Christina and I decided to attend the General News Picture Story category on a Thursday night where the judges looked at 420 different news stories. It was interesting to see what worked and didn’t work as the stories were narrowed down as well as what stories ended up placing.
The judges started out looking at a contact sheet view of each story for about 10 to 20 seconds each. From a missing child story to military stories to stories taking place in hospitals, both poor and standard, the judges were presented with quite a variety of international and local pieces.
Looking through this round alone I found certain stories that weren’t executed well and could have been done better. Christina and I both agreed when we saw the elementary level spelling bee that there was no way it would make it to the next round. The photographer didn’t change their distance from the contestants or use different angles or lenses. I would have loved to see tight portraits of the children’s faces while straining to spell a word or detail shots of the children’s hands fidgeting or their feet doing interesting things. Children give up so many interesting body movements and facial expressions and it made me sad not to see any of that in the story presented.
There was also another story that caught my eye that took place during surgery. The surgeons were wearing bright green scrubs and that immediately made it more visually interesting. While I am sure it is hard to get access, it was hard to see exactly what was going on. Even if the surgery itself is hard to get in the middle of, I wish there had been more detail shots on the tools and other things that are present during surgery. While it is a hard topic to cover, it is something that many don’t ever see. However, without the green scrubs I ‘m not sure if it would have caught my attention the way it did.
While both stories could have been executed better, even if they had been extremely well done they wouldn’t have likely placed in this category this year. Since there were many international disasters and issues, all of the general news picture stories that placed were on those tragic events.
While I agree that the first place winner, “Haiti Earthquake” deserved first place, I feel that the third place winner, “Wrath of Fire Mountain” and second place, “Marks of a Catastrophe: Toxic Sludge Spill in Hungary,” should have been switched.
Although the sludge story gave an eerie feeling by just showing the damage with no people present, I felt the volcano story brought out so much more fear and reaction in me to what was going on. While bodies and animals were covered in ash, there were soldiers and rescue workers fearing for their lives as the volcano still unexpectedly released heat clouds. Although it was after the initial deadly eruption, the story took place in the middle of the catastrophe and the danger that was still present. I also loved how the gray ash covered everyone and thing that was dead and damaged while the survivors popped out of each frame with vibrant colors. To me the colors represented life and I’m glad the story was presented in color. The photographer also captured emotion, details and different situations with different angles and lenses. They worked the scene and I feel they deserved second place.
When I first started watching this category, I wasn’t expecting all of the general news picture stories to be about international disasters. However, after it had ended and the winners were picked I felt that each story had something big to tell and told it in a way that worked well.
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