When the American Society of Cinematographers give out their annual awards, critical and popular success often go out the window. NBC's "The Lyons Den" and ABC's "Miracles" may be distant memories, but they're both up for television honors for their photography, as is ABC's much-maligned "Threat Matrix."

The 18th Annual ASC Awards will be presented on Sunday, Feb. 8 and HBO's "Carnival" leads the pack with two nominations in the ASC's three television categories.

The Dust Bowl drama earned Jeffrey Jur a nomination in the regular series category for his work on the "Pick a Number" episode. John Aronson is up for "Crossing Jordan" (the episode "Dead Wives Club") against Thomas A. Del Ruth of "The West Wing" (for "7AWF83429"), Chris Manley of "Threat Matrix" (for "Dr. Germ") and Eric Schmidt for "Cold Case" (for "Time to Hate").

Tami Reiker's work on the "Carnivale" pilot took a nod in the basic or pay cable movie/miniseries/pilot category. Reiker is up against Stephen Goldblatt's "Angels in America" as well as Ashley Rowe for "Tennessee Williams' The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone," Donald M. Morgan for "Out of the Ashes" and Michael Mayers for "The Pentagon Papers."

Pierre Gill, the director of photography on CBS' "Hitler: The Rise of Evil," leads the nominees for network cable movie/miniseries/pilot. Ernest Holzman (for the "Miracles" pilot), Michael Mayers (for "The Lyon's Den" pilot), Bill Roe (for the "Las Vegas" pilot) and Eric Van Haren Noman (CBS' "Brush with Fate") was also saluted.

"Our juries saw a lot of very special work in all categories," says Awards Committee Chairman Owen Roizman. "It isn't easy selecting nominees because the decisions are subjective. We are judging how effectively images convey stories. The votes were so close there could have been seven or eight nominees in each category."

Roizman also notes that Mayers is only the fourth double nominee in ASC history.