Paris, Day 2

I kept a diary for the first few days in Paris, so I'm going to simply post what I wrote, along with photos :)

This is the second day-- our first FULL day, even though the first day was nearly full as well :P

We got up at 6:45 and I went downstairs to get breakfast. The continental breakfast here is SO yummy! I had a baguette with nutella, a croissant, a banana, and applesauce nom nom nom. Then we went to Le Studio, and Steven lectured to us a bit. I’m trying to remember what exactly it was about but it’s hard to remember since we had a similar schedule two days in a row. Like I have the info in my head, but I can’t remember the order in which I received that info. Haha.

Anyway. Then a man named Yang, who is a Stylist and the editor for this shoot, came in and explained our first assignment to us. We are shooting men first, which scared me a bit cause I rarely shoot men! But then he showed us the photos that inspired him for this shoot, and I loved them! Also, I had been worried because my style of shooting tends to leave the clothes as an afterthought… like I don’t focus on the clothes… like getting the whole shirt in with detail, etc. And since this is a fashion photography workshop, I was worried that I would have to limit myself in order to accomplish photos that showed off the clothes. So I was so excited when Yang started telling us that he didn’t care about the clothes, he just wanted the emotion, I was really excited. I feel like he described my style and my feelings towards photography perfectly! YAY :D

Then a man came in, I can’t remember his name because it’s French, but I think it’s Jean something. He’s an adorable, sweet older man who has been a runway photographer for 40 years+ for TIME magazine, and he’s ridiculously talented. We got to look through his portfolio and such. I really liked him, he was just very down to earth and jolly and stuff.

Then Steven was talking to us about how agencies work, especially in regards to magazine shoots. How you don’t get to choose the model most of the time... that kinda thing. It was interesting, and a bit disappointing, cause I was under the impression that the photographer at least got to put some input into the model.

Then Steven went over how we might go about working for a magazine, and he asked us to each come up and explain our style/who we were/what magazine we’d want to work for. Fortunately, we had to stop right before it got to me! I was really nervous haha. And we haven’t finished that since. We had some lunch and I ate some pasta with pesto.

Then we had to take portraits of each other, which was pretty horrible…we had to use lighting and it was very specific. I hated that I couldn’t tell what the photo was going to look like until AFTER I took the photo. The girl I photographed was Brittany :) Here's one of the photos:


Then while people were finishing their portraits of each other, Madeline and I (and eventually Krystal) went into the makeup room which had really cool light and ended up doing a shoot, it was so much fun!

Here's a quick self portrait snapshot I took to test the light:


Here are some of the photos of Madeline I took :)
























We left the studio, and I took a few photos outside cause it was purdyyy :D




As we were walking, we quickly went into a cute shop where I bought three small gifts-- one for my mom, one for my sister, and one for Trish!

Then we went to the modeling agency where we quickly met a guy who worked there and got to ask him about testing with models. Before that though they stopped to get drinks but Marie, Madeline and I didn’t want any and the waiter was rude and said we couldn’t sit down then. So, we ventured over to a cute little restaurant and store across the street.

After the agency we went to Fnac in hopes of getting my 50 1.4 camera lens that I am purchasing for my birthday, but it was $550 there!!! That’s double the price in the US (so I ended up ordering it to be shipped from the US instead… and even with $40 shipping got it for $330).

Then when we got back we met Adriana, the “bonus model”, who I’ll be shooting Sunday. She’s really pretty and reminds me of Tessa Schaaf, one of the girls I've photographed before, actually. She has really cool eyes—two slightly different colors and one of her pupils like isn’t a circle, and it’s SO cool looking!

We stayed in the lobby for awhile like figuring shoots out and such with Gina, and some people looked at my portfolio and seemed to like it so that made me happy! I got to see Erin’s and Madeline’s, too, and theirs were really good.

Then Madeline and I went to the grocery store, Monop, and got some food. I got pasta and tomatoes and butter and cheese. Then Krystal was going to do a shoot of Madeline so we went to her room, and Alysia was there too. She’s from Ohio and I like her a lot, she reminds me of the family I have in WV and Ohio I think. I made my pasta there (cause my plugs stopped working.. boo!) and they did the shoot and then Per came in and asked if we wanted to go out and get a drink and scout locations. Elysia ended up staying to skype with her kids, but the rest of us went, and so did Brittany.

We went by the Notre Dame and the river and such, and walked around all these cool streets. It was really fun! It was getting latish, so we went to this Mexican place that had these cool lights and they got drinks (I just got water) and a thing of Nachos for everyone. We got back home after 12 and I showered and went to bed around 1. I’m just now starting to realize how full my days are!







a homeless man:
















In the Mexican restaurant:


Day 3 coming soonish ! :)

Paris Trip, day 1

For those of you who don't know, I was invited to go on a photo workshop in Paris a few months ago by Gina and Steven Silverstein (who run the program). It seemed too good to be true, and it was expensive, so I struggled with the decision to go or not-- I had to put a $500 deposit down by April 15 if I wanted to go, and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to afford it, so it was a really stressful bunch of months for me, between trying to find the money, wondering if it would be worth the money, and worrying that it would end up being a scam. With a lot of luck and support from my lovely fellow photogs and art appreciators and family, I was able to go.

A few days before the trip (June 30-July 11), we received our itinerary. The schedule looked really exciting, but it was stated that it was subject to change. They gave reasons and it made sense, but then I got scared that it would be kinda a scam where we get there and end up not doing any of the cool things on the schedule.

WELL GUESS WHAT. They added MORE to the schedule!!!

It was better than I EVER could have imagined. Definitely the most incredible experience of my life. And so I'm going to be blogging about it, with varying amounts of photos. I took very few the first day, so there won't be many in this post, but there will be a bunch in the others :)

SO. here I go.

The first day, July 1. I got there at 8am, and eventually found two other girls who were in the program. We were a little confused about the place that we were supposed to wait for them, and it ended up that they got caught in traffic and were late, so the three of us were half worried that we were in the wrong place and they would leave without us (meaning we'd have to take a cab for about $100) or that it was a scam. Well, all was good, I got in touch with Gina, and it turned out they were just running late, and we eventually got into the taxi van thing. We were all pretty exhausted, especially cause of the time difference.

The day is a bit of a blur to me. We got our roommates, we got settled in, and relaxed for awhile. I remember being so tempted to make a nap, haha. the light was beautiful in my room, so I asked my roommate Jen if I could take her photo.


Then we all went over to the cafe next door for lunch. I got cheese and tomato on a baguette, and it was really yummy :)


I can't really remember what happened next, but I know we went to Profoto after that, and they demonstrated a bunch of their newest lights and batteries, and we got to take the equipment back (we were allowed to use it for the remainder of the trip).

on our way back, I took a few photos of the streets around the hotel. we ended up going down this one quite a lot, it had a ton of shopping and a few places to get baguettes and such :)


When we got back, I was crashing (and so was everyone else), but we had dinner at 8. It was a really yummy pasta restaurant. dinner took a long time, but it was fun, and we got to ask Steven and Gina a lot of questions and all get to know each other a little better.

It was a good first day. The next ones were about 5000 times more awesome though :P

I'm going to get these posts together as quickly as I can, but I have work all day the next two days, then vacation, then work, then Sarah Smiley is coming to visit (!!!), THEN I'll have a couple days to really get stuff done. sorry if it takes me while! :P

summer storms

I'm about to start posting about each of my days in Paris and Gent, Belgium. but first, I wanted to post this.

model: grace