Re: GWA awardsb (Judy Lowe)

**S* H* <s*@saxonholt.com>**

Judy - When my own name pops up on these discussions I suppose it is  
time to chime in <g>  Thanks for the kind words.    First , thank you  
for so patiently dealing with all the comments that are coming in,  
you are clearly willing to look at new ideas and are responding with  
relevant knowledge about the GWA Awards. Further, since this list is  
not an official GWA list, I would each of you who wants to affect any  
change at GWA to be in touch with your regional representatives.

In the world of professional photographers "multi-media" is all the  
buzz and quite a number of  photographers are embracing multi-media  
as a communication forum.  http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com or http:// 
story4.org/   In multimedia, the words, visuals, and design are all  
part of one presentation.  This is what the best blogs have become.   
They will continue to evolve as they incorporate more video and  
sophisticated links.

The GWA Awards include blogs as a form of Electronic Media, but I  
would suggest a new category to be called Multi-Media that would  
include blogs as well as the evolving multi-media stories now  
emerging as a new communication tool.  The category might also  
include speakers (who desperately need to improve their visuals...)

Our profession is about communication and few of us can only use one  
skill.  Writing, photography, and design (both graphic and web) are  
interrelated.  It is frustrating to think we need to to be good at so  
many at the expense of what we do best, but the reality is we need to  
find that right balance.  To be an award winning communication artist  
we will have to master multiple, collaborative skills.  I think this  
should be the impulse behind a multi-media award categories.   Few of  
the best sites we see were done by a single individual who may have  
hired a web design person, publicity writer, or professional  
photographer; so it might be difficult to set guidelines, but the  
awards need to reflect the new media landscape.

Saxon

Gardens and Ornamental Horticulture
- http://www.saxonholt.com
Library - http://www.photobotanic.com
415-898-8880

Board Member, Stock Artists Alliance
- http://www.stockartistsalliance.org
Member - ASMP, ASPP, GWA

On Jan 3, 2010, at 10:20 AM, gardenwriters-request@lists.ibiblio.org  
wrote:

> I do understand that in some cases, the writing and the photography  
> in a blog post are intertwined, but that doesn't necessarily mean  
> that you want the photos judged. My photos aren't going to the  
> quality of Saxon Holt's, and so I don't want them judged on that  
> professional level (although maybe yours are). Again, I'll have to  
> check on this, but my feeling is that in the case where the photos  
> are part of what you're writing about, you could include them,  
> because they're integral to understanding the post, but they aren't  
> to be part of what's judged, just there for understanding the writing

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