Columbus to host 59th Annual ONPA Convention April 16 - 17
Whether you’re interested in multimedia, community photojournalism, or learning how to make it on your own as a freelancer, this year’s ONPA convention, April 16-17, in Columbus, is for you:
- Want to learn how to do produce award-winning video projects? We have a four-time Emmy winner who will show you how.
- Want to be inspired to come up with your own ideas and be a better photojournalist? We have one of the best community photojournalists in the country to help you.
- Want to find out if there’s life after newspapers? We have someone who is making a successful transition from newspapers to freelancing and will tell you how it can be done.
Our speakers have a wealth of knowledge in their areas and you won’t want to miss this opportunity to hear what they have to say and ask questions. An additional speaker for television members will be added to the program as soon as we get a confirmed commitment.
Kathy Kieliszewski is one of the top multimedia producers in the country. She and her talented team of photographers and videographers have won four National Emmy Award awards at the Detroit Free Press. The most recent Emmy was awarded for a five-part series documenting The Boys of Christ Child House, a foster home on Detroit's west side. www.freep.com/christchild
Her work at the Free Press has been recognized by the NPPA Best of Photojournalism competition, the 2009 Webby Awards and as a finalist in the Pictures of the Year International's annual competition's documentary project of the year as well as numerous photography and picture editing awards. She is currently working on a full-length documentary called Courtney Hawkins Comes Home.
A graduate of Michigan State University, Kathy lives in Grosse Pointe Park, Mich., with her husband, two boys and a dog named Sherman.
Denny Simmons has been a photojournalist (both editing and shooting) for 16 years, the last 10 at the Evansville Courier & Press.
Pictures of the Year International has honored his work multiple times and he has won Region 4 Photographer of the Year twice and also Indiana POY and NPPA Best of Photojournalism POY (Smaller Markets). He also received the John Ahlhauser Award for the third time for his work on the article, "Highways and Byways – A weekly photographic report." He was named College POY in 1993.
His stops along the way for official and not-so-official internships include The Joplin (Mo.) Globe, Chanute (Kan.) Tribune and National Geographic Magazine. Simmons got his first full-time job at the Jacksonville (Ill.) Journal-Courier. From there he worked at the St. Joseph (Mo.) News-Press, Waukegan (Ill.) News Sun and the Evansville Courier & Press.
During his time as a working photojournalist, Denny has volunteered in various positions for the National Press Photographers Association and is currently the National Clip Chair. He strongly encourages seasoned and not-so-seasoned photographers to give back to the profession by taking the time to volunteer for portfolio critiques, mentorships, web design or whatever the NPPA's needs might be. Simmons is also an advocate of maintaining the highest ethical standards of the profession.
Denny is married to Penny (yeah, Penny and Denny) and they have two kids, Ben, 13, and Hannah, 11. A beagle named Indy rounds out the family.
Rob Sumner is a founding member and photographer at Red Box Pictures, a Seattle-based commercial and editorial photography studio.
Red Box Pictures was formed by four members of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer photo staff when the paper ceased printing and laid-off its staff in March of 2009. Red Box Pictures founding members include Sumner, Scott
Eklund, Dan DeLong and Andy Rogers.
Red Box Pictures (www.redboxpictures.com) offers services ranging from corporate and editorial to portraiture and weddings. Their clients include Costco, T-Mobile, Intellectual Ventures, Pepsi, USA Today, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times.
Rob will discuss how he and his former P-I colleagues formed their business and redefined their careers in the face of the closure of the paper and a struggling economy.
Prior to Red Box Pictures, Rob was the photo assignment editor at The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He managed the day-to-day operations of the photo desk, helped plan photographic coverage across all sections of the paper and edited photographers’ work.
Rob was part of the team that helped the P-I win a second place for best use of photography in the 2009 Best of Photojournalism (BOP) contest, finishing behind The New York Times.
Prior to joining the P-I, Rob worked as a photographer at The Herald News in suburban Chicago and at the Journal Tribune in Biddeford, Maine. He has a bachelors degree in history from Connecticut College and a masters degree in visual communication from Ohio University. He lives with his wife and son in Seattle.
Dave Delozier has been a photojournalist at KUSA-TV in Denver for the past 27 years. His career in photojournalism has spanned more than 34 years. Delozier began his career as a still photographer for a newspaper in western Pennsylvania and with UPI in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
During his time at 9News Delozier has been involved in the daily news coverage of stories throughout the Rocky Mountain west and also traveled to other parts of the world to bring stories home to viewers in Colorado. He has taken his camera to the Middle East to produce a documentary on the birth and unrest surrounding the nation of Israel and to Japan to document the nation and its burgeoning economy. Delozier has also produced news stories in the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Canada and Athens, Greece for the 2004 summer games.
Two of Delozier's more memorable assignments for 9News involved his coverage of the XXVII Olympic games in Sydney, Australia and an hour-long documentary that he produced on Pope John Paul II. The documentary on Pope John Paul II, The Keeper of the Faith allowed Delozier unprecedented access to the Pope and the Vatican during Holy Week.
Delozier has been recognized for his work by a wide variety of professional news organizations. Delozier is the 2009 NPPA Solo Vidoe Journalist Photographer of the Year and was NPPA's POY in 1987 and has been a Regional POY five times.
He has been the recipient of nineteen Emmys in a variety of categories and has also been honored with Associated Press and Colorado Broadcasters Association awards. In 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2007 he was honored with the prestigious RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award for his work at 9News.
Darren Durlach of WBFF-TV in Baltimore is the Ernie Crisp Television News Photographer of the Year. It is the second year in a row the Durlach has been so honored by the NPPA. One of this year’s judges Peter Ross said of Durlach’s work, "The stories kept unfolding, a cascade of natural, memorable moments showcasing extra effort and rock steady shooting. This video had such positive energy. The stories were natural sound masterpieces."
