Couple whose clifftop proposal photos went viral on Reddit say they are amazed by the response
WHEN Steven McConnell proposed to his girlfriend at Bondi Beach he never suspected they would end up an internet sensation.
WHEN Steven McConnell got down on one knee to propose to his girlfriend at Bondi Beach on Sunday morning, he wanted the moment to be sensational but he never suspected they would end up an internet sensation.
But he and new fiancee Irene Kotov set Australian social media buzzing yesterday when photos of their romantic moment, accidentally snapped by an amateur photographer, went viral on the internet.
Mr McConnell's proposal on Bondi's famous North Head was captured on film by Sydney University student Michael Keane, 20, who was photographing the sunrise from the shore, hundreds of metres away.
Mr Keane, a visiting engineering student from Texas, said he only realised what he had captured after he got home and zoomed in on the photos.
"I saw the couple's silhouette on the cliff, so I started taking pictures with them in it because I thought it would be cool in the pictures,'' Mr Keane said.
"It wasn't until I got home and was looking through my camera that I realised 'holy crap, he is down on one knee in this one, holy crap in this one before it he is in the PROCESS of getting down on one knee'.
"That's when I realised I had completely by accident just captured a wedding proposal.''
Mr Keane immediately posted the series of snaps to sharing website Reddit.com, where they quickly went viral as people tried to track down the anonymous lovers.
Mr McConnell, 32, and Ms Kotov, 29, who - ironically - are both photographers themselves, were unaware of the photos until the story appeared on News Limitedwebsites yesterday.
"We just got phone calls and messages from friends saying 'you're famous, you're in the Daily Telegraph','' said Ms Kotov, who also celebrated her birthday on Sunday.
"I didn't believe it, I thought it was our friends having a joke,'' said Mr McConnell.
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Now that News Limited has put the couple in touch with their accidental photographer, they say they plan to have the photos framed.
"It's really awesome. We are definitely going to frame the photos,'' Ms Kotov said.
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