Jay Korff-These are the kind of stories that stay with you for a long time. The winner, "The End of Sally's Place," is one of those old-school pieces that remind us why we air feature stories. I must admit that "Fly Bird, Fly" is one of the funniest rides I've ever taken. It's the kind of story you can't wait to show newsroom colleagues. It should be a requirement that every high school student watch the 3rd place finisher, "Every 15 Minutes."

Joel Eagle-Great stories!!! "The End of Sally's Place" won. I thought her story was like the onion -- layers kept peeling off. The turkey throw, the dog-show poop picker upper, and the laughing lady all left lasting memories -- storytelling at a level we all need to strive for.

Regina McCombs-We fell in love with "The End of Sally's Place." It was lovely: a wonderful central character, great sound, beautiful edit. From there, we had more discussion. "Fly Bird, Fly" connected strongly for the guys in the group, and much less so for the women. I originally hadn't placed "Every 15 Minutes," but after discussion came to believe that it did a great job of putting together a news story with a lot of impact.

Erica Simpson-I have to say that I was the odd man out on this category. I felt that there were other stories that were much more deserving of first place. I loved the content in all the stories chosen, but I don't think that naturally compelling characters should be the reason a story should win. This is a photography contest, and I firmly believe that overall production and journalistic excellence should trump inherently interesting content.

Despite my disagreement with the other judges, I thought "The End of Sally's Place" had some great moments, "Fly Bird, Fly" was hilarious (I was amazed at the photographer's steady hand while in the path of a flaming turkey.), and "Every 15 Minutes" had solid shooting that captured raw emotion.

Mark Morache-"Any squirrel can find a nut," Joel Eagle said in a discussion after we watched the finalists. And that's true. We didn't award first place to the story about Sally because the photographer found a "nut," but because the experience of meeting Sally was so wonderfully experienced and conveyed. It was layered, detailed, and had turned some wonderful corners. It's a great example of a story where every shot isn't picture perfect, but they communicate so well, and if it doesn't communicate, it doesn't matter how perfect the pictures are.

A story about a group of people lighting frozen turkeys on fire and hammer-throwing them across a field sounds YouTube-y, but it was shot and edited with such great flourish and fun, we watched it several times. We had a long discussion about style versus content, and while the photographer's work on "Every 15 Minutes" wasn't terribly showy or obvious, with each repeated viewing, we saw the subtlety of the craft, catching action and reaction, tight details, and never missing an emotion. Great work overall.