a few awards

Last week I learned I've won a few photo awards since December. Since NPPA (national press photographers association) is judged by a different newspaper staff each month, it often takes a while for the awards to be published. Our newspaper competes in Region 8 along with newspapers of all sizes from Louisiana, New Mexico, and Texas.

These are the NPPA awards I recently won:
- First Place, Spot News, December 2009, Region 8 (photo below)
- Third Place, Sports, December 2009, Region 8
- Third Place, Illustration, December 2009, Region 8
- Third Place, Individual Audio Slideshow, December 2009, Region 8
- First Place, Sports, February 2010, Region 8

On Saturday I won four awards in the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors' annual contest (TAPME), based on work from 2009. Since we have a circulation of almost 50,000, our newspaper is Class AAA, meaning it competes with papers with a circulation of 30,000 to 124,999.

These are the TAPME awards I received:
- First Place, Feature Photography
- First Place, Best Photo Gallery
- Second Place, Photojournalism (news)
- Third Place, Best Video over 1-minute

I was also awarded the 2010 Morris Journalism Excellence Award in photography. This was an award for the top photographer in the company's 44 newspapers. It was the only award that included a bonus on my paycheck, so that was great :).
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[I don't usually post photos from spot news tragedies, but since this photo was awarded first place in NPPA's December Region 8 contest, I felt it was okay for this post.]

Clothing lay in the street where a female pedestrian was struck and killed by a vehicle driving north on Quaker just inside Loop 289 Friday afternoon in Lubbock. Benjamin Rodriguez, right, stands along side a Lubbock police car as he's being questioned. Friday, December 11, 2009. (Geoffrey McAllister/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)