Caroline Elenbaas is a Dutch wedding photographer based in Heijningen, Noord-Brabant. Because she is only half an hour from Rotterdam, Breda, and Antwerpen, she says clients are always a little surprised to arrive at her studio, located on a cow farm in a small Dutch village that seems to be in the middle of nowhere. That's where Caroline lives with her husband Jacco, her three kids, her parents, and a handsome horse she shares with her oldest daughter.
Her location is well suited to her life-long love of riding. Her father was a horse breeder, and Caroline and her sister grew up training and showing horses. She also competed in show jumping and dressage shows. Today, she remains active in equestrian sports through her service on the board of a horse riding association that organizes riding events for the local community. Her love of horses makes environmental issues one of her top concerns.
The nurturing spirit, gentle disposition, and patience she developed while working with animals have turned out to be assets when managing the unexpected challenges of wedding photography. "My clients find it amazing that, during weddings and shoots, I'm always cheerful, kind, and quiet," she says.
Her favorite quote to live by is: "Don't worry. Everything is gonna be all right." Those are words she tells her kids and tries to live by herself, even if it doesn't always work. In that case, she has another strategy: "Work from your heart, and always be yourself. Sometimes, try something else. Find something new that suits you."
Caroline says she always knew she wanted to be a photographer, and went to school with the plan to specialize in horse photography. Things changed when she agreed to photograph a friend's wedding.
"I really liked it, and I was very inspired by the people and how they revealed their emotions." She quickly discovered that she loved the beauty of documenting these moments, working in the nice sunset light, and getting to share in the love between people. "There were so many things that inspired me," she says.
What she especially loves is the combination of storytelling and journalistic photography she can create as a wedding photographer. It allows her to be artistic, romantic, and emotional-and to tell an important human story for two people and their family, regardless of their religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
Caroline's approach is always the same: to dive into the moment with a sense of kindness, cheer, and positivity that helps her produce meaningful pictures.
This photo is taken at the party of a wedding taken in November 2019. The wedding was at Slot Doddendael in Nijmegen. It was at the beginning of the party. You see friends of the student association of the groom. You can see they all wearing the same tie. They studied in Wageningen. The friends are singing a song for the bride and groom.
I took the pictures with my Sony a73. I held the camera above my head and looked on the live view screen. I took a lot of pictures of this moment. But this one is favourite because everyone opened his mouth and you can see they go all out for it.
This picture I took in may 2019. It was during the dinner of the weddingday. It was a very nice couple, she is really crazy. The ceremony was at the De Vlaamsche Spijcker the dinner and party at Bovendonk in Hoeven. On the picture you see the bride and groom with the parents of the groom and the mother of the bride (the father of the bride isn't there) The father of the groom just held a speech in which he told about the next step of their life they had to take now. After the speech they are all sitting down and everyone had to cry. A very emotional moment. When I turned my camera I also took a few pictures of the other guest, and they also had to cry. So well done dad of the groom.
This is the start of a wedding. It is taken at the hairdressers "Jules" in Rucphen. On the picture you see the bride with her daughter. The bride worked for a long time as hairdresser in this shop. Both the hairdresser and the make up artist she know very well. I like the picture because the part in the mirror and the part outside of the mirror are different, the part of the mirror makes the picture complete.
The little girl wanted to help with putting makeup on her mother. For the bride also nice that the make up artist and the hairdresser are her friends. The hairdresser is also singing during the ceremony (the ceremony was at "Landgoed Tielens" in Hoeven.
This one is taken at Slot Zeist in Zeist. It is an very old palace, with a lot of different beautiful halls. This one is taken in the bleu hall. The picture is taken during the ceremony. It was the moment that a good friend of the bride is singing a song for the couple. I placed the singer in the mirror and at that time I was waiting if there is maybe happening something. And at that moment they look each other deep into there eyes. Also very nice of this picture is that the bride has one son and the groom has two sons. The three sons are also on the picture, with the beige suits.
I was in doubt, should I took the focus on the singer or on the wedding couple. I choose for the singer, it is his moment. I left this one in colour because you better see the colours of the blue and gold of the curtains and mirror.
This is a picture during the photoshoot, the bride and groom themselves don't have an own car (which is not common in the Dutch villages) But always go everywhere by bike. They think it is a nice idea to come to the location by bike. But the bride wasn't sure the dres kept clear. So it becomes a part of the shoot.
I had very nice light that morning and the trees before Bovendonk makes there are only a few light places, so I put the wedding couple and the bike in the light place and took this picture, which gives a very nice view, with a part of Bovendonk at the background. Bovendonk in Hoeven which is an old monastery/seminary.
