COLUMBUS, Ohio — Lisa DeJong from The Plain Dealer and Bill Lackey from the Springfield News Sun are once again ONPA Photographers of the Year. DeJong won in the large market category for the third time in four years and Lackey won the small market category for the second time in three years.
Finishing second in large market competition was Eric Albrecht from The Columbus Dispatch and winning an Award of Excellence was Michael E. Keating of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Keating won Best of Show in the contest for his entry, “Clyde Day” which was the first place winner in the feature picture story category.
The Columbus Dispatch won the Staff of the Year competition in the large market division ending The Plain Dealer’s 11-year run of winning the honors. The Plain Dealer placed second and the Cincinnati Enquirer placed third. The Springfield News-Sun won in the small market division.
The James R. Gordon Ohio Understanding Award was awarded to Maddie McGarvey, a student from Ohio University, which told the story of the growing trend of grandparents raising grandchildren.
Joel Hawksley from Ohio University won the Student Photographer of the Year award. Meg Roussos from Ohio University won the Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship. Steven Turville, also from Ohio University, placed second in the category.
Kyle Robertson from The Columbus Dispatch was the first place winner in the new category of Sports Portfolio.
Fifty-five visual journalists from across the state submitted 832 entries in the 61st annual news photography contest judged over the last three days at The Columbus Dispatch.
Judging the competition were: Steve Mellon, photographer and multimedia producer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sue Morrow, director of The Kalish Workshop and Bill Luster, retired photojournalist from the Louisville Courier Journal.
Judging multimedia and online entries remotely were: Visual journalists Brian Kaufman, Alex Bahou, Romain Blanquart and Kathy Kieliszewski , deputy director of photography from the Detroit Free Press. Dai Sugano, senior multimedia editor at the San Jose Mercury News and Mike Stocker, photojournalist (South Florida) Sun Sentinel.
Judging picture usage categories from the Houston Chronicle were: Steve Gonzales, director of photography, Jill Karnicki, photo editor and Mayra Beltraan, staff photographer.
Neal C. Lauron from The Columbus Dispatch was named Clip Photographer of the Year from points accumulated in the Association’s Monthly Clip Contest. Kyle Robertson from The Dispatch placed second and Eric Albrecht, also from The Dispatch won third place.