ANDY WINS FIVE WISCONSIN NEWSPAPER PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS

So, at Cloud Seven Photography, we shoot weddings, and families, and high school seniors and newborns, maternity photos, engagements ... and ...

Well, just about EVERYTHING else. EVERYTHING. Seriously. 

But, in addition to his work at Cloud Seven with Danielle, Andy is also a reporter and photographer at a newspaper. This keeps a camera in his hand constantly as he captures many aspects of the life and times of the area - festivals, sporting events, accidents, government and school happenings, business features and more. 

He was recently honored with several awards for this newspaper work from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association in its annual Better Newspaper Contest.

There are roughly 220 combined weekly and daily newspapers in the state. Of those, 51 newspapers entered and received photography awards in any of the six WNA photography award categories for 2013. Andy won or co-won awards in five of those categories in his newspaper's division, making him the ONLY photographer in the state to win that many awards for a single newspaper this year. Exciting stuff. 

His newspaper, The Brillion News (Brillion News & Lake to Lake Shopper), was also the only newspaper in the entire state to win a photography award in all six categories. 

Individually, Andy won first place for Best Sports Photo (a basketball photo during last year's state tournament) and Best Spot News Photo (for a picture of a damaged barn after severe storms hit the area this past summer). Andy also took second place for Best General News Photo and co-won first place for Best Photo Essay. 

Coolest of all, he was part of a group of staff photographers and freelancers that won Best Overall Newspaper Photography for his newspaper. And, one freelancer that helped contribute to this last award was none other than his partner at Cloud Seven - Danielle  Her freelance photos of a summer parade were one of the featured photo packages of the winning papers that were judged. Sweet! 

In addition to his photography honors, Andy also won four other newspaper awards for his writing skills. He has 16 Wisconsin Newspaper Association photography awards to his credit now, and over 35 total WNA honors in the past six years. 

Pretty cool all around.