People that know me know that I’m not someone who does a lot with certifications or competitions with my own work. I once competed in the Hasselblad masters and got a nice semifinale place in fashion, which is something I was told to be proud off 😀 but after that I somehow never did anything again. Don’t get me wrong I love competitions and I often judge in these kind of events, next weekend I will be one of the jurors again for the Maskerade (an international bodypaint competition) but somehow with my own work I never do.

A good photographer friend of mine who is active in the DIPP (Dutch Institute of Professional Photography) talked me into going in front of an international jury with my 20 best photos. Yesterday it was that moment……
We arrived at app 18:45 and my judging would be at 20:00 but I did not want to be late of course and you never know what can happen on the road, there was a very nervous atmosphere with people waiting to be judged.

Every judging is different (but always exciting) so a small insight in how the evening went.
When it’s your “time”, first your photos are brought in for the jury to see, and after a few minutes the photographer is called to be judged, what I heard the jury was brutally honest and had a keen eye this year, so the tension build up, I decided to skip the license and go for associate level which of course meant I had to work a lot harder with selecting the right photos, so you can imagine that also with me (hearing all these comments) the tension build. As a good jury is supposed to be they ran late and at app 20:15 my work was brought in, after 5 minutes I was called in and was ready to hear the final verdict……

I made the right selection I guess because the jury loved my selection, and I left the room in a very short time with the ADIPP certification.
From this side thanks to my friend Pim van der Maden for talking me into this 😀

I’m sorry I couldn’t be part of the nice DIPP weekend, but I’m still not 100% but I will be there next year without a doubt.