Best of Colorado 2012Newspapers/Newsmaga

zinesTop LIFESTYLE PHOTO,

ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAITand PHOTO ESSAY entries,

comments from judges and support materials

Lifestyle Photo (4A)Windsor HS – The Windsor ChronicleLauren Schafer

NOTE: The “below the eyes” angle chosen gives this photo a different feel, while subliminally reminding readers of hundreds of rock album covers.

It is posed, yet retains some life, and cleverly includes all four band members.

Lifestyle Photo (3A) Peyton JHS/HS – The Panther Pride Shani LutherNOTE: There is just something about blood drives that draws photographers – perhaps the inherent drama of the faces on donors? The framing here is just right. Great focus, but enough depth of field to show us that there are others also giving blood.

Lifestyle Photo (3A) Salida HS The Tenderfoot Times Catie Wilken – 2nd Place

NOTE: Colors, framing and rule of thirds all combine to make this a successful photograph. The photographer used natural light, which meant that most of the distractions in the background were eliminated since they were so overexposed.

Some photographers choose the opposite approach, using a fill flash to pop the foreground colors while the background then becomes underexposed..

Lifestyle Photo (5A) North HS The North Star Jessica Medina

The judge wrote: There is no “photo of the year” competition in Best of Colorado, but this image would have to be one of the top contenders if there were one.

NOTE: You can’t rely on flash to get this kind of image, and you must take a lot of shots (or just be very lucky!) to get an image that combines motion with a nearly-in-focus dancer in the middle, while preserving the natural light of the evening event.

The key to success here is a slow shutter speed (which normally we try to avoid) combined with the patience to expose a lot of frames (so much easier when you can get hundreds of images on one memory card.

The accompanying caption seems like an afterthought – there’s so much we might have added here, from names to quotations from some people in attendance to background on the event – but the image is so strong that it stands on its own.

Lifestyle Photo (3A) Salida HS The Tenderfoot Times Catie Wilken – 2nd Place

NOTE: Colors, framing and rule of thirds all combine to make this a successful photograph. The photographer used natural light, which meant that most of the distractions in the background were eliminated since they were so overexposed.

Some photographers choose the opposite approach, using a fill flash to pop the foreground colors while the background then becomes underexposed..

Lifestyle Photo (5A) Fort Collins HS Spilled Ink Andrew Smalley – 2nd PlaceNOTE: Photographer are constantly being asked to illustrate a story, and we often look for ways to get students in this sort of shot. But the interesting angle and sharp focus made this “still life” a standout.

Lifestyle Photo (5A) Arapahoe HS The Herald Joe Redmond– 3rd PlaceNOTE: Telling stories through faces is a key to photographic success. Great use of rule of thirds here, great interaction between the subjects, and a nice juxtaposition of the horizontal lines in the bricks and the vertical lines in the curtain.

Environmental Portrait (3A) Salida HS The Tenderfoot Times Catie Wilken

NOTE: This is probably closer to a news photo, but it certainly shows the subject in her environment.

Discussion: where and how would you pose a poet who competes in poetry slams? In a club? A library? Surrounded by volumes of poetry? From behind, showing the audience in front of her?

Environmental Portrait (4A) Thompson Valley HS The VoiceKristen Ball

NOTE: Unusual content, though the caption really leaves a lot to be desired. Why no name? Where is she exactly? A true portrait tries to balance the person with her broader world…

Environmental Portrait (4A) Windsor HS The Windsor ChronicleLauren Schafer – 2nd PlaceNOTE: From the garage to the basement, the photographer captures the personality of band members in a place they obviously spend a lot of time.

Environmental Portrait (5A) Rock Canyon HS The RockLauren Scheirman

NOTE: It’s tough to go wrong with little kids in photos – they are unguarded, totally honest. This shot of a “make a wish” child not only reveals personality but plays with proportions – that big chair! – and natural light, which seems to make her face glow. Flash would ruin this image.

Environmental Portrait (5A) Rocky Mountain HS The Rocky Mountain HighlighterLauren Binder & Ed Kennedy – 2nd PlaceNOTE: Natural light adds aura of mystery to this unique shot.

Environmental Portrait (5A) North HS The North Star Selena Gomez– 3rd PlaceNOTE: The hint of uniform, plus sharp focus and shallow depth of field, make this an arresting profile image.

Photo Essay (5A) Castle View HS The ViewRyan Costanzo & Cassie Thompson

The judge wrote: From the strong dominant image to the packaging of the six photos and the solid story that accompanies the essay, this was the best of this category.

NOTE: Unified basketball and soccer teams tend to attract photographers, perhaps because the participants see no reason to hid their emotions.

Good use of some framing white space to draw the eye into the images.

Photo Essay (5A) Mountain Vista HS The Eagle Eye Trevor Zalkind – 2nd PlaceNOTE: Night football shots are challenging, mostly due to less than ideal lighting, but here we see sharp images in a simple package. Very strong captions placed on the eyeline between the dominant photo and the three supporting photos make this a very attractive photo essay.

Photo Essay (5A) Arapahoe HSThe HeraldJoe Redmond– 3rd Place

NOTE: Three thoughts: if your printer can handle it, a black background really highlights color photos; a photo essay can be smaller than a full page (this one is about half a page deep); and angle and cropping can make all the difference.

The lead photo is beautifully composed and echoes the headline. The silhouette from the back wall of the stage toward theater is unique. And stage lights tend to provide all the light you need!

Photo Essay (4A) Englewood HS The PirateerT.C. Scaggiari, Elida Schultz, Tayler Searcy & Devin Greer

NOTE: This photo essay opts for quantity over quality (though the images are consistently quite good). There is not much white space framing the page, and readers may feel a bit claustrophobic.

But the essay features a strong concept and strong captions, despite the lack of a clear dominant image or an easy flow to the page.

Photo Essay (4A) Coronada HS The Cougar ChronicleMadison Bowden – 2nd Place

NOTE: Lots of strong images here, all anchored by the central photograph. Nice variety of angles.

What are we missing? Captions. Occasionally images stand for themselves, but there is so much more we can include about what went on just before or after the shutter was released, or about significance, or simply about who is pictured.

A characteristic of the collage approach to layout is the lack of obvious places to stick the captions.

Discussion: Should be sacrifice a few photos in order to leave space for captions?

Photo Essay (3A) Eaton HS Red InkNorma Loya & Carter Williams

NOTE: Strong emphasis on faces of the actors. We might have worked for a bit more variety of angles (bird’s eye, worm’s eye, etc.). The circular text seems more a gimmick than easy to read, but it is solid writing.

This may be a good place to note that most play photos should be shot during dress rehearsal, so the photographer can get onstage and work for different angles (and the audience isn’t disturbed, of course).

Photo Essay (3A) Kent Denver School The Sun Devils’ AdvocateMadalyn Hancock & Kate Herrington – 2nd PlaceNOTE: Strong images and a well-written review. Captions are a bit brief and all the photos are shot at eye level, which gives readers little variety. This is another Mondrian-influenced design, which is a nice way to package everything together.