It all started with a lunch that Kathleen and I had with Candice at Archie Moores, which has quickly become THE place to go when whenever we have a meal with her. Over a couple of glasses of beer and wine and a couple of plates of wings the idea was born. We were going to lead a workshop and photo shoot in one of our absolute favorite places; Paris!
For all of you who know us closely know that we don't do anything in a conventional way. We like to push boundaries, we never like taking no for an answer and really REALLY hate regrets. You only live this life once and we believe that if you set a goal for yourself or your business, you do NOT stop until you achieve it! It is so easy to say "maybe we will do that one day" but I guarantee it is MUCH more rewarding to say "no excuses - we ARE doing this". We wanted to hold our very first workshop in Paris and in no way did we want it to be conventional: most imporantly we were not going to let anything or anyone stop us from achieving this goal.
One of the most valuable things that we learned really early on is that you never stop learning. We want to live our lives with an open mind and soak up as much knowledge as possible from everyone. We believe that you can learn from anyone, from an old pro to someone just beginning out and of course everyone in between. This is the philosophy that we wanted to bring to our first workshop. We were there to share how we do things, what we have learned along the way and what works for us. We were also there to listen and learn how our overseas peers do things. This way we can ALL get better and all help each other in pursuit for the greater good.
We will share with you even more about what we all accomplished at our first "Taking Off Seminar" in the actual post but for now we have put together some behind the scenes photos throughout the day - just for fun. A HUGE thank you to our good friends Candice from Jubilee Events and Beth from The White Dress by the Shore who made the journey all the way out to Paris with us with TONS of details, wedding dresses and their amazing talents. You are simply the best! A huge thank you also goes out to our new friend Kim from Parisian Events and all of the many other vendors who have come together to make this all happen. Last but certainly not least, thank you to all of our attendees and models from Paris, Southern France, Spain, and Germany! Much more on all of them soon! :)
The day after we lead our "Taking Off Seminar" Kathleen and I along with help from Candice & Beth put together this absolutely amazing photo shoot inspired by the incredibly sweet movie "Amelie". If you have never seen this movie, you absolutely should! We photographed in an old French restaurant, in the Metro stations and even had a vintage French car and driver bring us through the streets of Montmartre. It was simply an wonderful experience. We will also have that coming up soon but in the meantime we hope you enjoy some of these behind the scenes from our first day.
I know that many of you saw this already since we shared it as a preview but this is the insanely awesome view from the roof-deck terrace of the Paris apartment we used for the workshop.
This is how the terrace looked before Candice & Kim got their hands on it and worked their magic. Wait until you see what they did!
Kathleen bringing out her inner model as we tested some light on one of the many balconies overlooking the city. She always says one of the most important things when showing a model how to pose is also showing her the face you want her to make!
Beth, Sarah & Kim start pulling out all of the bridal head pieces...
...Candice had no problem trying them all on! :)
Along with 5 wedding dresses can you believe that Beth and Sara got all of these details through the airport system, I don't know how they managed it all but they are simply amazing!
How could you shoot in Paris without at least one cage veil?!
The dining room as we were getting setup before everyone arrived.
It's always all about the details even when packaging something simple such as a notebook and book.
....sigh, we miss Paris!!
Candice put some finishing touches on each of the chairs before they made their way up to the terrace. Her attention to detail is truly out of this world!!
Out of everyone in the room no one could figure out how to tie a bow tie for our male model Jeremy!! Thankfully we found a set of instructions...
...and Beth was able to make it happen!
Right before heading out to start the first part of our shoot, our INSANELY TALENTED makeup artist Masafumi put the final touches on our female model Segolene. Just wait until you see how amazing she looked!
Love this one!!!! :)
We structured our workshop as if it was a real wedding day. We shared with everyone everything from how to shoot details such as dresses, to telling the story of the day and even how to keep an open mind when the weather doesn't cooperate. We were really able to put that part to the test when it started hailing, how crazy is that?!
Love how Karoline is completely rocking the 2 camera setup!! :)
Even more feathers and pearls.
We can't show you yet what Marco was shooting here but the details on the terrace were simply beautiful.
Candice watched as Beth put the first head piece on Segolene...
...and then made sure she got one of her own!!
Since we had some unexpected rain and HAIL (what's that all about????) we brought the group inside for a little while and made use of one of our favorite things: window light.
I think if Candice ever decides she wants to add something to her long lists of talents, it just might be photography.
Just when I thought we had seen it all, Beth pulled out yet another head piece, so amazing!!!!
Even though it was raining AND hailing the energy of everyone was so wonderful and we were able to teach and produce some truly amazing images. We seriously can't wait to share.
The rain did eventually stop and we headed over to the Eiffel Tower with the entire group. Kathleen grabbed this quick shot of Beth & Sara right before we finished up...
...and everyone got together for this one. Again we can't wait to show you the simply beautiful photos we captured from this day as well as the Amelie inspired photo shoot that Kathleen and I photographed the next day.
