Photo value on Internet : worst than ever?

This month, I received one of my worst Sales and Royalty Statement since I work for a photo agency. Don't think it's necessary to give you the name, I guess every agencies are affected by... I have sold dozen and dozen of photographs for an Internet time limited access use for only 0,31$. Yes, you read well : 0,31$!! And of course, you have to subtract the photo agency rate, and then to convert American Dollars to Euros. Enough said, I think you can easily imagine that a photo on Internet has NO VALUE in 2010. Well, it's not always true, sometimes you can sold a photo for 50$ if it's big enough and if it's for a big and well known website...

What if photo value would depend of the number of views on a page? What if you removed all the photos and pictures on a daily news website, on every websites? Yes, it could be very poor, uninteresting, boring. I think everybody needs photographs to illustrate a website. So, why images don't have their right value, depending on their size and on the number of views? Don't you think photo value should be more important on Internet when you have thousands and millions of views and clicks than on a paper magazine?

Well, I hope and I wish 2011 will be a better year for all the professional photographers who are in the streets and everywhere to shoot what's happened in this world, a World who doesn't turn really round...

Juste Debout

Few days ago, I was thinking about pictures I didn't edit yet. Okay, I know, I have too many pics I've never edited yet!! But these pics had to be published 9 months ago and... there are still in my computer for some reasons...

Today, the "Juste Debout" organization just revealed the date of the 2011 Juste Debout final in Paris. So I guess today is the good day to share my "forgotten pics"! The big final will be the 13th of March.  Hope I will be there, in Bercy, to take some new pics of this impressive Worldwide Hip Hop Dance Festival.

Here is a selection of several pictures I took this year. It's the first time they go out from my computer. So you are the first one to see them. Hope you'll like them as I do.

"Over you" the 2000 fps video clip is online

Two months ago, I was talking about a video clip filmed with a RED camera and a Photron camera which can filmed at 2000 fps in 4K. By curiousity I went to the studio during the shoot as I had a friend of mine who has a short part in the clip (see her at 0'17). A lot of expensive stuff and a lot of people for "just" a video clip!

This is not my kind of music, but anyway, here is the link to watch "Over You". You can see the action below at 1'09 and there is also a couple of dance actions in an impressive slow motion. Too bad it's too short during the clip... The good point is that the guys at Woow, the film production company, are really cool and they do a very good job. Oh, and here is the link to watch the making of.

Just married!

Last wedding of the year but not least. 4th of December, A. and L. are just married, and it was not an easy task! I mean, not easy to take some photos outside as it was maybe 2°C with an icy wind. Freezy! I wish I could get the snow fall of the morning during the very fast shooting afternoon in Montmartre. Can you imagine snowflakes with the Sacré Coeur in the background and these two beautiful "birds" right here, in the front of this view? No regret, we did severals shots in different places in Montmartre but it was so cold that we made it in maybe 15 or 20 minutes with a step inside the (hot) car between each place. Hard for me 'cause I wanted to do some shots with 2 or 3 flashes and I finally did all with one flash on the camera or without any flash. One word : improvisation!

Anyway, I spent a really good day with A. and L. shooting from 10am to midnight. Hope they will enjoy the pictures.

Congratulations guys!

From the window...

View from my window today, in the suburb of Paris. Can't wait to be in the mountains! Have to wait the end of the month to spend some good time celebrate the new year with friends in Andorra. CAN'T WAIT!!!

Quentin Caffier, studio, new Pentax 645D and nice models...

Few days ago, I was with Quentin Caffier (yes, again!) at Studio Stenope in Paris for a beauty shoot day with several models. Renaud, from Focus Numerique, came with the new Pentax 645D. A nice toy! We had a long day testing the camera with very nice girls prepared by Vee Gomez (Hair) and Coline Roussel (Make-Up) for some beauty shots.

Focus Numerique just write a new article about the Pentax 645D (in French) in collaboration with Quentin after this day in a photo studio.

Here is one of the photo Quentin made and some "behind the scene" pics I did during this day...

Photo © Quentin Caffier // Kajsa-Stina @Idole under the "hard ring-flash light"

My pics on Cosmic Hip Hop and Zulu Nation France

Few words to let you know that the photo report I did during the 37th Anniversary of Zulu Nation at Batofar, Paris, is on the Zulu Nation France website (http://www.zulunation.fr/) and on Cosmic Hip Hop website with a good article in French (http://www.cosmichiphop.com/reports/live-rahzel-zulu-nation-party_49.htm). Many thanks to Dee Jay Number Six and Laurent "Bongo" Perrin.
Peace!

Two days off...

Two days off. Two days without thinking of work. Two days without any stress. Two days in another place, not the one you use to live, eat, sleep and work everyday. Two days with some good friends and good food. Two days in the French countryside, far from everything. Two days off!

Yes, it was fu****g cool. But unfortunatly, I was unable to leave without my camera! Is photography a drug? Maybe...

When you are a freelance (photographer, designer, etc.), it's always hard to tell you that you can go far away without thinking that you do something wrong, that you should be available to work after an urgency call from a client. You could miss a lot of things in two days. But you could miss nothing. How to guess? I have no answer.

Anyway, on friday afternoon, I finally decided to leave with some good friends in one of my friends' house, close to Chauvigny (Vienne), 3 hours drive south/west from Paris. A week-end of rest, good food, nature, and a bit of sport (we brought 3 mountain bikes and 2 mx bikes). The forecast was bad with a lot of rain. But what? Are we made with sugar?! I didn't take a lot of photos, but on saturday night, I absolutely wanted to go for a walk to capture the 2 nuclear reactors of Civaux. Nuclear power is the primary source of electricity in France. In 2004, the country's nuclear production of electricity was about 78,8% (425,8 TWh - Wikipedia). Civaux's Nuclear Power Plant has more than 800 employees and each reactor has an output power of 1500 MWe, one of the highest class in the world. The steam from reactors gives a strange atmosphere to the sky, even by night.

Civaux's Nuclear Power Plant and its steam by night

Eclectic week

Last week, I covered several events in Paris. And, as often, I run to an event from another one, so that I feel like a chameleon who can change his color when he goes to a different place and meet different people. Diversity is exactly what I like when you are a photographer. You learn new things each time you shoot a new subject. I could talk about that during hours and hours. It's a big part of motivation for me and I think I could resume it with one word : curiousity.

The snow is coming!

It's november and I know some people are already on their skis or snowboard riding the very first snow in the French Alps. I'm still in Paris and wish I could already ride my skis... So, it's a bit hard to wait, this is why I was just looking at my first ski pictures I did last season and there is one I absolutely want to share.

After my very first ski photo experience shooting the X-Games in Tignes (it couldn't be better for a first experience, isn't it?), I had to go in Chatel with some friends to try to capture some good action shots for a new ski brand (B2R - Born To Ride). Unfortunatly the snow was really hard everywhere, not easy to make a freeride shot in the powder if you don't have any powder! We finally saw a little heap of fresh snow with Hugo and I asked him if he could try to do a big turn on it. Not an easy task for him considering he had no speed and not a lot of fresh snow... But we did it and were really happy of the shot, except it's not a good one for the brand!

Rider : Hugo Cogez // Skis : Born To Ride // Location : Chatel, France

Shot with a Canon 7D // ISO 100 @ 1/400 and  f13 // 10/22mm lens // 580 EXII triggered by Mini TT1 and Plus II Pocket Wizard

Rodrigue Fernandez at Le Salon du Chocolat

Rodrigue Fernandez is a great (and very cool!) French furniture designer. This year, he has the chance to exhibit his creations at Le Salon du Chocolat in Paris. Here is a part of his designs. For more informations, feel free to visit his website here.

Fashion photo shoot in Montmartre, Paris

Yesterday, we were at Montmartre, Paris, to shoot Coralie Joos for a fashion magazine and a website. We were lucky to be under the sun during almost all the day, but the temperature wasn't really warm! A bit hard for the model, but not only...

Here are few pictures from the making of I took yesterday.

Photographer : Quentin Caffier
Model : Coralie Joos
Hair : Vee Gomes
Make Up : Coline Roussel
Style : Lorraine Diard
Assistant : Richard Bord

Lukas Kandl : a fantastic world.

Yesterday night, I was at the Lukas Kandl's exhibition launch in St Germain-en-Laye, in the west suburb of Paris. Lukas is a friend of mine and a great well-known painter who use to show his art all over the World for more than 30 years. His paintings are very specials, between fantastic and surrealism with a lot of strange creatures you can only see in your most craziest dreams... or nightmares!

This exhibition shows a big part of his art through an impressive "several years work".
Lukas Kandl website : http://www.kandl.net/

Exhibtion : Manege Royal - Saint Germain-en-Laye (France) - October 23 / November 14

A nice meeting at the Roc d'Azur...

I had the chance to be at the Roc d'Azur which is one of the biggest Mountain Bike event in Europe. As I worked with the Vélo Vert magazine team, Tibaut, one of the full time journalist, asked me if I was able and if I wanted to welcome Richie Schley in the Vélo Vert tent. For those who don't know, Richie is one of the pioneers of the Mountain Bike Freeride movement, he had a part in the most popular videos, was photographed by the best action photographers and had some articles in every mountain bike magazines around the world. So, you can imagine that I didn't say no!

It was a really good experience to meet a such rider and, above all, he is really cool. We spoke during something like half an hour or more and I took a few pictures of him and his new Rotwild bike in the front of the tent. Not an easy task because of all the people who were here walking around us... I also had a problem with one of my Pocket Wizard (as usually...). I wanted to use my flashes to push the dark sky (I love it) and also to try to forget all the people aroud us. Finally, I've found the solution with the camera built-in-flashcamera which is able to trig the 580 EX. Thanks to my 7D!

You can read the interview (in French) here : http://www.velovert.com/article/3161/rencontre-richie-schley-etait-au-roc-

A video clip filmed in 2000 images/sec!

Two days ago, as my friend Pauline was in a studio waiting for her part in a video clip, I decided to come to see her and to attend the shooting (yes, I'm curious!). The Abel 14 studio in Paris is big, and I've never been in a such place. It was a good surprise to me to discover all these people working on the same project. I don't know a lot about how to make a movie yet, but it seems very interesting.

Anyway, I was there for one hour and I had my camera, so I decided to take a few backstage pictures of Pauline during her hairdressing. As I didn't know the director, I didn't take any behind the scene pictures, except a couple of images to show you the decor. I discovered that the guys filmed with a RED camera and another one I didn't know at all : a Photron. For those who knows, the Photron camera is just amazing! It's just a 2000 images/sec camera. Easy! And it costs only 300 000€. Very cheap! As I was here, I had the opportunity to watch the raw images taken with the Photron. The slow motions are incredible, very fluid and VERY slow with a high definition image. Trust me, it's crazy! Now, I'm looking forward to see the result through the video clip. I'll tell you when it's done.

Pauline backstage

Fashion Week vs Roc d'Azur

Since I'm back from the USA, I had almost no rest. Lucky me, I've had a lot of work for Getty Images and then for Vélo Vert Magazine. It's crazy how a photographer can work with so many different people...

"Danse Macabre" on Le Magazine EVER!

After a long period, the artistic project between sculptor Jim Skull and photographer Quentin Caffier is finally online!

I'm really proud to present you this amazing project I had the chance to work for as the assistant of Quentin and, at the same time, as photographer to shoot the making of. All the team did a very good job, in particular Quentin and Max who had to work during hours and hours after the photo shoot to edit the pictures and do the huge post production including the videos.

/// Danse Macabre ///

Quentin Caffier x Jim Skull

Skull sculptures : Jim Skull
Photographs and production : Quentin Caffier
Stylism: Tania Zekkout & Julie Barranger
Hair: Franck Nemoz
Make-Up: Guilaine Frichot & Coline Roussel
Post production: Max Laho & Quentin Caffier
Assistant : Max Laho
Photographer assistant & making of : Richard Bord 
Production : EVER & Quentin Caffier

Please watch the 2 videos on EVER.
Special thanks to Roc Chaliand & Quentin Caffier who gave me the opportunity to show my work through this project.

http://fr.lemagazineever.com/2010/09/danse-macabre-quentin-caffier-vs-jim-skull/ 

© Quentin Caffier

Sac By (bis) & Spartoo

Sac By visual of the month

Back to reality

One month. One month between New York and Santa Rosa, between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge, between Santa Cruz and Mt Shasta, San Francisco and Yosemite... One month and so many great meetings, great places, great friends, food, beers, camping fires, bike rides, walk rides, streets, trails, avenues, highways, stars in the sky, cabs in the street, so many buidlings and so many trees... One month of adventures. One month of America. One month of photos (a lot!). One month of memories. One month in my heart.

I'm finally back in Paris, ready as never to work harder and harder, to maybe, soon, take another flight for a new adventure...

NYC by night.

James Selby

Friday night, the 3rd of September, my first day in Santa Rosa after few days in San Anselmo in the Marin County. I arrived by night and there was this party, "Summer Nights", downtown, just below my friend's house. Wine testing, mexican food, music bands, and a lot of people in only one street. I came back with my camera to take some pictures while I was eating a huge burrito listening to a nice country music band. Oh yeah!

Sac By

Only few words and few pictures about a photo shooting we did for Sac By. As usually, it's always a good moment to work with Quentin, as he is a really nice guy and a great photographer. Thank you also to Guilaine who do a really good job each time I work with her.

Photographer : Quentin Caffier

Model : Tatiana & Iveta for Idole
Makeup and hair : Guilaine Frichot
Photographer assistant : bibi!

Lingerie...

While I am in California, Paris welcomes the 2010 Who's Next trade show... I use to assist the great photographer and friend Quentin Caffier for many of his fashion studio photoshoots in Paris. Today, we are proud to see that our work has been published in the new Who's Next "Guide des Tendances". Quentin shot the two models Julia Swell and Anne Suze for Isabelle Colomb on a beautiful house boat in Paris. I guess I don't have to tell you it was a hard day!

Quentin Caffier's blog
Isabelle Colomb
Julia Swell
Anne Suze

Hi from California!

The famous one!

Bye bye NYC, hello Windham!

After something like four raining/cloudy days in New York City, it was time to leave this amazing place. But before, I absolutely wanted to see New York from the Rockefeller Center, even if the weather was so bad. The view from the "Top of the Rock" is just incredible!

Bad weather, good photo?

I was nervous about to not see the Brooklyn Bridge before to leave New York in two days. As the weather was not really good since two or three days (grey sky, a lot of rain...), I decided despite everything to finally go for a walk on this famous bridge, "born" in 1883...

This monument is really impressive and, as you could feel his age, really beautiful. There was no sun tonight but a lot of big clouds in a grey rainy sky. The atmosphere was like oppressive and dark. Cool! As all the tourists here, I took some pictures but my goal was to keep the texture of the sky to give back this particulary atmosphere. I hope my photos are different than the other tourists photos who were here at the same time!

This is about Liberty

The start of the beginning

First post for a first experience in New York. Very exciting!
Ok, this is not about my job as it's a vacancy trip, but it could be the beginning of a lot of funny stories...

All starts well. My first flight (1140 Philadelphie) is on time, and me too!
I travelled last year with Air Canada and I remember I had a very good seat : window + a power plug to work safely on my laptop. I expected to fly with the same conditions but US Airways seems to be older and the window is far from me...
Anyway, the real story begins in Philly. As I get back my luggage to register on my next flight to NYC, an officer asked me to follow him and I thought it was normal... After few questions on the reasons I'am in the USA for, the bad things start when he opens my full camera bag and then my main luggage with a bottle of wine, a cheese (a very good Reblochon fermier - for those who knows ;-), a sausage (a very good one from Corse), a MTB helmet, a tripod... After an eternal 15 minute bad moment with 2 officers who wanted to know all about my life and who let me know that they could check all my body if they wanted - and worse, go to the hospital to do more! - I was almost on the departure for New York, without my good sausage. Too bad!

Flight 4370 to New York Laguardia? Nop, too easy : too much people for not enough "little planes". The company is looking for volunteers to switch their seat and travel two flights later. They offer a 100$ discount on the next flight. Well done, I'm here madam! We were two volunteers. The other one was this old man with a hat (see the photo). You couldn't live this kind of story in France, america is still america!







New York airport, I'm really closed to my friend's appartment in Hoboken. A bus transfer, a metro one, a f****** beautiful sunset and another Path train later, Anne-C is here, happy to see me.

I'm in New York! And I'm exhausted. See you soon.