A boy's take on France

With a command of the French language closely comparable to Brad Pitt's italian in Inglorious Bastards, and a bag of smelly clothes straight from Coachella in CA, I set out on a 54 hour journey through 7 airports, 5 states and 3 countries to meet up with friends (old and new)... fellow photographers from around the world who braved the Icelandic ash cloud to attend the Sony World Photography awards and the first iStockalypse of 2K10 in Cannes, France.

Before the crowd - Palais des Festivals

Sir JJRD speaking on the "sexy" success of iStock's Vetta collection during a symposium that included Aidan Sullivan (VP Getty Images), Monica Allende (Picture Editor of the Sunday Times), Roberto Koch (CONTRASTO and founder of FORMA) and the always inspiring Tom Stoddart.

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iStockers enjoying some vin rouge and good company after a day of shooting along le Croisette

 Not surprising that the 3-14 hotel was picked as the iStock headquarters given a known propensity towards late night shenanigans

Dusk along le Croisette

While I was hanging out in the iStock lounge processing images from the week my friend Elena (a fellow photographer from the editorial conference in Istanbul) stopped to watch over my shoulder for a moment. 

Smiling she remarked, "that's interesting..."

"what's that?" I asked.

"judging from your images you seem to be in a rather romantic mood" she replied and walked away - leaving me to contemplate the extent to which my mood affects the way in which I craft my images. Since then I've reprocessed a number of the images. Not because they didn't look nice before, but simply because my mood changed...

Playing in the streets with Manon

 Julian on the run

 some girl

 Shopping with Sarti

 
Monsieur Luca

 With the iStockalypse over and friends heading home, I found myself left with a handful of days before my flight home and a powerful urge to travel beyond of the 'crusty meets chrome' hustle of the French Riviera. However, the trip being too short to really get out and explore the countryside I quickly found myself reduced to a camera totting tourist...

 Monaco

 Nice

On an impulse I boarded a train to Paris to see what that was all about...

"All I wanted was to connect my moods with those of Paris. Beauty paints and when it painted most, I shot."

-Ernst Haas 

 and now...A Girl's Take on France! While I was busy cavorting in Cannes, my good friend, life counselor, and constant source of photographic inspiration, Athena, was ironing out her Blue Dress and working her magic...

 

Check out Athena's blog for an enchanting look into her spring adventures in France...