Northwest – September 2017 – Spot News

Judges Comments

This was a strong category. We had some difficult decisions in the selection process for the winners. The main challenged we faced were loose edits. There would have been different winners if we were not bound to judge the collection images as a whole rather than on a single image. First place showed good hustle and a strong moment. But the crop was a bit loose. We felt the moment was strong enough to outweigh the crop. Second place was a true spot news photo. But again we found the crop to be too loose. It took us a while to get to the feet poking out of the doorway. We didn't select a third place because the edits were far too loose.We found three compelling images in these groups of photos but were weighed down with an undisciplined edit. Tighter is always better. This is not a jab at the winners but a reminder tophotographers to take the time to ask if a picture belongs in thecollection and moves the story forward

Judges: Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel, Gabe Souza/Portland Press Herald