Capture Kern wins EPpy award

The core production team behind Capture Kern, from left: Californian photo director Alex Horvath, assistant photo editor Michael Fagans, marketing coordinator Mira Patel and me. The large photo is Navdeep Singh's grand-prize winning photo in the Capture Kern book contest.Got some good news today: The Bakersfield Californian's Capture Kern County project earned an EPpy award for excellence in journalism.

Capture Kern was among four finalists in the ungainly category of "Best Crowd Sourcing or Citizen Journalism with under 250,000 unique monthly visitors." Other finalists in that category were Fort Wayne Newspapers, Deseret News and the City University of New York School of Journalism's partnership with The New York Times. Here's a complete list of winners in the competition, which is sponsored by Editor & Publisher magazine (hence the EPpy award). 

Capture Kern was recognized for its wide reach and celebration of all things Kern County. In short, the project has, to date, enticed more than 1,200 photographers to submit more than 25,000 photos representing life in our county, and then allowing thousands of people to vote and comment on those photos, with the best and most popular being published in a 128-page full-color book. 

Bakersfield.com and The Californian have won their share of Capture Kern County, the bookawards over the years but this one felt especially good because it rewarded a multi-layered project that created a lot of community goodwill and support from our sponsoring partners at Tejon Ranch, Klassen Corp., San Joaquin Community Hospital, Motor City Lexus and Henley's Photo. 

And it's a project that continues to live and evolve online at CaptureKernCounty.com. I encourage you to check out the thousands of gorgeous photos, and to submit some of your own.

We've sold nearly a thousand copies of the book, but don't wait too long to get yours because inventory is getting low. List price is $39.95 and you can buy copies from The Californian, Russo's Books, Henley's Photo or the gift shop at San Joaquin Community Hospital.