2 Accolades of Excellence from 2011 WPPI 16×20 Competition!

I’ve always felt the best way to gauge one’s abilities is to go up against the best.

In the sports world, the champion is crowned when they defeat all the competition. In the wedding photography world…16,000 wedding photographers gather in Las Vegas, NV each year for the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) convention. Part of the convention is the prestigious 16×20 print competition. Thousands of prints are submitted and judged by the finest, most creative, and best wedding photographers in the WORLD. In the past two years I am thankful to have garnered 10 Accolades of Excellence. These winning photographs are hung on display in a gallery for all to view.

This past year, the judging was pretty fierce. It was humbling to see some of my favorite photographs of the year not win…but at the same time, I saw other phenomenal photographs shot by amazing wedding photographers fail merit an accolade. I have never been so thankful to have these two photographs represent Nakai Photography in a gallery full of the best wedding photographs of the year.

So without further adeu, here are the winning wedding photos!

This photo was from Brittany & Vaido’s engagement photo session back this past fall. It was a perfect day with the leaves a perfect color and hue- You can see more of their engagement session at their engagement photo session blog post.

Titled: A New Season

This is a re-edited photo from Theresa and Bobby’s wedding this past year. Bobby loves comics and kung-fu. So I had this fun and creative photo in mind during our creative portrait time on their wedding day. You can see more of their wedding photos at this blog post.

Titled: Drop Dead Gorgeous

It was great to hear two photographers I really respect, Roberto Venezuela and Michael Greenberg both comment on this photo.

You can see my previous blog posts highlighting past award winning wedding photos. 2010 award winning photos and my 2009 award winning photographs.

Thank you again to all my friends and family who have supported me and believed in my vision and talents as a wedding photographer! I truly am so thankful for everyone and the photography community as well!

with love,

Kenny Nakai
Nakai Photography
855 W. Blackhawk St #104 Chicago, IL 60642