There’s something about Mary. And there’s really something about Bill. And Michelle and Sean and Karen.
I never miss a chance to brag about The Western Producerstaff, and they give me good reason. On July 27, they earned no fewer than 19 awards for their work in the annual writing, photography and design contest organized by the American Agricultural Editors Association.
The AAEA has more than 400 members in the United States and Canada, all of them in the agricultural communications field.
Read Also
Going beyond “Resistant” on crop seed labels
Variety resistance is getting more specific on crop disease pathogens, but that information must be conveyed in a way that actually helps producers make rotation decisions.
Photographer William DeKay was on site in St. Paul, Minn., to collect the hardware. He was the major winner, earning the prestigious photographer of the year designation.
He also won first place in pictorial, photo feature and unpublished photo, second in photo feature and photo essay and third in pictorial and livestock photo. As well, he garnered seven honourable mentions.
The subjects of his award winning photos include shadows, combines, farmers, 4-Hers, cats, trees, sheep and irrigation.
You can see some of the winning photos in my blog at www.producer.com. Bill has a blog of his own, where he might post these photos as well, once he’s finished gadding about the country picking up plaques.
Also in photography, Mary MacArthur won first in the portrait category. It’s the second time she has captured an award with a photo of a kid and a calf. You can see her latest winner in the blog as well.
In still more photography, Karen Briere won an honourable mention in the “unpublished photo” category. I have a sneaking suspicion that this category is meant for photos that the editor overlooked because she was too dense to see the potential, but I could be wrong about that.
This was the first year that theProducer entered the design category, and graphics editor Michelle Houlden was first in overall magazine design for work on our December issue that focused on water. She deserves many awards, in my view, but this will be the first plaque to decorate herWPcubicle.
Reporter Sean Pratt, a perennial award winter, placed second in the breaking news category for his work on the Triffid flax issue. It’s a topic he continues to follow on behalf of farmers, as he has this week on page 1.
Awards are an affirmation from media peers, but the real judges are our readers. Thanks for reading us.
