General News – Scott Winterton, 1st Place

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Judged by Seth Harrison – @sethharrison

1st. Scott Winterton

Just a flat out hysterical photo, and the photographer gets extra credit for mounting the camera to the hood of the car.

2nd. Kristin Murphy

A well-composed, beautiful capture. Assuming there were other people watching this helicopter take off, the photographer did a fine job of isolating this woman and her daughter, which made the moment all about them, and that much more compelling.

3rd. Spenser Heaps

An emotional moment of a scene that is all too familiar, but the emotion is raw just the same, even without seeing faces. The hands coming together on the back of the officer make this photo so strong.

HM. Kristin Murphy

The photographer stayed with this woman until the beautiful moment revealed itself. 

Sports Action – Jeffrey D. Allred, 1st Place

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Judged by Matt Gade – @mattgadephotog

1st Place – Jeffrey D. Allred – Judge’s Comments: A lot of times the ‘accidents’ or ‘mishaps’ make for the most intriguing photos. This was one of those ouch moments that you just feel for. Also, nicely composed and cropped making for an easy read where my eye went straight to the finger in his.

2nd Place – Issac Hale – Judge’s Comments: Great timing capturing just that moment of did he or didn’t he cross the end zone. Love the player diving into the end zone’s body language. Probably could still be cropped tighter, eliminating a lot of the background and from the right to really bring the diving player into full dominance in the frame.

3rd Place – Laura Seitz – Judge’s Comments: Great facial expression on the player’s face with nice details of the rubber flakes shoot up from the soccer field. Might be a case of the photo a little too tight. Looks like part of the glove may be cut off slightly and the goalie’s hair seems cut off in a weird way.

Honorable Mention – Scott Winterton – Judge’s Comments: This photo is great, kids-being-kids with the dirt kicked up. Would’ve placed in the top 3 if it weren’t for missing the kids’ names.

Sports Feature – Lennie Mahler, First Place

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SF1Golden Gloves Boxing LM
1st place- Lennie Mahler, Golden Gloves Boxing

SF2Winners
2nd place- Winners, Scott Winterton

SF3Broken leg
3rd place- Broken leg, Scott Winterton

SF4PCHS XC gw
Honorable Mention- Run It, Grayson West

In a contest dominated by ‘reaction’ photos, there sure were a lot of great ones, but in the end the raw emotion of the first three brought them to the top. First place isn’t the most perfect photo in the contest, but it was the most timeless. The photo gets better the longer you look at it. Second place is another that works off sheer emotion. Third place is one of those photos that is just painful to view. Honorable mention goes to an interesting way of seeing a standard scene. Great work by all.

Judges – Smiley Pool, chief photographer, Billy Smith, photo editor, & Johnny Hanson, photojournalist – Houston Chronicle