To my big surprise one of my photos won the the public 1^st prize in the annual Bridesphoto Award here in the Netherlands. This year 2000 photo’s entered  the competition and the photographers who captured the 60 nominated photo’s in 6 different categories gathered at the Boat House in Almere to hear the final result!

After a game of golf at Spaarnewouden with one of my best friends Ewout, we headed rather relaxed towards Almere in somewhat rainy conditions. A silhouette image that I captured at the wedding of Wiliam and Mirella in Delft was nominated in the ‘Free’ category. With 9 of the 10 nominees on stage I was overwhelmed when they announced that I won the ‘Public’ 1st prize. Didn’t expect the public prize but was very pleased with the result. Here are all the winning photos.

What followed then was a HUGE surprise! The organization asked the 6 public winners in the different categories to came on stage again and then they informed us that the person with the most votes (which went through an on-line poll) would be the “Overall Winner” of the ‘Bridesphoto Awards for 2011 and the reward is a holiday on the beautiful Caribean island of Curacao. To my big surprise again my (+William and Mirella’s) photo had the most public votes!

2 Prizes in one and for the 3^rd consecutive year in a row receiving a ‘Bridesphoto Award’ being organized by the Bruid & Bruidegom Magazine! I was emotional and shocked. My wife thought we played a joke on her about the holiday but after seeing the voucher she was convinced. A great moment for me was when I arrived home at 23:00 the kids were awaiting me at the front porch with beautiful smiling faces.

Thank you to all the wedding couples out there who voted on my photo and especially to all those wedding couples who put they precious trust in me to capture such an intimate and emotional event in their lives. I’m honored!

Thanks to my family, friends and colleagues who bear with me the whole year and for your support. Thank You to the Dreamgiver who blessed me with this talent and with more than I deserve and for guiding me. I am thankful!

Here are some photo’s of the event!

Photo’s by the very talented Lesley

One thing I have to add about this photo is that it rained for the greater part of the day when I shot this. To get the low angle I had to get down on the ground so my clothing was a mess and full of mud and wet. After this we proceeded to a farmhouse and surrounding to shoot some more rainy and muddy shots after which I changed to a new set of clothes!

Congratulations to our colleagues from the We Love Weddings group who also had lots of nominees. Ellen Sassen & Marco Verstraaten won with a beautiful photo in the ‘Bride in the spotlight’ category.  Congratulations to them and to Jennifer Hejna who won the ‘Wedding and Emotion category’. Well done both and We Love Weddings