Jay Korff-Visual storytelling at its finest. Each piece reminds us why telling the stories of real people still matters.

Joel Eagle-Dozens of submissions, with a handful of true high quality features. The two top stand-outs were both character studies, touching stories with great shooting. They made the decision easy.
The photographer of "The Pond Patrol" really thought outside the box. Super cool story!!!

Regina McCombs-Some fun stories here. "Frank" was a terrific story with lots of small bits and parts that came together for a wonderful whole. We saw a lot of opening montages, which very quickly got old, especially on the stories where it had little to do with the main story thread. We didn't love it on "Milly," but felt that it was integrated into the story well enough to make it work, and the rest of the package was terrific.

Erica Simpson-First, second and third place were all great stories. "Farmer Frank," in first place, had solid shooting that exhibited patience.
"Milly," in second place, was well sequenced. I felt like I knew the character at the end. My personal favorite was "Camp K," which I felt was beautifully shot.

Mark Morache-We had surprisingly few finalists in this category. Maybe it's an indication of the direction that local news is taking overall. Most of the winners were flawed stories, but won because of the obvious talent of the photographer. We also saw a lot of natural sound stories, most of which would have been so much better with just a little bit of track. The winner, "Farmer Frank," stood out as much for what was there as it did for what wasn't. I can imagine many editors taking the tractor-start scene and turning it into a five or six shot quick-cut sequence worthy of NASCAR. Every bit of sound was crisp and deliberate. Every edit was purposeful. Every moment was wonderful.