Last weekend I had the pleasure to join a few other senior editors of The Daily Ilini at representing The DI at the Illinois College Press Association convention at the DoubleTree in Chicago (beautiful hotel by the way).
The DI received 23 awards in individual categories (I believe the total was 26 if you factor in some awards were contributed by multiple people) for Illinois collegiate daily newspapers. Among those awards was first place for our website www.dailyillini.com and second place in general excellence. Earlier this academic year, dailyillini.com was awarded a Associate Collegiate Press Pacemaker, and for the past 4 years, if I recall correctly, The DI was awarded first or second place for general excellence. I will softly quote the current Editor-in-Chief Jill Disis with a statistic that “no other [Illinois daily] paper can say that they have been awarded [first or second place for general excellence in that many consecutive years]” (this is not verbatim of course, but I believe you get the idea).
Senior editors of The Daily Illini pose for a photograph with the awards received at the 2012 ICPA Conference at the DoubleTree in Chicago on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012.
I was one of the award winners, honorable mention to be specific, for my “spot news photo” posted below. Josh Beckman, one of the Senior Photographers, won two first place awards, a second place award, and an honorable mention (in collaboration with other Senior Photographer William Shi). Being a co-[photo] editor for roughly half of the time period of the possible submissions for ICPA 2012 (Josh the other half), I’m quite proud of the DI Photography staff for the wonderful work that was difficult to choose from for the maximum 2 submissions per category for ICPA. Here’s to another year of wonderful shooting.
Daniel Werst, freshman in LAS, is apprehended by University police officers at the Pennsylvania Avenue Residence dining hall on Thursday. Werst and other undergraduate and graduate students were at the dining hall to educate students on the issue and show support for the Union of University Food and Building Service Workers' (SEIU Local 73, Chapter 119) 8-month struggle to negotiate a fair contract. (Daryl Quitalig/The Daily Illini)
The critical remarks from the judge, an AP Photographer, quote “The photographer was quick to react and capture the brief moment for the apprehension.”
Onto the story of how this photo was created: the assignment was that there was going to be some sort of protest in one of the dining halls on campus. Shooting any photos in the dining halls usually is never allowed. But for whatever reason I decided to try anyway. I was not allowed to photograph within the dining hall, but I waited patiently and shot photographs from the “boundary” of the dining hall and the “public area” (to keep it simple). Since the action was mostly in the eating area, it was too far for any interesting zoom photos from my location. I stuck it out longer only to quickly realize that a person was being arrested right infront of me. Fortunately, my settings were somewhat set, EXIF shows 1/60th for the shutter speed, and this actually helped the photo in my opinion. It was just slow enough to give a panning feel, but yet, still quite sharp/distinguishable. Going into gear chat, if I had a 1D/5D, the feet wouldn’t have gotten cut off, but that was just a minor detail for this image.
And that’s what became of the first photo of mine to win an award. Photojournalism isn’t about the awards, it’s about capturing the moment. I’m not striving to shoot for the awards, but it never hurts to have recognition for great work.
I thank all who have helped in my photographic ambitions. You know who you are and you’ve helped bring me to where I am. As the song says, “people come into our lives for a reason/bringing something we must learn” (nerdalert) but it’s quite true. Again, Thank you. (ps I realize this last paragraph is a tad nostalgic)
ps. I swear I’m trying to post more than once a month…I just haven’t been too successful at these attempts.
