The Daily News photography staff was honored over the weekend at the Kentucky News Photographers Association’s annual contest and seminar in Louisville.

The Daily News was named Paper of the Year in Division II, with the Lexington Herald-Leader winning Division I. Photo editor Joe Imel won The Associated Press’ Kentucky Photo of the Year for a picture of Bowling Green Police Department Officers mourning the death of fellow Officer David Whitson. He also won second place and an honorable mention in the Spot News category, along with an honorable mention in the News Picture Story category.

Joshua McCoy won third place in Picture Package and an honorable mention in the Sports Action category. The team of Imel, McCoy and Miranda Pederson won second place in the Team Coverage category.

The Daily News also won third place (Imel, Pederson and McCoy) and an honorable mention (Imel and McCoy) in the new Multimedia Team Coverage category. The Daily News competed against photographers from newspapers across the state, including the Courier-Journal and Herald-Leader.

In all, the Daily News photo staff won a total of nine awards.

Western Kentucky University was also represented. Jeanie Adams-Smith, an associate professor of photojournalism at Western, won Photographer of the Year honors, and WKU student Melanie Blanding won College Photographer of the Year. James Kenney, head of Western’s photojournalism department, won second place in the Pictorial category.