Judges' Comments

• Both of the LATimes pieces were innovative. First place was a clear winner. The production crew and photographer were definitely thinking about how to best tell the story -- we were wondering if the idea to do it "flip book style" was preconceived or whether it was after the fact and figured out in post production -- either way -- it mixed with the scanner traffic made it all very very engaging. We felt like the police were pushing us back. If done in video it would have had a completely different effect overall. The time compression using the stills was very effective. Great thinking by the team to pull it altogether. Second place was a picture series that brought the viewer into the world of the photographer. The piece mixed with the scanner traffic really engaged us. Just hearing the voice of the man on the radio saying "we are deploying" the fire suits was fully engaging and then seeing the sequence of it occuring took it home. We did think that there were repeated images that took away from the overall piece -- although similar it was not in our minds the same as the first place winner in style. Both were intense situations that the photographers were able to be witness to.

  HM - "Continuous War" Cluster Bombs in South Lebanon The narration was engaging and had a storybook feel, the story was written to the images and was heartfelt but we just would like to see more use of ambient and natural sound to really engage the viewer beyond a narration. Because their was lack of nat sound we could not award it a third, so HM was a awarded for recognition.

  Seth Gitner