Award-winning photo-journalist?

So, the WNPA (Washington Newspaper Publishers Association) has given me an award. I was up for three awards, two of them writing. I didn't win either writing award, which was a bit of a downer, as I egotistically think of myself as a writer.

No, I won an award for my photography. As I'm a rank amateur at photography, and I delicately describe a lot of my work as "crap" when I get it ready for publication, this award is... how do I put this... a bit of cognitive dissonance mixed with despair at the fact that the picture itself was sheer luck and almost no skill. Sometimes that's how photography happens, particularly in the news business. But it still feels strange to get an award for it.

 The picture that won the award, first-place honors in Best Feature Photo, was taken during this event and was, in fact, one of the photos that I thought was ruined because of the dust/dirt on the lens of the photo. Shows what I know about photography!

My paper won a few more awards, but I left a bit early so I don't know if we won anything in the general excellence categories. I do know they spelled my name wrong on the slide announcing my win, and the guy doing the announcing was completely unable to say my name. Oh well.