More than 90 photojournalists, students, and enthusiasts converged on Milwaukee’s Hotel Metro on Saturday, May 12 for the Wisconsin News Photographers Association’s 2012 Convention, an 80% increase in attendance from the previous year.

Eric Seals of the Detroit Free Press, Erin Trieb of VII, Canon Explorer of Light Damian Strohmeyer of Sports Illustrated, and Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, all spoke and presented work.

Sherman Gessert was presented the 2012 Robert H. Dumke Award. John Hart of the Wisconsin State Journal accepted the 2011 Photographer of the Year and 2011 Clip Photographer of the Year awards. Lukas Keapproth of the University of Wisconsin – Madison accepted the 2011 Student Photographer of the Year award. Hart was the first POY winner from the Madison newspaper since L. Roger Turner in 1975. Keapproth became just the fourth student photographer in WNPA history to win back-to-back Student POY titles.

A business meeting was conducted at the end of the day to discuss the financial future of the organization, convention and contests. Details and minutes from that meeting will be posted this coming week.

$6,875-worth of prizes were given away in drawings throughout the day. See the list of prize donors here.

All the speakers were surprised with Cheesehead hats as a thank you for making the trip to Wisconsin.

Please take a moment to thank the speakers, volunteers, and sponsors who made this event meaningful, inspirational, and successful.

All photographs by Craig Schreiner/Wisconsin State Journal