Some thoughts and observations following the annual still contest judging last weekend at Kent State University. It was not the most well attended judging, but the live streaming of the contest may have had something to do with that. For most of the day Saturday 8 – 10 people were viewing online taking advantage contest chairman Dave Polcyn’s efforts.

Online viewing is no excuse for students at Kent State. They stayed away in droves until late in the day Saturday and missed a great learning opportunity. ONPA brought the judging to the university for this purpose. The support staff at the university couldn’t be better hosts and the facility is state of the art. Perhaps it is time to look at a new location. It doesn’t seem right to burden university staff with our event if the students aren’t going to participate.

We started a little earlier than normal on Friday and the judging process went smoothly. We never had that feeling of we’re never going to get done. There was plenty of time for judges to articulate their opinions and for those watching to interact with the judges between categories. The early start also made it possible for results and galleries to be posted live.

This was the first year using Photo Mechanic as contest judging software. It worked well, but some changes will be needed next year as to what information photographers put where in the file info fields.

Judges Jim Brown, Matt Detrich and Smiley Pool worked well as a team. That means they didn’t always agree with each other, but worked through their differences to form a consensus. As an aside if you ever get the chance to meet Smiley Pool, feel free to ask him about his name. He gets the question often, its a good story, he likes to share it and I’m not giving it up because I can’t tell it as good as he can.

Every year the judges have a few questions for us regarding the rules and categories. Two that seem to be commented on consistently are why we don’t have some sort of sports portfolio category and why we have a split spot news category based on circulation. Both are issues worth looking at.

While I’m all for combining the spot news category, it might be worth considering a split in the Photographer of the Year category. There is some excellent work being done at smaller papers by photographers carrying a heavy load at some less than glamorous assignments. This is a world void of professional or big-time college sports and little time to work on a long-term story. It’s clearly not a level playing field at the end of the year. It is done at the national level, the idea at least merits discussion.

It might very well also be time to make it mandatory that POY entries include at least one video, audio slideshow or multimedia entry. It would create some problems judging, but considering where we are going as an industry sooner or later this change will be needed to reflect the work we do as journalists.

Looking over the results of the picture story and online journalism winners many of the same stories appears on both lists. It seems separate judging panels had similar views on what were good story telling images.

There were quite a few images this year entered in the wrong category. You see this happening a lot with features and pictorials, features and portraits, features and general news. The feature category is not a trashcan for ‘where do I enter this’. There were at least ten photos that were eliminated in the process that the judges openly stated would have been among the finalists had they been entered in the proper category.

The sports action category was not the most heated debate of the day, but without a doubt the longest. The judges’ dilemma centered on two photos of Cleveland Indians’ center fielder Grady Sizemore crashing into the outfield wall. While the frames were cropped differently, Chuck Crow of The Plain Dealer and Tony Dejak of the Associated Press shot the images at the exact same moment.

The debate was almost a contest in itself. In the end the judges gave both pictures an award of excellence. The judges felt that both the images would be among their top picks if their clone wasn’t there, so both should be rewarded rather than cancel each other out. The moment captured a third win after the category was completed when I shared my edited crop of Tony Dejak’s version. Judges gave me a picture-editing award of excellence. Somehow I don’t think I’m getting a plaque for that win.

In a strange twist in the Campaign ’08 category no images of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John McCain or Sarah Palin were among the winners. The only politician that made the final cut was the man whose record everyone was running against, then sitting president George W. Bush.

A photo of Bush appearing on a video screen at the Republican national convention by Lisa Marie Miller of The Columbus Dispatch was one of the two. The other was by Photographer of the Year, Lisa DeJong whose image of Bush stopping on the campaign trail to greet a woman on her 91st birthday won first place in the category and was included in her portfolio.

There were two stories that stood out to me. Lisa DeJong’s James R. Gordon Ohio Understanding winner, “Survivor’s Journey” and Michael E. Keating’s story about Dustin Carter, who wrestles despite having lost portions of all of his limbs. The two stories never went head-to-head, as Keating did not enter the Ohio Understanding category.

It should come as no surprise that Andrea Levy of The Plain Dealer swept the issue illustration category. She has peers, but no rivals.

The final debate of the day among the judges was the Best of Show category. Many years this is a slam dunk, but not so this year. Final contenders were Keating’s wrestling story, a weather pictorial by Karl Kuntz of The Columbus Dispatch and the eventual winning single image of wrestler Dustin Carter shot by Andy Morrison of The (Toledo) Blade. See the image in the post below.

Finally thanks to Gary and Carole Harwood for opening their home to ONPA following the judging. It was an enjoyable evening. Those who stayed late got a sneak peek at a project about literacy in Cuba recently undertaken by Gary that already has some wonderful images in it. It’s got Ohio Understanding entry written all over it when it’s completed.

And so it goes – remember your best picture should be one you haven’t taken yet, not the one you just won an award for.