Friends and Colleages,

It’s an honor to be a new member of the WNPA board. As a 7-year member of this organization, I hope to be able to contribute in a positive and tangible way, serving you all to be the best of my ability. One thing I haven’t been good at is getting this column up and running. You all know how busy things can get, but that’s no excuse! I’ll be chatting away at you more often from here on out.

I don’t know about you, but each year following a convention, I come away motivated and ready to tackle another year of making photos. This year’s convention was well planned and perfectly executed. If you haven’t already thanked the people who worked hard to put on the event, take a few moments and let them know how much you appreciated their hard work.

Conventions also get the little hamster wheels in my head turning. But being on the WNPA board has a whole new realm of things running through my mind.

I wonder, what in addition to the great conventions (which are an important service to provide and obviously appreciated by the membership) what else could WNPA do to support its membership?

It’s hard to come up with anything!

The association has made huge strides in communicating to the membership the past few years, through the magic of Scott Anderson’s great website design. WNPA members can easily view a wide variety of work, keep abreast of news in the photography world, and find interesting things to keep you digging on the site for hours.

But I know our state has a wealth of talent, an abundance of dedication and more importantly, a group of passionate photographers who are striving to improve their craft. I don’t know about you, but I’d sure like to have more time to talk to those people then just a few short conversations at the conventions.

Again, Scott Anderson to the rescue. (What would we do without this guy??)

Starting September, we will add a live chatroom to the WNPA website. On the first Wednesday of each month, this coming September 6, you can join in on a live chat with photographers from the across the state. Once a month we will have topical chats, hosted by a variety of photographers and editors.

Give it a try! On the 6th I will host an open chat from 6-7 p.m., about what WNPA members find important, upcoming topics they would like to see on the chat, suggestions for the convention, or anything else you want to discuss!

Watch the website for a calendar of times and dates of chats. Please feel free to make suggestions about who and what you would like to see featured.

The chat room can also be used at any time, just by signing in so drop in and see who’s around.

Sincerely,

Kristyna Wentz-Graff
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Posted by Mark Hoffman as President's Column at 2:40 PM EDT

No Comments »

July 21, 2006 - Visitors to the WNPAonline.com website will now be able to see the latest news from the National Press Photographers Association.

WNPAonline.com is now displaying the five most recent headlines from the NPPA newsfeed which are presented on the righthand column on WNPAonline.com main page.

It’s a move to improve the overall newsiness of the site, and to offer more stories of interest to readers and is a continuation of an overall development plan to re-invent WNPAonline.com which was started in December 2005.

Posted by Administrator as Webmaster's Column at 11:09 AM EDT

No Comments »

July 21, 2006 - Winning images for the May 2006 WNPA monthly clip contest have recently been posted online in a photo gallery.

See the MAY gallery

Posted by Administrator as Clip Contest Update at 10:39 AM EDT

No Comments »

July 15, 2006 - Visitors wishing to post comments on blog.WNPAonline.com need to type in a password in order to post their comment after anti-spam security measures were put in place on July 15.

Many weblog services in use today receive unwanted spam messages in the form of comments calling for users to visit commercial sites which may contain objectionable material. blog.WNPAonline.com was not immune from spam comments and received two or three per day over the last month. Spam comments used to be deleted manually, but this method could not prevent their presence on the site, necessitating an anti-spam filter.

Visitors interested in posting comments are prompted to type a provided security code below the comment field.

Posted by Administrator as Webmaster's Column at 11:16 PM EDT

No Comments »

July 13, 2006 - Judges comments have been added to the April and May clip contest results posted on blogwnpaonline.com. Comments will once again be posted monthly with the winners lists.

View the May Winners List with judges’ comments

View the April Winners List with judges’ comments

Posted by Administrator as Clip Contest Update at 11:18 AM EDT

No Comments »

July 12, 2006 - Winning images for the April 2006 WNPA monthly clip contest have recently been posted online in a photo gallery.

See the APRIL gallery

Posted by Administrator as Clip Contest Update at 10:38 AM EDT

No Comments »

July 12, 2006 - Soundslides, makers of the popular audio slideshow software have recently announced the release of a public beta version for PC users.

Many media organizations, including newspapers, are using Soundslides to publish photo galleries with sound on their websites. Until recently, the program was only available to Macintosh users.

You can find an early PC version on the Soundslides development forum.

Posted by Administrator as WNPA Report at 10:33 AM EDT

No Comments »

July 10, 2006 - Peter Zuzga, left, and Danny Gawlawski hold former Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel intern Josie Liming in Zuzga’s living room Sunday, July 9, 2006, in Wauwatosa. Josie and Danny were in town for a lisit after spending a year in China.

Posted by Administrator as WNPA Member Pics at 10:57 AM EDT

No Comments »

July 10, 2006 - Cory Dellenbach was recently featured in the July 2006 issue of News Photographer magazine, a monthly publication produced by the National Press Photographer’s Association.

In an article that features Dellenbach, he tells what it’s like to be a one-man-band newspaper sports editor and staff photographer at the Shawano Leader.

  Cory Dellenbach, a member of NPPA since 2003, has been employed at the Shawano Leader newspaper located in Shawano for the past five years. Cory began as a sports reporter and photographer and last year was promoted to sports editor and photographer. Cory is just one of a two person sports department at the newspaper. He is joined by sports reporter Aaron Wallender. Together they cover 11 area high schools and the Green Bay Packers during NFL season. Cory is married to Christy and has a five-year-old son, Jeremiah and a daughter on the way (due Sept. 18).

Posted by Administrator as WNPA Report at 10:48 AM EDT

No Comments »

July 10, 2006 - WNPA Clip Contest standings are now updated through the month of May. Here are the current standings:

2006 Contest Standings Through May:

Mark Hoffman Journal Sentinel 555

Corey Wilson Press Gazette 450

Dan Lassiter Janesville Gazette 375

John Maniaci Wisconsin State Journal 285

Dan Powers Post-Crescent 245

Mike De Sisti Post-Crescent 205

Evan Siegle Press-Gazette 200

Gregory Shaver Journal Times 165

Bruce Halmo Sheboygan Press 135

William Glasheen Freelance 130

Brad Rupert Press Gazette 130

Marc Larson Press-Gazette 120

Steve Kinderman Leader-Telegram 115

Kevin Poirier Kenosha News 95

Al Hoch Janesville Gazette 90

Sharon Cekada Post-Crescent 90

Tom Loucks Daily Tribune 85

Terry Mayer The Week 80

Sam Castro Sheboygan Press 70

Craig Schreiner Wisconsin State Journal 50

Ron Kuenstler Community Newspapers, Inc. 50

Mike De Vries Capital Times 50

Mike Roemer Freelance 40

Michelle Stocker Capital Times 40

Kristyna Wentz-Graff Journal Sentinel 40

Kirk Wagner Post-Crescent 30

Patrick Ferron Post-Crescent 15

Posted by Administrator as Clip Contest Update at 10:38 AM EDT

No Comments »