to 99,999
1.    The Galveston County Daily News — Photographer Kevin Bartram. “Teen shot at school” No cutline needed. Tells the story well. “Dickinson raid” Emotional moment. Great focusing of the shot on the suspect. “Elsik wide receiver” Definitely the picture of the moment! Good timing! Note: Shouldn’t you ID the police at least?
2.    Midland Reporter-Telegram — Photographers U. Frank Williams Jr. and Brian Adamcik. “Lee defensive back” Great timing. I would have cropped it from the right and made it larger. It’s the feature picture. “Hostage” Nice composition. Perfect shutter speed. “Traffic accident” Good job of emotional composition. Too bad it couldn’t run larger.
3.    McKinney Courier-Gazette — Photographer Patrick Springfield. “Ankle bracelets” Nice use of depth of field. Brings in focus. Watch hyphenation on photo credit. “Football” Another case of perfect timing. Great shot! NOTE: You need to spell-check photo credits too. Look at the one on “lots of medals” on same page. “Baseball” What can I say — fabulous. I think I would have dropped the mugs and ran it wider.
4.    The Paris News — Photographer John Conrad. “Crash” You have a good photo eye. Nice focus! “RRV battle” OUCH!! Bulldogette? What about just Bulldog? “Bubble breeze” A little grainy but still has overall effect. Note: Magenta registration was off a little.

Division 3, Dailies Less Than 7,000
1.    Texas City Sun — Photographer Dwight C. Andrews. “Stings fan” In the right spot at the right time. Photo is crisp, cropped just right. Go Stings! “Fire chief funeral” Great enterprise to get this telling photo. It could have been cropped slightly at the top. Still a great shot. Respectful of the situation. “Hang ’em high” A different angle to cover a fishing tournament. These photos were clearly the best of the class.
2.    Athens Daily Review — Photographer Robby Robertson. “Scraping by” Great innovation for a photo we all shoot at one time or another. “A” for effort. “High speed chase” Excellent crop here. Reader drawn into the action. Steal a car, get naked, get caught. Great shot. “Remembering loved ones” A touching moment of a private time. Photo is cropped well.
3.    The Terrell Tribune — Photographers Gayla Baker and Michael Gresham. “School daze” Great shot for the start of school. I’m sure some school officials didn’t like it, but your readers surely loved it. “On top of the world” Photo could have been cropped better on the right side. Still a great moment in time captured forever in the paper. “Mr. HIS” Neat shot. He looks happy. Good contrast with the guy behind Mr. HIS who probably wanted to be someplace else.
4.    Sulphur Springs News-Telegram — Photographer Marla Pinsky. “Joy of sound” Photographer showed good innovation to capture youngsters in the background. “Basketball” Nice basketball photo. Could have been cropped tighter for better impact. “In memory” Very touching photo. The flag, the bowed head, closed eyes and that moustache make for a great shot.

Division 4, Semiweeklies 4,001 or More
1.    Hood County News — Photographers Jeremy Enlow and Leland DeBusk. “Comfort aides” Great photo of a child in misery and the emergency personnel. “Robbery suspects” Great hard news photo of a dangerous situation. “State champs” Jeremy and the fans behind him make this a great photo.
2.    The Garland News — Photographer Summar Smith-Zak. “Accident scene” Great accident photo. The picture tells the story. “Eyes on the prize” Great innovation to create a prize-winning entry. “Following a dream” Wonderful, touching photo. A+.
3.    Richardson News — Photographer Mark M. Hancock. “Wrestling” Excellent shot. Well-cropped and reproduction is great. “Seeing better days” A unique way of jazzing up a boring photo. “Summer setting” Beautiful silhouette shot of a sunset.
4.    Williamson County Sun — Photographers Kim Thompson and Mark Ashley. “A day of pride” Cute feature photo of children eating watermelon. Finger should be cropped out of right side of picture. “Sausage line-up” A+ for effort. It’s nasty in the pit and photo clearly shows that. “Two Aggies” Again, the photo tells the story. A good job of handling the subject with class.

Division 5, Semiweeklies 4,000 or Less
1.    Lamesa Press-Reporter — Photographer Jeffrey Patterson. Patterson apparently has an excellent eye for photography. “Fatal accident” Excellent photo. “Enjoying the summer” Good composition. Hard to catch ball or Frisbee in action. Good shot. I like facial expression. “Inferno” Great action shot.
2.    The Angleton Times — Photographer Micheal Boddy. “Operation train stop” Very good news photo. It tells the whole story. “Historic win” I like it. Picture catches the feelings of the players. “Outlawing drinking” Great shot. I like the angle Micheal Boddy uses to get the depth.
3.    The Wimberley View — “Double decker chicken stacker” Nicely cropped. Good expression. “Swing dancing” Good facial expression. I like the cutline in the corner of the photo. “Before school starts” Captured the action in the right spot.
4.    The Clifton Record — Photographer Carol Moulton. “Baseball” Photographer catches the action where it is. “Halloween” Nice angle. Makes a routine shot interesting. “Freedom Fest” Congratulations to the photographer for being in the middle of the action.

Division 6, Weeklies 3,001 or More
1.    Duncanville Today — Photographer David Goodspeed. “Fire” Great reproduction of a nighttime fire. Photo tells the story. “Behind the ‘seens’” Wonderful shot and reproduction. Unusual. Perfect. “Daddy’s little cowboy” Excellent cropping and reproduction.
2.    Park Cities People, Dallas — Photographer Jake Dean. “Call to the faithful” Interesting photo with excellent reproduction. “Splash” Wonderful shot. Great job of cropping. “Helping hands” Tough subject matter. A real eye-opener.
3.    The Free Press, Buda — Photographer Carl Deal. “Tattoos” Photo says it all. “Restaurant review” Excellent composition and originality. “What’s it gonna take?” Photo again tells the story. Great job of setting up this shot.
4.    The Bandera Review — Photographers Don Sandidge and Carolyn B. Edwards. “Apple festival” Looks like fun. “Fire” Good reproduction. “Kid fish” A different type of sporting shot that catches your attention.

Division 7, Weeklies 2,001 to 3,000
1.    Pilot Point Post-Signal — Photographers Mark Lewis and David Lewis. “Parade” Wonderful job of cropping and reproduction. “Pre-game prayer” Excellent composition. Cutline tells the story of a difficult subject, school prayer. “In memory” Touching.
2.    Aransas Pass Progress — Photographer John Lowman. “Frog toss” Fun photo. Good shot. “Smokey the cat” Cutline says it all. Cute photo. “Panthers” You really don’t have to read who won the game.
3.    Clay County Leader — “Musical Christmas” Wonderful composition and reproduction. “House fire” Good shot. Photo tells story. “Rescue effort” Different angle. Nice photo.
4.    Copperas Cove Leader-Press — Photographer David G. Landmann. “A little more to the left, Mom” Cute shot. It’s all about being in the right place. “Ogletree Gap Folklife Festival” Wonderful reproduction. What fun. “New Horizon” The angle of this photo makes it very interesting.

Division 8, Weeklies 1,201 to 2,000
1.    Palacios Beacon — Photographers Nick West and Tonie Saylors. “Heads or tails?” Perfect cutline and photo. “Bubbles” Nice photo. Great reproduction. Wonderful composition. “Don’t take me to the ballgame” Innovative idea to shoot this picture. Sure tells the story.
2.    Midlothian Today — Photographer David Goodspeed. “Lady Panthers” Excellent reproduction. Good job of cropping. “Blaze” Picture tells the story. “Veterans Day parade” Innovative and good reproduction. Interesting shot.
3.    Northwest Tarrant County Times-Record — Photographer William Miskiewicz. “Eye of nature” Nice job of cropping. Photo tells the story. “Firefighters perish” Excellent reproduction of a very large photo. “Freed” Good shot.
4.    San Patricio County-News — Photographers Johnnie Sue Littleton and Sally Barnes-Soliz. “Ag in the classroom.” Good job of cropping and reproduction. “Drug bust” Good shot of a growing problem. Photo says it all. “Tiny dancer” Cute, good composition. Excellent reproduction.

Division 9, Weeklies 1,200 or Less
1.    The International, Presidio — Photographer Arthur Spragg. “Homecoming” Really great photo. Good use of available light. Good angle showing fans in the background! Maybe an overline is called for. “Baseball” Great action. Perfect position for photographer, ground level. Good expressions. Perfect timing for ball. “Valley Farms” Good slow shutter action. The photo tells the story.
2.    The Clarendon Enterprise — “Vet ceremony” Very good photo. I like the composition, back-lighting and clearness. “Cool creations” Good snow picture. Tells the story. “High-speed collision” Good spot news if you like to show victims.
3.    The Ingleside Indes — Photographers Bill DeFries and Janice Arnsdorff. “How to touch a gator” Nice tight shot. Good expression on faces. “Gold medal jumper” Good action. Nice cropping. “Lady Owls” More good action. I like use of available light.
4.    The Eagle Press, Fritch — Photographers Debra Wells and Raeann Naumann. “Speaking of medals” Nice shot, but really does not say a lot. “Landscape” Very nice pictorial. Good reproduction. “Pre-fireworks” Would have been better without youngster in background.