European Vacation - thebecker.com 949.370.0073

viewing a single post: see all recent posts

European Vacation

04.16.2012

I've been a bad blogger. It's been a crazy 2012 so far, actually the last 7 or 8 months have been pretty nuts, but I wanted to share some images from our trip to London & Paris from back in January.

I spoke at the Mystic Seminar in Connecticut the second week of January, then my girlfriend Ashley met me in NYC and we flew to London together. I was speaking at SWPP for the second year in a row. I love it over there. I wish I was going back for the Olympics, but I'm not. The photographers who came to my seminars were really nice, even when I overslept and missed one of my presentations. Jetlag & cold medicine is not a good combo) Thankfully I was able to switch with another photographer and do mine just a bit later (Thanks Katie!). The feedback was very positive and I love how they kept saying "Brilliant, simply brilliant!" They are too kind. We even managed to have a little [ b ] School dinner at a Thai restaurant not too far from the hotel and got to hang out with my friends Gary & Jeff from Album Exposure.

As per usual whenever I have a business trip, I try to take a couple extra days to see the sights and explore the region with my camera... even though in London I mostly just used my iPhone. London is a very cool city. It was nice being back there for the second time. I felt a lot more confident about getting around... especially using the tube. I did mind the gap and I got around with no problems. I also went back to the Casino at the Empire. I didn't do as well as I did last year, but I still had a good time and managed to walk out of there up a few pounds.

Here's a collage of some of my favorites from Instagram (follow me @thebecker):

Here's a portrait of the lovely and talented Ashley Douthit along the River Thames.

This statue was in front of Parliament.

And I loved the color & texture of this apartment building next to Westminster Abbey.

It was also fun to hang out with Joe Photo & his wife Ingrid.

Joe snapped a few shots of us in from of the Tower of London:

And a couple more in front of Westminster Abbey:

Then Ashley took matters into her own hands with a nice self portrait of us.

Ok, after the business trip was done in London, we took the train under the English Channel and spend a few days in Paris. It was so fun. The weather was mostly nice, but it was very crisp. We had some amazing food... the French sure do know how to make bread. And cheese. And pastries.

I had been to Paris only once before, and only for about 15 hours. I actually had a long layover on my 21st birthday in Paris and was able to hit up the Eiffel Tour and and enjoy Le Whopper at Le Burger King on Le Champs Elysees. Oui! I am happy to repost that on this trip, we made it to some nicer restaurants including the world famous Buddha Bar (I have a bunch of those CDs) and then we even popped into the Ritz for a late night drink. 10 Euros for a Diet Coke and 30 Euros for 1 cocktail? Ridiculous!

Ashley managed to get a decent shot of me near the Eiffel Tower:

The view from the top. It was a little overcast that day.

It is so impressive at night:

We snuck into Notre Dame for a few minutes:

We had the most fun the day we went to Montmarte. Here's the Basillica of the Sacre Coeur:

Someone likes having her photo taken. I am not saying who.

Cafe in Montmarte:

The metro is Paris was slightly more confusing than the tube in London... be we managed to figure it out. I did take 3 years of French in high school (what a waste).

I like this shot Ashley got of me.

Finally, a little gif of the Tour Eiffel at night. They do a light show at the top of each hour for a couple of minutes. It's gorgeous assuming you don't have a seizure watching it.

I would really love to spend more time in Paris... I think it would be cool to rent a flat there for a month and just shoot street portraits and experience the Parisian way of life. What do you say Ashley, do you want to go back?

Oh yeah... I almost forget... Lacy Dagerath, a photo friend of ours was also in Paris at the same time we were, so we had a few photos taken. It was weird being on the other side of the camera, but Lacy did an amazing job (especially since Ashley & I were both bossing her around during the shoot). Click the image to see more from the shoot. Thanks Lacy!