As Jacob Jimenez, a photographer for Fox Television affiliate KTVU in Oakland, Calif., was filming a surf competition in Half Moon Bay last year, he noticed a number of spectators moving closer to the water to get a better vantage point on the participants. As they ignored the pleas to move back, an unexpectedly large wave rolled in, toppling a podium and injuring some of the spectators. Jimenez, a member of Hollywood Local 45 who trained in his craft at the Art Institute of Seattle, captured the news-in-the-making.

In April, "Maverick's Wave" won an award for excellence in video spot news photography from the San Francisco Broadcast and Press Photographers Association. Jimenez, who also won first- and second-place honors in other categories, was joined by several other Local 45 photographers at the award dinner.

William Erickson, KTVU, won first- and third-place awards. Thomas O'Hair from KCRA in Sacramento won first- and third-place honors. KCRA's Steve Gonzalez won a third-place award and an award of excellence. Michael Domalaog won a first-place honor, and Alan Fillipi, KTVU, won a second- place award.

"It may look to those outside our industry like we just show up with our cameras on our shoulders and shoot, but TV news is a rapidly-changing world of live trucks and computer technology," says Jimenez, who has been nominated as videographer of the year in the Associated Press Television-Radio Association's 2011 Mark Twain Awards.

It's challenging to shoot and then quickly edit segments to fit into the news frame. "You're rushing, but wish you had more time to do an even better video," says Jimenez, who also was honored for a piece entitled "Graffiti Artist" about a high school student who turned his art and his life around, going from illegal spray painting to etching murals on the school walls. "I'm excited any time I can put together a story with a good message that viewers will enjoy watching," he says.