2022 Qtr. 2 Picture Story

Doug Pizac, Quarter 2 Judge

This category was the most disappointing.  The definition for it is to tell a story where the loss of any images would hurt the interpretation.  Unfortunately, many of the entries had duplicate imagery which diluted their focus.

To tell a story is more than just images.  To properly portray an idea needs different elements -- an overall scene setter, medium shots and detail ones -- to get your message across.  And not only do you need these to tell the story, you also need verticals for layout purposes. These were missing from basically all the entries.  Out of the 82 photos that were entered, there were only THREE verticals, and even fewer detail and overall scene setter shots.  To create a newspaper picture page or magazine layout would be very difficult; to make a good picture page or layout would be near impossible without having to crop horizontals into verticals instead of having verticals to work with at the beginning.

Keep this in mind:  If all you shoot are horizontals, you may never have a full page photo in a magazine or on the cover of one.  And you’ll make the editors who create layouts angry at you in the meantime because you’ll be making their job all that more difficult to do.

First place

Nice matching photos of scenes from the past to what they look like today as comparisons.

Second place

Even though the majority of the shots are medium ones looking down, they at least told a story.

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First Place: Michael Nelson, Freelance

Tunisian World War II historian and director of the Patton Museum in El Guettar, Hadi Abid, points to a picture of the famous American general at the museum of artifacts and displays he has personally collected and made. He claims the desk next to him was Patton’s personal collapsable desk he used to write his accounts of the Tunisian campaign.

Sabri, a 14-year old village boy, sits on Roman era ruins that overlooks the approach US forces led by tanks took to assault Nazi forces occupying the critical Hill 609. The Americans suffered 2,453 casualties during the battle that lasted between 27 April and 1 May 1943 and was their first clear-cut victory of the campaign and has been called “the American Army’s coming-of-age”.

Tunisian Military Information Officer, Mohammed Ali Attafi, points to a map showing the North African campaign pincer movement of US forces coming from Algeria and British forces coming from Libya to battle the Axis armies in Tunisia. Almost one million combatants were involved in the seven month campaign and was one of the turning points of World War II along with the Soviet victory in Stalingrad three months earlier.

A photograph showing US soldiers conducting de-mining operations at the Kasserine train station which is still in use today. The 6-day Battle of Kasserine Pass, the first major engagement between US and Axis forces in Africa, was a major defeat for the American II Corps which suffered 3,300 killed and wounded, 3,000 captured and hundreds of tanks, armored vehicles and artillery lost. The Erwin Rommel led Afrika Korps pushed the Americans back 50 miles and led to sweeping reorganization and replacement of commanders in the US Army.

Al Willner, a foreign policy analyst and former US Army officer, looks into a fortified German position atop Longstop Hill where British soldiers battled on two ocassions for the strategic hill on the road to Tunis. They eventually prevailed on 23 April 1943 after being decisively defeated on Christmas Day 1942.

“Beneath this stone I lie in rest, our comrades and I, we did our best” is written on the tombstone of British Private J. Canvess who died on the 4th of May 1943, nine days before the surrender of Axis forces. Massicault War Cemetery is one of 11 cemeteries where 10,514 Commonwealth soldiers are buries and commemorated.

An interior corridor is pictured in the French-built command bunker complex of German General Erwin Rommel which defended the southern approaches in Tunisia from attack by British General Bernard Montgomery during the Battle for the Mareth Line from 16 March to 27 March 1943. The bunker system was built to protect France’s Tunisian colony from attack by Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini’s forces in their Libyan colony.

A historical picture of the original grave of German Army Sargent Erhard Lege is shown next to his final resting place at the German War Cemetery in Bordj-Cedria in Tunisia. The Germans and Italians suffered the defeat of their entire armies in Tunisia with an unknown number of dead and some 250,000 soldier captured when the Axis forces capitulated on 13 May 1943 ending one of the bloodiest and hardest-fought campaigns in World War II.

The grave of US Army Air Force Captain Foy Draper is pictured in the North African American cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia. Draper was from Huntington Park, California, attended the University of Southern California and was part of the gold medal and world record 4 X 100 track and field relay team with Jesse Owens in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The Havoc bomber he piloted and his crew never returned from a mission headed to the Battle of Fondock in Tunisia on 4 January 1943.

A information booklet for visitors shows Olympian Foy Draper (2 R) as a member of the American gold medal winning 1936 Berlin Olympic team along with teammates Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalfe and Frank Wykoff. Draper who grew up in Huntington Park, California, and attended the University of Southern California died in World War II when the Havoc bomber he piloted and his crew never returned from a mission headed to the Battle of Fondock on 4 January 1943. He is buried in the North African American Cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia.

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Second Place: Brandon Richardson, Long Beach Post

The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach has been at the forefront of shark preservation for years. Part of the facilities efforts include the development of techniques to artificially inseminate certain species. In May, staff artificially inseminated the aquarium's zebra shark, Gatsby.Two aquarists lure Gatsby, one of the Aquarium of the Pacific's zebra sharks, into a gurneywith a piece of fish Thursday, May 12, 2022.

Zebra shark semen was shipped from South Carolina to the Aquarium of the Pacific in a refrigerated container ahead of the artificial insemination of one of the facility's sharks Thursday, May 12, 2022.

Aquarium of the Pacific staff verterinarian Lance Adams prepares to examine zebra shark semen under a microscope Thursday, May 12, 2022.

Lance Adams, the Aquarium of the Pacific's staff verterinarian, examines zebra shark semen mobility using a microscope connected to a computer monitor Thursday, May 12, 2022.

Aquarists try to lure Gatsby, one of the Aquarium of the Pacific's zebra sharks, into a gurney with a piece of fish Thursday, May 12, 2022. It took the shark several minutes to take the bait.

A group of aquarists secure Gatsby, one of the Aquarium of the Pacific's zebra sharks, in a gurney for artificial insemination Thursday, May 12, 2022.

Aquarium of the Pacific staff verterinarian Lance Adams and a team of aquarists prepare to artificially inseminate a zebra shark Thursday, May 12, 2022.

Aquarium of the Pacific staff verterinarian Lance Adams performs an ultrasound on Gatsby, one of the facility's zebra sharks, to ensure she has viable eggs before artificially inseminating her Thursday, May 12, 2022.

Lance Adams, the Aquarium of the Pacific's staff verterinarian uses a speculum to hold open the vaginal canal of Gatsby, one of the facility's zebra sharks, for artificial insemination Thursday, May 12, 2022.

Aquarium of the Pacific staff verterinarian Lance Adams injects semen into Gatsby, one of the facility's zebra sharks, Thursday, May 12, 2022.

An Aquarium of the Pacific team releases Gatsby, one of the facility's zebra sharks, after staff verterinarian Lance Adams, left, artificially inseminated her Thursday, May 12, 2022.

Gatsby, one of the Aquarium of the Pacific's zebra sharks, swims past two guests after her artificial insemination Thursday, May 12, 2022.

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Meet Our Judge, Doug Pizac

Doug Pizac began his career with four summer internships at National Geographic working his way up from the b/w and color labs through photography to becoming a picture editor and doing magazine layouts. He became the team photographer for the California Angels the day after graduating from Cal State Fullerton. This introduced him to AP and UPI where he worked for both of them as a freelancer, including a temp full-time job

as an AP staffer.

After working a year at a paper in Owensboro, Kentucky shooting and doing layouts, he worked two years at the Tampa Tribune/Times doing the same before being recalled to Los Angeles for a 30+ year career at AP -- half in Los Angeles and half in Salt Lake City where his territory was from the Arizona border to Canada. While in Los Angeles he was given an outstanding dedication award by The Greater Los Angeles Press Club for his work during the 1992 riots.

Following AP he turned his attention to creating his own photography business and teaching college photo courses in SLC, and is now teaching communication classes part-time at the Vancouver campus of Washington State University. When not teaching or helping up and coming photographers, he has been judging AP-related state photo contests in the east for the past several years and spends his free time doing woodturning and woodworking projects in his Vancouver home workshop.

His wife is Betty Pizac who was a freelancer for AP and UPI in Seattle, and an AP-L.A. photo editor. They have two children.