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