A fabulous celebration sponsored by the Laredo Convention & Visitors Bureau …
was held on Saturday, July 10, 2010. The La Posada Hotel Ballroom hosted the 2010 Pro-Tour Awards Celebration.
With great anxiety, landowners, photographers and guests awaited the results of the 2010 Pro-Tour of Nature Photography: Borderlands of Laredo competition. The landowners represented Webb and the 7 surrounding counties and the professional photographers came from 4 foreign countries and all over the United States. With this in mind we knew we could expect a wide variety of species and styles and they didn’t fail to meet our expectations. It was truly a breathtaking experience.
While everyone awaited the announcement of the top 3 winning teams they were awed by the display of almost 300 images created during this year’s Pro-Tour. It was truly a smorgasbord of what nature in South Texas has to offer.
$180,000 was awarded to the winning teams, which is the largest purse awarded in nature photography. Rolf Nussbaumer accepted 1st place with great enthusiasm and he was also awarded the first ever created bronze William Henry Jackson Trophy to acknowledge his accomplishment. D. Robert Franz won 2nd place and Laura Crawford Williams took 3rd. Prize money was awarded to almost all the participating landowner/photographer teams, but all agreed they were all winners from what they experienced in the Pro-Tour. Not only were beautiful images created but friendships were forged and future photo-tourism working relationships were established.
The event was the epitome of the message ICF delivers. Nature photography made a real impact on Laredo.
We give a big thanks to the City of Laredo and the Laredo and Convention Bureau & Blasita Lopez for their sponsorship of the Pro-Tour and for hosting our Awards Luncheon. Our celebration was held at the La Posada Hotel and was a beautiful event.
We would be remiss if we didn’t thank our judges one more time. Nadja Masri, Denita Delimont and John Nuhn donated 5 days and all their expertise to judge the 1500 entries that were submitted. It was a daunting task, but they pored over each image with a skillful eye.
Thank you to everyone who attended our event and we look forward to seeing everyone October 23rd when we will have our 2010 Pro-Tour Book Dedication Party hosted by IBC Bank.
