(1.31.2006) NPPA.org is reporting that the NCAA is holding a meeting next week to determine what to do with Sportsshooter.com members who post images of collegiate athletes in their member galleries. Their story begins as follows:

AUSTIN, TX (January 28, 2006) - Officials from the National Collegiate Athletic Association will meet next Friday at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis to discuss whether SportsShooter.com member photographers are endangering NCAA student athletes’ eligibility, or violating any NCAA regulations, by publishing the athletes’ pictures in Web site portfolios.

The NCAA meeting comes after several SportsShooter.com members received cease-and-desist letters this week from a handful of university eligibility and compliance administrators in athletic departments at NCAA member schools. The letters asked the photographers to remove images of student athletes from their Web site portfolios.

Read the Entire Story on NPPA.org

Posted by Administrator as WNPA Report at 6:35 PM EST

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(1.30.2006) Winning images from the WNPA September Clip Contest are now viewable in an online gallery. The link has been posted to the Contests Page and is also available here at:

SEPTEMBER GALLERY

Images from Hurricane Katrina are well-represented in this month’s winning entries as three Wisconsin photojournalists had entries place in this month’s contest images made while in Louisiana.

Posted by Administrator as Clip Contest Update at 11:39 AM EST

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(1.30.2006) Elizabeth Flores of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune shows us a recent image of her work at the Strib.

Posted by Administrator as WNPA Member Pics at 1:11 PM EST

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(1.25.2006) NPPA’s Region Five, which includes Wisconsin, is creating a Yahoo Group to pass along important regional information and serve as a forum for photojournalists across the region’s broad territory. Gregory Morley, R5 Associate Director, came up with the idea. Here’s a message from him.

Hello members of NPPA Region 5:

My name is Gregory Morley, Associate Director for Region 5 of the National Press Photographers Association. Please join the new Region 5 list-serve, a forum for near-real time communication among R5 members in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota ,Wisconsin, the West Indies, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Domenica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands, Antilles, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands.

There are presently 650 members in Region 5. This forum should provide you an opportunity to expand your skills and share ideas with other photojournalists.

Email me with any questions.

Regards,

Gregory Morley
Region 5 Associate Director
National Press Photographers Association
greg.morley@comcast.net

Go to http://groups.yahoo.com to subscribe to the NPPA5 group.

Posted by Administrator as WNPA Report at 2:52 PM EST

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(1.22.2006) A day before my 29th birthday, the executive editor had me stand up in front of that evening’s budget meeting. At that meeting, he introduced me to the staff as the “Reporter of the Future.”

Talk about pressure.

Ever since I first picked up a real camera when I was, say 17 or 18 years old, I envisioned one day becoming a photojournalist. Photography was one of my few joys in college, and my personal drive to carve some sort of career in photojournalism made me lose most of my old friends while in grad school. I had a three-year run as a staff photographer at CNI and later parlayed that experience into a job as a staff photographer at the Journal Times.

I thought I had reached the peak of my ambitions, working in my ideal field in my hometown.

A little over a year into my job there, some rather unexpected events took place.

A reporter got fired over questionable sourcing in a story, and the city editor came to me with a job for which there was not even a description for.

He said I would split time working on the paper’s website, generating a number of stories per week for daily, shoot and edit video reporting projects as needed and manage our weblogs on a daily basis.

I said “yes” and within 48 hours I was no longer a staff photographer.

What on earth have I done, I initially thought to myself.

Ask me why I did it (hopefully over a beer someday), and I’ll probably give you an answer unique to that particular moment on that particular day.

But I feel that this is a bold, somewhat new step for which there is no blueprint. I speculate there is a future for websites, weblogs and video in journalism’s future. Not only that, but ever more so in the future of photojournalism.

More and more photo journals and photo weblogs are coming on line each day. Bandwith is improving to the point where news papers can seriously consider video reporting a reliable option on their websites. Readers are becoming increasingly attracted to online versions of their local papers as not only a way to gather information, but in the case of weblogging, to interact with other readers and create their own dialogue.

Just last week, our paper covered a local murder in which a man shot and killed one of three suspects as they were fleeing from an attempt to burglarize the man’s car in front of his house. The resulting story and court proceedings are stirring public discussion on our paper’s website, that discussion alone is being recognized by competing media outlets in our area as story material in its own right.

I may not know what’s going on from time to time, and I may barely have my head above the sand, but as I look ahead, I’m hoping to be part of a great, and useful new way of thinking.

Scott Anderson
WNPA Webmaster.

Posted by Administrator as Webmaster's Column at 7:14 PM EST

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(1.22.2006) Gary Klein of the Sheboygan Press was kind enough to share with us a photo and a short story of Ozaukee Press photographer Vern Arendt. Take a look.

Vern Arendt of the Ozaukee Press

I was at a job where the Ozaukee Press’ Vern Arendt was on the job.
He’s probably the only WNPA member who is still working in his ’80s.
I clearly remember seeing him arrive at my high school back in the
1970s to take photos. Without a doubt, he’s seen more format changes
in photojournalism that almost anyone in WNPA. He is seen here at
Ozaukee High School shooting the half time show at a basketball game.

Gary Klein
Sheboygan Press

Posted by Administrator as WNPA Member Pics at 6:48 PM EST

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(edited 1.23.2006) Our very own Mark Hoffmann has confirmed our first speaker for the 2006 convention:

Our first speaker confirmed speaker will be Ted Jackson of the New
Orleans Times-Picayune. He’ll talk about what it was like actually living
through Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath. His story, photo gallery
and video excerpts can be found at:

http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0512/jackson_intro.html

There will be more to come.

Thanks much,

Mark

Posted by Administrator as 2006 Convention at 3:00 PM EST

1 Comment »

(1.19.2006) - November 2005 Standings:

Mike De Sisti Post-Crescent
Appleton, Wis. 900

Dan Powers Post-Crescent
Appleton, Wis. 625

Scott Anderson Journal Times
Racine, Wis. 615

Kristyna Wentz-Graff Post-Crescent
Appleton, Wis. 615

Corey Wilson Press Gazette
Green Bay, Wis. 595

Sharon Cekada Post-Crescent
Appleton, Wis. 540

Gregory Shaver Journal Times
Racine, Wis. 420

Michelle Stocker Capital Times
Madison, Wis. 360

Steve Apps WSJ
Madison, Wis. 330

John Maniaci WSJ
Madison, Wis. 325

Craig Schreiner WSJ
Madison, Wis. 305

Evan Siegle Press Gazette
Green Bay, Wis. 280

Terry Mayer The Week
Delavan, Wis. 260

Dan Lassiter Gazette
Janesville, Wis. 235

Al Hoch The Gazette
Janesville, Wis. 230

Steve Kinderman Leader-Telegram
Eau Claire, Wis. 215

Mark Hertzberg Journal Times
Racine, Wis. 205

David Joles Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee, Wis. 190

Bruce Halmo Press
Sheboygan, Wis. 175

B.A. Rupert Press Gazette
Green Bay, Wis. 170

Tom Loucks Daily Herald
Wausau, Wis. 140

Rick Wood Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee, Wis. 140

Briana Brough Gazette
Janesville, Wis. 130

Sam Castro Sheboygan Press
Sheboygan, Wis. 100

Elizabeth Flores Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee, Wis. 95

Peter Zuzga CNI
New Berlin, Wis. 90

William Glasheen Freelance
State of Wis. 90

Ron Kuenstler CNI
New Berlin, Wis. 80

Patrick Ferron Press Gazette
Green Bay, Wis. 80

Amber King Daily News
West Bend, Wis. 70

Peter Thomson Tribune
La Crosse, Wis. 60

Shane Opatz Leader-Telegram
Eau Claire, Wis. 55

Kevin Poirier Kenosha News
Kenosha, Wis. 45

Mary Langenfeld Freelance
Madison, Wis. 40

Posted by Administrator as Clip Contest Update at 12:37 PM EST

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(1.19.2006) - November 2005 WNPA Clip Contest Results are in. Check them out, see if you won.

Spot News.
1st. Al Hoch
2nd. Scott Anderson
3rd. Mike De Sisti

General News.
1st. Tom Lucks
2nd. Mike De Sisti
3rd. Dan Powers
HM. Kevin Poirier

Sports.
1st. Dan Powers
2nd. Dan Powers
3rd. Corey Wilson
HM. Dan Powers
HM. Mike De Sisti

Portrait.
1st. Evan Siegle
2nd. Mike De Sisti
3rd. Sam Castro
HM. Evan Siegle

Feature.
1st. Sharon Cekada
2nd. Kristina Wentz-Graff
3rd. Kevin Poirier
HM. Kristina Wentz-Graff

Feature Multiple.
1st. Mike De Sisti
2nd. Al Hoch
3rd. Sam Castro.

Posted by Administrator as Clip Contest Update at 12:26 PM EST

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Happy New Year!

With the new year comes new ideas. One of the ideas is updating the monthly clip contest.

The process of submitting clips electronically versus the traditional tearsheet.

Digital images could level the playing field for all those one/two column photos. Also, the ease of clicking instead of clipping would save time and paper.

On the other hand, the monthly clip contest has long been the traditional tearsheets. Making decisions on what to enter by how it ran in print is part of editing clips.

Is this something anyone wants to look at trying for a couple of months or should the tearsheets fall where they may?

What do you think?

Michelle Stocker
WNPA President

Posted by Michelle Stocker as President's Column at 5:01 PM EST

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