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2002 Better Newspaper Contest — Photography

Division 2 Dailies
1st. Midland Reporter Telegram – “Tuba” by Brian Adamcik. Good composition. “Tennis” by Tim Fischer. Great shot. Good composition. Great use of face. “Wreck” by Brian Adamcik. What a great shot. Captures everything. A picture worth a 1,000 words.
2nd. The Beaumont Enterprise – “58,178” by Tom Eckert. Good emotion. Great quality. “On the lookout for foot and mouth disease” by Pete Churton. Great composition. “Naturist Society” by Scott Eslinger. Great idea for hard to shoot photo.
3rd. The Victoria Advocate – “Spelling is hard work” By T.C. Baker. Good use of face. “Honoring Old Glory” by Frank Tilley. Moving photo. “Taking it easy” by T.C. Baker. Good composition.
4th. Odessa American – “Baseball” by Gary Payne. Good baseball shot. Like to see larger. “Airplane check” by Paul Zoeller. Good composition. “Car chase conclusion” by Lara Meckfessel. Best of three. Good emotion. Might use this on top.

Division 3 Dailies
1st. Texas City Sun – By Dwight C. Andrews. “Volleyball celebration” Says it all. Great emotion. “Shootout” Great quality photo. “A special day” Great emotion. Good use of faces. Real eye-catcher. Great composition and reproduction. Best entry by far!
2nd. Stephenville Empire-Tribune – “Football” by Kurt Mogonye. Should not have cropped football. Good shot. “Emotional finale” by Krista Duhon. Photo worth a 1,000 words. “Basketball” by Adam Daigle. Great shot. Good size and composition. Good emotion.
3rd. Athens Daily Review – By Danni Barger. “Glory to the new born king” Good shot. Moves me. “Showing remorse” Great shot. Shows emotion. Eye-catching. “Riding on faith” Needs to be brighter.
4th. Ennis Daily News – “Derailed” by Sarah Stephens. Good composition. Eye-catcher. “B.J.’s café fire” by Sarah Stephens. Good angle. “Championship celebration” by Billie Brister. Nice emotion.

Division 4 Semiweeklies
1st. Wise County Messenger – “Dog lovers’ days in Decatur” by Skip Nichols. Really eye-catching. “Cycle dreams” by Mitch Word. Where were you taking this shot from? Great. “Home of the brave” by Skip Nichols. Nice idea. It worked.
2nd. Hood County News – “Electrical shock” by Mary Vinson. Wonderful action. Blown up a little much. “Lights fantastic!” by Mary Vinson. Wonderful. “Meeting turns violent” by Jeremy Enlow. A little busy.
3rd. Williamson County Sun – “A royal surprise” by Mark Ashley. Perfect moment. Perfect shot. “For Colton” by Mark Ashley. Good enough to make you feel embarrassed for intruding. “Bustin’ the mutton” by Yuriy Ustinov. You have a good eye.
4th. Uvalde Leader News – “Happy kids” by John A. Bayless. Nice group shot posed but the differing expressions make all the picture. “Under pressure” by Ernest Rodriguez. Wonderful! “Fighting for the ball” by Ernest Rodriguez. Nice action shot. Maybe blown up a little much.

Division 5 Semiweeklies
1st. The Angleton Times – “Next year will be different” by Micheal Boddy. The weaker of the three pictures, but it still tells a story. “Cut! OK, let’s do it again” by Micheal Boddy. My very favorite photo in the contest. “Laid to rest” by Scott Mahon. Great angle for this picture. Good job.
2nd. The Clifton Record – “Help comes from all quarters” by Carol Moulton. Black and white really helps this photo with smoke in the background. “When inches mean everything” by W. Leon Smith. Very nice sports photo. “The way a goose would look at it” by Carol Moulton. Sometimes a picture from the air tells a better story. Nice job.
3rd. Mansfield News Mirror – “Lady Tigers” by Kevin Birdwell. The weaker of the three pictures, because it is grainy. “Tornado” by Lance Winter. Good pictures. “Flood rescue” by Rick Smith. Timing with eye, lips and head, but still a nice photo. It tells a story.
4th. The Highlander Marble Falls – “High jump” by Billy Becker. Photo not very clear. “RV destroyed in fire” by Billy Becker. Very good photo. “Just a swinging” by Tina Phillips. Nice timing, but the photo is average.

Division 6 Weeklies
1st. Austin Business Journal – By Sarah Jorgenson. “Bust before the boom” Nice, innovative shot. Good composition. Did you notice misspelled word in cutline? “Spreading the tech gospel” Good composition, color reproduction. Attractive headline and cutline. “A doctor with heart” A good picture. Excellent composition and reproduction. Could you have used boy’s name in caption?
2nd. The Azle News – “Dog kiss” by Jeri Field. Good photo. Color, composition and reproduction are good also. “Tug of war” by Andy Pham. Good angle, color, reproduction and composition. “Fire” by Carla Stutsman. Excellent photo with heat from fire visible.
3rd. Fredericksburg Standard Radio/Post – “Blast from the past” by Terry Collier. Good composition and reproduction. Use half or one point border to define photo. Good cutlines. “Even angels get the blues” by Cathy Collier. Good photo and cutline. Needs a border. “A big cloud of black smoke” by Terry Collier. Cutline sentences tend to be too long. Crop bottom and left and enlarge to emphasize action.
4th. Rockdale Reporter – “Dukes of dominoes” by Ken Esten Cooke. Good composition and use of light. “Bull wrestling” by Ken Esten Cooke. Good composition and lighting, but quality is missing. “Fire” by Mike Brown. Action is directed outside of photo. Different angle would have been better.

Division 7 Weeklies
1st. Alpine Avalanche – “Just what I wanted” Nice sharp in-focus photo; good reproduction. Good expression in child’s face! Good composition. “Balloon bash” by Betse Brooks. Nice colorful photo; eye-appealing; good cropping. “Film crew” by Betse Brooks. Nice angle. Shows everything intended. Good quality. Color reproduction. I may have cropped a bit more off top and elbow off left.
2nd. The Free Press Buda – “Torching of old Kyle home” by Sheryl Grimes. Excellent color reproduction. Composition. Photo shows all: fire, house, firemen/truck; cropped well. “Up, up and away” by Cyndy Slovak-Barton. Good reproduction. Well-balanced. “Kyle unplugged” by Cyndy Slovak-Barton. Good eye for the unusual photo. Photo could be a little brighter, just a little more contrast. Good overall shot.
3rd. Colorado County Citizen – “Basketball” by Joanie Griffin. Your weakest photo of the three. Somehow my eye goes to the white blank wall in center when focus should be on Fitzgerald. “Interstate accident” by Tana Ross. Good reproduction, composition. “Gardner” by Tana Ross. Excellent color reproduction; cropped well, good contrast; in focus.
4th. The Cameron Herald – By Mike Peck. “Eyes the bucket” Photo too gray. Good action shot and cropping. “Barn fire” Good composition. “Out of the haze” Good shot of firemen.

Division 8 Weeklies
1st. Clay County Leader – “Patriotism” by Elizabeth Hickenbottom. Good color reproduction, size, subject matter and composition. “All done” by Phil Major. Liked view; good color reproduction; cropping and size of photo. “Aerial acrobatics” by Phil Major. Good action shot, cropped well. Photos like this are not easy to get.
2nd. The Community News Aledo – By Christopher Amos. “A fuel tank spill” Sharp, in focus. Good quality and reproduction of photo; good cutline tells everything without getting too lengthy. “Rock climbing” Sharp, in focus. Good angle for shot. The children on ground show how high Eric was. Would have cropped little more on left. Glad to see it three columns wide.
3rd. DeSoto Today – “Soccer head” by David Goodspeed. Good action shot; unusual shots are hard to get. Timing is always crucial. “Hi-tech racer climbs wall” by David Goodspeed. Good action shot again. Photographer has good eye for the unusual. Good cropping, composition. Don’t like to see cutlines this long. Captured intensity of climber. “I have a dream” by Chris Hudson. Good feature picture. I would have cropped it more on right. A little too much red in color balance. Looks like the little guy did a great job for his performance. Good “reader” appeal.
4th. Cedar Hill Today – “Dealing with the loss” by Matt Slocum. Good subject matter; photo tells the whole story; would like to have photo a little brighter. Probably due to lighting in gym. “Going for it” by David Goodspeed. Good quality photo; action shot; in focus. Good cropping. Hard though to make the photos “out-of-the-ordinary.” “Keeping it under control” by Chris Hudson. Would like to see photo another column wider; cutline too long. Why not a separate story on fire?

Division 9 Weeklies
1st. Lancaster Today – “We made it” by David Goodspeed. A great photo. Wish third photo was up to quality of first two. “Hoop grab” by Chris Hudson. Good quality photo. “Learning the ropes” by Chris Hudson. The weakest of the three. Others are way above par.
2nd. Hico News Review – By Jerry McAdams. “Road signs” Good eye catcher for hard to do photo for four-lane expansion. “Field of flags” Good photo and idea of doing another Memorial Day photo. Good composition. “Great catch” The lack of reproduction or bad negative hurt good shot.
3rd. Hill Country News Cedar Park – “Majestic moves” by Meredith Darnell. Good shot. I like the composition. “Cedar Park firefighters” by Thomas Godley. The best use of faces I saw. “Dynamic duo” by Chuck Licata. Good eye-catcher. Not afraid to use size needed.
4th. The Canadian Record – “Community mourns” by Laurie Ezzell Brown. Good shot with what you had. Good use of size. “Quiet storm” by Laurie Ezzell Brown. Great mood shot. Sold me. “Tree’d” by Cathy Ricketts. Nice shot. Need to lighten up for detail.

Division 10 Weeklies
1st. The Clarendon Enterprise – “Close supervision” by Cheryl Johnson. I would love to have seen the photo if you could take three steps to the right then shot. “A ray of hope” by Roger Estlack. Nice. “Blow, blow, blow your boat” by Roger Estlack. Tells the story. Good job.
2nd. The Princeton Herald – “All wrapped up” by Kathleen Noble. Nice photo but crop out the chairs. “Princeton Panthers” by Steve Colwill. Could be a little clearer. “A sugary potion” by Kathleen Noble. Best photo of the three.
3rd. Overton Press – By Charlotte Heldebrand. “I’m so excited” The picture doesn’t show excitement (waiting maybe). “Dog day’s of summer” My favorite of the three. Could be a little clearer. “Raising the roof” Would like to have seen the saw.
4th. The Eldorado Success – “Breaking and entering” by Randy Mankin. I feel you could have cropped out the background face. “Attention” by Kathy Mankin. I liked this picture. Even better without so much height. “Eldorado spotlight” by Kathy Mankin. My favorite of the three. Could be a little crisper.