Paris Heineken Cup Launch

In September, I had the chance to photograph the Heineken Cup Launch in Paris for Getty Images and the ERC (European Rugby Cup). The mission was to make some portraits of the athletes and their coach in the France Television photo studio, to shoot some cool outside group pictures and to take some photos during the press conference. All was really fast, and it was not easy as I had to run everywhere, but it was a great job and opportunity to meet these great champions.

Here is a bunch of what I've shot. You can see all my work for Getty Images whenever you want on their website typing "Richard Bord" in the search area ;-)

Thanks for visiting. Cheers!

Captain Aurélien Rougerie of ASM Clermont Auvergne

Captain Sébastien Tillous Bordes & coach Bernard Laporte of RC Toulon

Captain Jacques Cronje & coach Gonzalo Quesada of Racing Metro 92

Captain Imanol Harinordoquy of Biarritz Olympique PB

Coach Guy Noves of Stade Toulousain & Coach Laurent Rodriguez of Biarritz Olympique PB

Captain Thierry Dusautoir of Stade Toulousain

All the images are © Richard Bord / Getty Images

Fashion & BMX, the Ranger RX did it well.

When I bought my Elinchrom Ranger RX at Db Photo two months ago, it was first to complete a contract for a big company consisting in a serie of more than 600 portraits of employees. Not very interesting considering the "art" side, but good enough to test my new Ranger RX in nomad photo studio conditions. Few days after, I went to visit a friend of mine who is an "old" national race level BMXer. I don't need to say that his 3 young sons have already some impressive BMX skills! Eddy, the oldest one, is a national top 10 rider in his category and is faster and more stylished than most of the guys I know! Eddy loves also fashion and photography and wants to be a model, I'm sure he can do it due to his cute face! Well, I brought my Ranger RX flashes into the BMX track to do a photo test with this young star, with and without his BMX. It was a great sunny day and I believe I went back with some good pics in my memory card. Thanks to Mickael and all his great familly, and also to all the young riders who were on the BMX track and who alowed me to ride ridiculously a cruiser BMX ;-)

91 years old

On sunday the 10th of April, my Grand-Father celebrated his 91 year anniversary. We were in a water mill for the lunch as mills are a real passion for him (he made several miniatures of mills by himself with real wood gears inside!). He always have a funny story to tell even hard his life was.

I'm sorry for this really personal post. But I just wanted to share the love I have for this "young boy" who is my Grand-Father!

 

Peridy's "Bat" garage

On our way to the "Rallye Neige et Glace", we made a stop, Tom Zaniroli and me, to a huge garage in the Jura : the Peridy's "Bat" garage! Sam Peridy was just prepared his custom mountain bike for the Urge Cabo Verde last saturday in his awesome garage, one day before to take his flight. Every riders are now in Cabo Verde to ride the most beautiful places of this country. Looking forward to see the Sven Martin's pictures...

Do you like your hairdresser?

During a studio photo shoot for a cool barbershop in Paris with my friend Quentin Caffier, I saw these scissors that Vivien was using on a model. I guess it was the first time I saw such a big pair! So I decided to make a quick portrait of Vivien, the haidresser, backstage with the ambiant light. These pics make me laugh as Vivien looks like a psychopath with his scissors. Are you sure your haidresser is not a psychopath? Hahahahahahaaaaa!
;-)

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

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-

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!