When the alarm clock rings at 1:00 a.m., you know a small or even big adventure awaits you. My dear colleague Luci and I had no idea at that time just how exciting and thrilling our trip to the Association of German Professional Portrait Photographers in Cologne would really turn out to be. Back to the beginning. My photo was taken at BPP contest in the area of wedding photography, we made it into the top 20 and, curious as we were, we naturally wanted to experience the placement live. So maybe a little spontaneously we decided to go to Cologne. Our mini road trip in Munich started at half past two with the night train at the main train station. After a few hours we were finally allowed to sniff the Cologne air.
The first stop
Of course the cathedral! Some selfies for that Photogenics team later our exploration tour continued, we wanted to make full use of the time until the announcement. So we strolled through Cologne, which was still new to both of us. We tried to count the love locks on the Hohenzollern Bridge, lit candles in Cologne Cathedral, celebrated with street musicians and of course took countless photos. The hours just passed us by and slowly the nervousness grew. We made our way to the hotel where the annual meeting is taking place.The announcement of places 4 – 10
Really a thriller for me. According to my colleague, with every name that was read that wasn't mine, my face got a little whiter. When I didn't mention my name at number four either, I really felt different. This meant that I was either placed between 10th and 20th place or, for me completely out of the question, in one of the first three places. So now we had to wait. To the gala evening and the second part of the award ceremony.Now it's getting serious
The only problem, however, was our bus, which was scheduled to take us back to Munich at 12:15 a.m. Would we make it all in time? Would we have enough time to watch the awards ceremony? When the awards ceremony for the Wedding category finally began, we could hardly contain ourselves. When my name wasn't called for third and second place, I knew I wouldn't find out my ranking until the next day. And then something happened that I never would have expected: my picture was displayed, my name was called, and I was presented with the Gold Award in the Wedding category. With a huge package from Profoto, a certificate, the gold trophy, and a gigantic smile, I stumbled off the stage and hugged my companion, who were cheering me on. And so ended our little—or perhaps not so little—BPP adventure. A huge thank you again to my Photogenika family who supported us, for the kind congratulations, the warm welcome back in Munich, and of course to my models who truly deserved the title "Most Beautiful Smile"! Love, Nikki. P.S. We made it home on the bus, heavily laden, a little out of breath, but very happy!
