I was sure to look at all of the winners--everything in the collection is remarkable, especially to a budding photographer. The one that stood out to me--for the photography as much as the power of the story--was the "Final Salute" from the Rocky Mountain News, a multimedia story about the marines who deliver the news of a relative's death in combat. The story is, for lack of a better word, heartbreaking. And the photographs contribute greatly to the affect the story has on its readers. After reading the copy, listening to the audio, and looking at these photographs, I couldn't think of a more trying job to have.

They are pictures of the families of fallen soldiers, a segment of the population for whom this war is especially difficult. Further, they are pictures, among others, at the moment these people are told that their husband/father/son has died. Compelling material, made even more so by exceptional photography.

Many of the pictures capture the pain in the faces of both family and other marines. One that especially stands out to me is a detail photo of a white gloved marine holding the hands of a civilian. I love it for its simplicity and power. I imagine it was not a difficult image to capture, but it says everything about the situation. Another is a photo of a marine's casket being unloaded from what looks like a commercial airliner, complete with passengers in the window. I think the photo does a good job of contrasting the banality of the flight with the event of a wife waiting for her dead husband as the plane arrives. There are more pictures that floored me, but I could go on for pages and pages.