National – July 2017 – Spot News

Judges Comments

All three winners in this category were multi-image submissions, and we felt the first and second place winners were strong shoots and edits. Again, in a few other entries, strong pictures that would have been solid contenders as single frames were negated by multiple images that drew us away from the impact of the stronger images.The 1st place winner told the story of a plane crash into a residence with three effective images that conveyed emotion, the extent of the damage and a great overview photo that sets the story up for the reader. It's simple and effective spot news photojournalism. The 2ndplace selection was the strongest of several fire entries, and this one stood out due to the strength of its images. The presented images are quite strong, and we especially liked the images of the flag, the cats being tended to, the overview and the exhausted firefighters. This photographer had a great shoot. There were several entries of people reacting to murders or acts of violence, and for our 3rd place winner,the cutline played a role in helping us choose. In most of these pictures, the people photographed are identified as "relatives" or"family members." But in the winning photo, a strong, emotional image of a mom mourning the shooting death of her 14-year-olddaughter, the photographer provides the name of both mother and daughter, and for us, that was the difference.

Judges: John Harte/Bakersfield College, Alex Horvath/New York Newsday