| Ohio News
Photographer |
| May 1999 |
Semple was chosen as the Robert Coon ONPA Student Photographer of the Year and Kaye named as the winner of the Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship. The awards, based on portfolio, were announced and presented at the annual convention in Dayton.
Semple is currently working as a full-time staff photographer at The Vindicator in Youngstown while finishing her classes a t Kent State. She had placed second in the Fullerton Scholarship competition the previous year.
Fellow Kent State University student Jason Kaye was this years first place winner of the Fullerton Scholarship. A native of Deerfield Beach, Florida Kaye is pursuing a photojournalism degree after spending eight years in the U.S. Army. He has served at posts in Georgia, Texas, Washington and Germany.
Kaye transferred to Kent State last fall and worked as a staff photographer for The Daily Kent Stater where he is now the photo editor and the University's magazine The Burr.
Ohio University student Kelsey Rollins placed second to Kaye in the
scholarship competition.
For the second straight year Witmer was a winner in the product illustration category. He placed second for his work "Morning Glory". The photo also won first place in the illustration category of the ONPA Still Picture Contest earlier this year.
Witmer had previously worked at the Troy Daily News where he was a four time ONPA Clip Contest Photographer of the Year.
Three former ONPA members combined to win a first place in Pictures of the Year Competition. Curt Chandler, Doug Oster, and Pam Panchak teamed to win the newspaper editing division/multiple feature story award.
They edited and layed out John Beale's 18 month long project entitled "Caught in the Web of Poverty." The project followed the matriarch of the family through the struggles of daily life. All three currently work at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Chandler, who formally worked at the Cleveland Plain Dealer as a staff photographer and then picture editor is now the Director of Photography at the paper. Oster and Panchak are picture editors at the Post-Gazette and worked together in Ohio at the Medina County Gazette.
Two Ohio University students also placed in the competition. Penny DeLos Santos won third place in the issue reporting picture story category for her entry "Innocence Lost". DeLos Santos was the 1997 College Photographer of the Year and was a speaker at the NPPA Flying Short Course stop in Cleveland last fall.
Fellow student Amy Toensing received an Award of Excellence in the issue reporting category for her entry "Morning".
Also a winner for the second straight year was Matthew Rafferty of WJW-TV
in Cleveland who was a winner in the NPPA TV Photo and Editing Contest.
Rafferty placed second in the editing competition under deadline for his
entry Cop Funeral.
Speaking of e-mail still vice president Lisa Dutton has joined the computer age and can now be contacted via e-mail at ldutton@aol.com. President Ed Suba is waiting to see if this is just a fad.
Congratulations go out to member Mike Elicson and his wife Jenny of Columbus on the birth of their first child Michael Fitzgerald Elicson who entered the world at 9lbs. 3 oz. Mom, dad and baby are fine and even made an appearance at the convention in Dayton.
Ohio University student Bruce Bennett continues to dominate the NPPA Student Quarterly Clip Contest. Bennett who won the title last year is off and running in 1999.
The second quarter results show Bennett taking third in news, first in sports and a 1,2,3 sweep in the feature category. Kent State University student Jason Kaye placed second in sports in the contest.
The Chillicothe Gazette is once again publishing a Sunday edition. The first Sunday edition hit the streets on May 2. The paper last published a Sunday edition in 1943.
The Society of Professional Journalists' Mark of Excellence Awards are in with the Ohio University and Kent State University placing first and second in the magazine competition. In the on-line publication category The Daily Kent Stater captured first followed by Ohio University¹s Post and Ohio State University's Lantern. The Daily Kent Stater finishing 2nd in the newspaper division.
Also receiving awards were: Tanya Ackerman, Kent State University; first place illustration, Lindsay Semple, Kent State University; second place spot news.
A television station's news department took it its helicopter crew off its traffic detail to assist police in a hunt for a burglary suspect. With the help of SkyFox, the helicopter from WJW-TV Cleveland, police arrested two burglary suspects after a foot chase that crossed Interstate 480 and cut through back yards and several miles of wooded terrain in northern Summit County and into Cuyahoga County.
Macedonia Police credit the assist of SkyFox for the arrest of two suspects who were fleeing police on foot after being seen inside a North Bedford Road home WJW News Director Greg Easterly said the station is not in the business of law enforcement but is willing to help authorities when the opportunity arises during live coverage.
"We simply did what any citizen would have done," Easterly said. "We
did our job and the police did theirs."
Winners from Ohio University include:
Mother Nature threw the only curve into the mix when a deadly tornado touched down near Cincinnati the day the convention opened in nearby Fairborn. The twister kept many of the members in the Cincinnati and Dayton areas from attending as many were kept busy on the job.
Those members who did attend owe a debt of gratitude to the trio of Bill Garlow, Tony Giordullo and Marshall Gorby who together with the help of their families hosted a great weekend.
The festivities opened at the United States Air Force Museum where life member Jim McGraw provided tours to the visitors. McGraw had flown in many of the WWII aircraft on display and is involved with a group in Fairfield County that puts together an airshow annually. His love of aviation was evident in his presentations. From the museum events moved to a night in the always famous ONPA hospitality suite.
Speakers took center stage Saturday morning enlightening both still and television members.
On the still side Steve Mellon of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette started the morning off discussing his journey into photojournalism via a position as a sports editor at a small paper. In his humble low key way Mellon related how he was sent out one day to get a picture for the next days paper, and how his editor worked with him each time he went out. Mellon got tired of the calls at home from irate Indiana basketball fans, and rest was history.
Images from the now defunct Pittsburgh Press were shown, and they demonstrated how to make pictures that are different, subtle and wonderful. His picture story on his journey to China to adopt his daughter was compelling and brought many questions from the audience. Only the sound of his now 18 month old daughter Chloe walking down the steps of the auditorium (with a little help from mom) could distract the crowd from this very interesting presentation.
If you¹ve never heard Ron Kuntz of Reuters talk about photography, you have not lived. ONPA members young and old were treated to one of the greatest performances ever given at a convention. The lucky ones back in Cleveland get watch his show at just about every Indians game, but the rest of us are relegated to seeing it only on an odd occasion.
Kuntz told stories that dated back to the start of his career in the 50's (1950's in case you were wondering) through his current work today. Stories about being a photographer, about working with famous athletes, about covering the Sam Shepherd case, and just about anything else you could imagine.
Kuntz had the place roaring, and he could of spoke for another hour or two and it still would of been too short. He returned for an encore in the late afternoon to present his work in prisons around the country.
Hats off to Ron Kuntz, I've never heard laughter like that at an ONPA convention.
Mike Fender of the Indianapolis Star showed a wonderful series of photographs on high school basketball. It was great to see sports pictures of this depth. He spoke about his love of basketball and Indiana's love affair with basketball.
Bill Waugh, Deputy Director of the State Photo Desk for the Associated Press had a homecoming of sorts. Waugh worked at the Dayton Daily News for sevens years before leaving to serve in several positions at the AP. Waugh showed a variety of images from AP members across the country and gave some insight as to what the AP is looking for in its daily report.
Television members had their morning start off with Scott Livingston of WBFF in Baltimore. Scott focused on how we take the everyday story from the morning producers meeting and make it better.
Before lunch, the room filled as WDTN-TV's Charlie Day and Bob Phillips and WHIO-TV's Denny Cheatham and Chuck Upthegrove gave us their collective views on a combined 150 years experience as a photographer.
Imagine shooting a great story and not having natural sound because there were no microphones on film cameras yet. These guys brought to life their experiences as the first TV Photographers in Dayton. Charlie, Bob and Denny continue to roll tape, as Chuck rolls golf balls after 38 years of TV photography.
In the afternoon, Doug LeGore of WHTM-TV in Harrisburg brought his work to the big screen. Doug handed out hershey kisses (chocolate candies). Some had nuts, some didn't. The object is to find the nuts in the story and not just keep it plain.
To end the day, Ali Ghanbari of WJW-TV in Cleveland talked about his winning entries as the 1998 ONPA POY for the 4th straight year. Ali's biggest point is to punctuate the track and sound bites with nat sound.
The program Saturday evening saw the return of a a more formal awards dinner than in the past several years. Along with the presentation of awards a brief tribute to the late George Smallsreed Jr. was made. Smallsreed was one of the founders of ONPA and had passed away last year. It was always George's wish to bring back the Miss ONPA contest. In his honor it was, however briefly.
Board members present met briefly following the awards dinner to accept a proposal from David Andersen of The Plain Dealer and Kim Fatica of WKYC-TV to host the 2000 convention in Cleveland. The two will co-chair the event and are presently in search of a site and setting a date.
While we look forward to Cleveland in 2000 we can¹t forget the great job the committee in Dayton did this year. A special salute to convention chairman Bill Garlow who could have easily stepped aside to take on more important matters in his life at the time and was their until the very end Saturday night.
He was also fortunate to have Marshall Gorby of The Springfield News-Sun and Tony Giordullo of WDTN-TV by his side. All three worked tirelessly to put on a great convention. Speaker profiles complied by Doug Oster of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Tony Giordullo of WDTN-TV.
Potholes.
Buzzards return to Hinckly.
Opening day.
Ghanbari wins POY title.
All are sure signs of spring in Ohio. This year seemed no different than most as Ali Ghanbari of WJW-TV in Cleveland captured his fifth ONPA Television Photographer of the Year title.
Ghanbari won three firsts, a second, and three third place awards for his work. He placed in all but two categories and captured Best of Show for his story "Camp Convict" which had placed first in editing.
Paul Kwapich of WTOL-TV in Toledo placed second. While Tony Giordullo of WDTN-TV, Dayton and Joshua White of WCMH-TV, Columbus tied for third place.
Ghanbari attributes his success to his employer stating, "I'm a product of my environment. In the past five years of shooting full time, I have been blessed by WJW-TV." "I have a passion for taking pictures and my goal is every day to be a good storyteller. Good composition, capturing the moment, it makes me feel good at the end of the day when I turned out something I can be proud of, and by doing that the recognition will follow," Ghanbari adds.
With 125 entries to sift through, it was a long thirteen hour day for the judges. Due to a judge dropping out at the last minute, we had go with just two. On the panel this year was 1998 NPPA Region 4 Photographer of the Year, Steve Rhodes from WTHR-TV in Indianapolis. Rhodes was joined by Scott Utterback of WAVE-TV in Louisville. Utterback was the Region 4 runner-up POY.
During the lunch break, the board of the Ohio News Photographers Association Inc. held the annual business meeting. Officers attending were Bob DeMay, Chairman of the Board; Ed Suba, President; Lisa Dutton, Still Vice President; Kimberly Barth, Treasurer and Dave Andersen, Secretary.
A motion was made to dispense of the reading of last years minutes. It was moved, seconded and approved.
Kimberly Barth then gave the treasurers report. She stated that ONPA operated at a loss of $320.32 in 1998. Once again the greatest expenses was the awards and plaques handed out to the winners of the annual picture and newstape contests.
There were also increases in the cost of the producing the newsletter. At the end of the year, the checking account had a balance of around $9,000. It was moved, seconded and approved to accept the report.
Next up was the Clip Contest report by Chris Parker. A discussion took place over a disqualification in the January 1999 contest. The picture in question was republished in a "year end" edition. The rules state that it can only be entered when initially published and can only be entered once.
Parker said that he was set for the year with judges and will get the results back in a timely manner for publication in the newsletter. Barth brought up the question of splitting news in "spot" and "general news." Parker will keep track of the number of news picture and how they divide up to see if splitting them would be competitive each month. Also discussed was a quarterly illustration category. It was thought to be a good idea, but not something you would start in the middle of the year.
The longest discussion took place during the Still Picture Contest report by Matt Detrich. This year there was a large problem with people not following the rules. Violations included members not sending their contest fees, labeling slides wrong, packaging them in sleeves improperly and many others. This creates a large amount of work for the contest chairman who is already buried with slides.
It was decided, at the time of the judging, to not disqualify those in violation. Next year will be a different story. The board will go over the rules for the contest to make sure they are clearly written and can be easily interpreted. No tolerance for mistakes will be the rule for 2000. Concern was expressed about maybe losing members if they are disqualified, but we need to be fair to those that do follow the rules.
President Ed Suba reported that everyone was happy with the site used in Columbus for the judging in February although some were unhappy with the judging always being around Valentine's Day weekend. Detrich reported he lost a couple judges because of it. DeMay thought it might be able to be moved back a week. Suba will try to organize a prejudging portfolio critique to be held before Christmas for those who would like the advise. Finally Detrich reported that entries were down last year.
No TV report was given.
A round of applause for the job DeMay has been doing on the newsletter opened his report on it. He said that people have been catching on to what he wants to include and has been receiving more input.
Old business consisted of an update of the estate left to the ONPA by George Smallsreed by DeMay. Smallsreed's house, car and personal belongings have been sold. The estate was estimated to be $200,000 which the ONPA will receive interest from for 20 years and then the principle will be turned over to the organization.
Under new business it was mentioned that no official bids had been received to host next years convention. Cleveland was a hopeful site. Also mentioned was the plan of the board to host the 2001 convention, which will be the 50th anniversary of the ONPA. The original site of Tuscarawas County will be the site.
Nominations were taken for officers of the ONPA. The first name put in the hat was Tony Giordullo for TV VP. With the small number of people present, Richard Bixler nominated the current board. Bob DeMay for Chairman, Ed Suba Jr. for President, Vince Shivers for TV VP, Lisa Dutton for Still VP, Kimberly Barth for Treasurer and David I. Andersen for Secretary.
All accepted. It was moved, seconded and approved to close the nominations from the floor.
A motion was made to adjourn. It was moved, seconded and approved. See everyone next year.
March 5, 1998