This weekend I was able to listen to 6 very inspiring visual journalists and photographers speak and meet and chat with a few of them at the Midwest Photo Summit put on by the Illinois Press Photographers Association. Several of those speakers also judged professional work in the IPPA's Best of Photography competition and they gave awards to a few of the images and stories I entered.
The winning images are posted on IPPA's website: http://www.ippaonline.org/blog/
My sports picture story about Danika, the 14-year-old fighter took 2nd place in the Sports picture story category. The whole story can be seen here: http://kylebursaw.com/aspiring-champion/
I also took 1st place in general news category with my photo of Matt taking his drug test.
My photo of the Sycamore volleyball coach reacting to finally besting rival DeKalb after numerous consecutive losses took 2nd place in the sports feature category.