Mid-Atlantic – October 2019 – Sports Feature

Judges Comments

The judges spent a lot of time bemoaning poor exposure, questionable composition and crops and feature moments that lacked, well, moment. This category has become rife with photos of celebration and dejection. Those are indeed key moments, and should be rewarded when they tell us the story, but we all really dream of the day when we see a sports feature category that rises to the same standard of uniqueness and moment that we look for in feature single category. First place edged into that position with the majority of the judges thanks to being just enough out of the ordinary, a genuine found moment within the post-game celebration that cannot have lasted long and took as much luck as skill to capture. The reactions of the fans in the background added even more to the moment. Second place really is a routine moment in the post-game celebration trope, but the photographer took the risk to go to the other side, away from the mob, and got lucky for it. The judges decided they might crop the images to more of a square, removing distracting elements from either edge, but that was not enough to affect the placement in this case (first place was that far ahead). Third place stood out for being that non-reaction feature, nicely composed, nicely exposed. The judges also felt compelled to given an HM to the photo of Penn State football players leaving the field, we liked the composition and the thought that went in to leaving the field just to make that frame.

Judges: Sean D. Elliot/The Day, Peter Huoppi/The Day, Dana Jensen/The Day