I go back to work tomorrow. I can’t wait.

After a week off for the holidays I’m ready to get back to the thrill and challenge of hunting down great photographs.

Last night a bunch of local photographers got together for the second meeting of FUNPA (whatever that is). We all brought food and photos, and sat around sharing our work and getting the all-important feedback that keeps us going.

There was amazing work all around. Instead of showing work at this gathering, Grayson West and I unveiled the winners of a new yearly photojournalism contest, the UtahPhotojournalism.Com State Championships. Big thanks to judges Gerik Parmele, Nick King, and Parker Eshelman of the Columbia Daily Tribune for going through the dozens of entries for us, picking the winners, and providing some of the funniest judges’ comments ever.

The funnest part of the whole thing was putting together the trophies (like the one above, which went to Mike Terry). We hit thrift stores all over the Wasatch front collecting trophies to assemble something wall-worthy for each winner.

Here is the awards video for those of you (all of you) who weren’t there (and the sound will cut out for a bit in the middle):