France for me was in many ways like America is to those who move there; a fairytale in which sometimes I’d have to pinch my cheeks to make sure it was real. At school, I met aerialist & acrobat Kaelibeth Rose who was studying French under the same program. Fueled by her attendance to Cirque du Soleil & a mutual childhood dream to run away with … Continue reading Cirque du Salève
– Back in 2014 – I’d been working closely with an acrobatic gymnast in a series of editorial circus photoshoots. While our results are always fabulously awesome, our heads don’t always flow in the same direction. After three months of struggling with our project, we’d finally arrived at our final shoot. Unfortunately, the day of – it became apparent that we were missing a ringmaster! … Continue reading Case of the Missing Ringmaster – & How to Prep for a Large Scale Photo Shoot
Public undress isn’t something I usually encourage. It’s so uncomfortable to see someone in that predicament. Strangely enough, I may or may not have ended up in my underwear, smack in the middle of a brightly lit sidewalk. Thankfully, the incident didn’t result in nightmares. There have flashbacks though, often triggered by the raging fury of European cruisers. I hate panic trickling up my spine … Continue reading In Control
As a photographer, I’ve learned that things don’t always flow smoothly as planned. 1. Monster in the BushesOne time, while doing light art at the lake, my light artist messed up an outline. I laughed so hard at the result that I almost peed! That wasn’t as serious but on a different night while working on astrophotography – I really had to go! 2am in … Continue reading And One Day We Can Laugh About Those Epic Fails
Once again I’ve collaborated with the amazingly talented Kae Avine. All year, she wanted to create a routine around the waterfall outside our dorm. Right before leaving France, we had the chance to film it. This girl’s choreography is just so perfectly timed. You can watch the version that she edited below: Ugh, there are definitely a lot of issues with the camera work. It’s still very rough from … Continue reading Fear
They prepared us very well – or so we were told – with all the information we needed to lessen the effects of moving to an unfamiliar country. True to their word, I didn’t experience culture shock for moving to France – and as far as my class is concerned – nobody else did either. To me, France was in many ways a familiar territory. It … Continue reading Reverse Culture Shock
We were up by 2:45am. Yeah, I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only way we’d be out by 3. Of course, the night sky was a cause for constantly running into things. Oh the stars, so many stars, oh so overwhelmingly marvelous! We tried to set up the tripod at the base of the mountain but were soon chased away by a pack of unchained dogs. … Continue reading Goodbye – One Last Time
It was past 1am but there I was, kneeling under a street lamp in a pink summer dress. “Are you ok?”, The young woman asked. I nodded and motioned to an upside down jar featuring my praying mantis devouring a cricket. We engaged in conversation, talked about our studies – which are as opposite as could be. She is doing orthopedics while I’m a film … Continue reading Bei- Where!?
Yes, that was a blurry yet aesthetically pleasing image featuring a staircase inside the Arch de Triumph. Of course, most have watched ‘Taken’. Upon deciding to move to France, it was a movie that was often mentioned in conversation. Instead of taking the matter directly to me, someone went as far as accusing my parents of irresponsibility for allowing their only child to go so far on her … Continue reading Don’t Fall Down the Drain
One hour of determined hiking can get one to the top. The view is absolutely amazing. Makes you realize how small you are and how big the world is in comparison. It’s fun going with friends, but sometimes going alone is the best option. You can loose yourself from pretty much anything. All the troubles and stress … pretty much just let everything drain out. That’s … Continue reading That One Time Switzerland Invaded France
There is a group at our school that is often going camping or planning such outdoor activities. Wish I’d been better friends with them, because honestly those are the types of things that I miss from my childhood. The things I hope to continue doing in the future. I did get to hang out with them a couple weeks ago when they decided to camp out … Continue reading Night Under the Mountain
The group of us headed out back around 8pm. Given how late the sun sets, we had enough time to set up camp before climbing up the boulders. Got up just in time to see the last sliver of sun slip behind the Jura Mountain range.Sad to say, but it might be the last sunset we see over France. It’s been awfully cloudy lately with a … Continue reading Silhouettes Against Les Horizons
This image was totally spontaneous and unplanned. Thats why I love it so much.This was actually taken on Easter Sunday. Not sure what country we were in at the time, although I have reason to believe it was Switzerland. We were walking along the side of the road when we came across this. It was just so beautiful. Walked right in, took a picture and … Continue reading Unplanned Exploration in the Leaf Tunnel!
Back home, I used to take self portraits whenever my roomie was out for the weekend. She’d come back and there’d be all sorts of weird pictures on Facebook. Here, I don’t really wait for my roomate to leave. She has made it a thing to take a daily picture documenting her outfits… so we’ve gotten pretty comfortable about it. This image was taken about two weeks … Continue reading Light bulb ON.
We climbed up high hopping to catch a glimpse of the setting sun. The days had been getting warmer, thus we were truly surprised to find a blanket of snow. Even more amusing was the team of paragliders standing next to the edge. The sun pierced through their gliders. The colors spread throughout the sky. It was so beautiful. Hopefully these extreme sports fans weren’t … Continue reading Ice and Sky
Growing up, my parents would make me stay in my room if I was naughty or needed to clean up. As a rebellious child, I’d remove the screen, flee the house and hide in my tree house. They caught on and Dad nailed the screen to the window. Well, that was the end of that. My dorm back in the US finds removing screens a … Continue reading Window Light, Window Flight
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post. Continue reading Protected: Terre de la Magie
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post. Continue reading Protected: Learning to Fly
After dinner one night, an older man stopped for a chat. He recommended that my friends and I visit the French town of Annecy and Pont de la Caille. Having just arrived in France, I was scared to venture out. But I really wanted to go! Thankfully, our school had an outing planned. The town itself, especially old town, is so cute. We spent a … Continue reading Antsy to get to Annecy
I remember Caribbean sunsets as exotic, but there just aren’t any pictures to justify how amazing and glorious the French/ Swiss sky looks every day. Guess there’s a reason why the guys’ dorm is called ‘Les Horizons’. Kinda jealous over here. With Geneva, the lake, and French mountains on the other side of the valley, they clearly have the best view! There are just … Continue reading New Horizons
Ok, so the tittle of this post isn’t supposed to be because we are running from a church… but because we are running from our friend Grace. These images were taken during our school’s trip to the small French town of Annecy. They just dropped us off and allowed us to roam where ever we wished. Naturally, we were attracted to the church’s high steeple. … Continue reading Running from Grace
This is my room window in Collonges-sous-Saleve. Can’t belive it… I actually moved to France! Ok, so the whole trip was actually less stressful than going to Mexico. No joke. The couple sitting next to me on the way to London were really nice, and figuratively adopted me for the length of the trip. They appeared to have a lot of friends in the film … Continue reading Can’t belive it… I actually moved to France!
