How can one visit Paris and not go to Montmartre? It’s the home of Amelie Poulain and of course home to the Sacre Coeur and the notorious Moulin Rouge as well. Tolouse Lautrec once lived in Montmartre and sketched many beautiful scenes and portraits of people during the Bohemian revolution.

We spent hours there—in the rain, no less. I don’t know if i would ever want to live in Montmartre, but it is the most bohemian area of Paris–and I mean bohemian, like the “bohemian revolution” of love and art and freedom…. Montmartre of Paris, is like the Boulder of Colorado or the Eugene of Oregon, or the Haight Ashbury of San Fran. You catch my drift.

I bought the most amazing painting from this artist–Regina and I both really wanted it and she graciously let me buy it (Thanks, M’ lady). I wish I would have arrived two hours earlier just to talk to this man… He must have the most amazing stories of Montmartre as he has worked as a street painter on this block for 49 years!

Smile!

This image below is of Paige photographing in the rain. I was inside a covered patio drinking wine and smoking a cigarette—I took this through the wet plastic.

….and the scary cabbie who drove us home.

After shooting a bunch of fashion models, I really wanted to get some beautiful images of the ladies I was traveling with…. Especially Anne and Regina, simply because they generally hate photos of themselves. I made it my personal mission to get some beauties—ones that they could pass on to their children one day. I don’t know if they will love these shots, but I think they are beautiful and really capture the essence of who they are as women. It was funny—we did the whole tourist attraction where we took a little Seine river tour, but because I have done it three times before, I focused the entire cruise on shooting the ladies. (and a couple of people on the banks of the river with my 70-200). I know that these pictures don’t really have anything to do with Paris per se, but they were some of my favorite photos from the entire trip.

I don’t think Regina ever really beat the whole jet lag thing. She would stay up until like 4am and would somehow rise at 10am every morning. I call her the “vampire”.

…another couple of shots of the beautiful Anne Spagnuolo on our balcony.

I woke up one morning to the sound of live Manu Chao, whistles and screaming. There was some kind of protest going on right down the street—Manu Chao must have supported whatever this protest was, because I swear they were performing live… I didn’t make it down in time to get any shots of them playing, but I did get some shots of the protest. I must confess, that I was a little disappointed that the protest wasn’t more angry and violent—(not that I love chaos and violence) It must have been a friendly protest because people were smiling and eating sandwiches in between whistles. I tried to get the edgiest shots that I could given the nature of this march, but didn’t end up with anything Time Magazine would keep. 🙂

…another reason why I call Regina a vampire!

This is my favorite shot of Regina from the entire trip.

These shots below were all shot on the Seine river cruise…

I thought this image was hilarious…. I wasn’t really interested in getting the traditional Notre dame shots while on the cruise, but interested instead with the french “human condition”. This is a shot of a many different French personalities. I love the guy who seems bewildered that I was taking a photo of him instead of looking at the Notre Dame… little did he know!

 …. so even though we missed our first shoot, we did have a fashion shoot with a local Paris gown designer, Amarildine.  We worked with our two new French photographer friends, David and David and a couple of wonderful models, who braved very cold elements to help us get these shots.  First we met up with David and David and had a little time to kill before meeting up with the models, so we let ourselves loose in the Luxembourg gardens, where I snapped these first few shots.

I thought this shot was pretty funny.  It totally looks as if this man is checking out some legs…  maybe he is!

We started our shoot on Pont Neuf—the back light was perfect, and the models seemed to be having a good time.

David was such a darling—-he got a limo for us, which in Paris is almost unheard of! We drove from Pont Neuf to Bastille, to the old Opera, to Champs Elysees and finally, to the Eiffel tower.  It was like mini-tour of the city but while we were working which was even better!  I loved these shots that I took in the limo—although they don’t represent “Paris”, there seemed to be something really authentic to these shots.  The models were siked to be in a Limo, and the light was pretty nice, too.

This part of the shoot was probably the highlight of the day.  It was hilarious, actually!  When we rolled up in the Limo, all the tourists around the opera started to get really excited, thinking that somebody famous was in the car—especially when five photographers got out!  There were seriously about 100 people gathered around with their cameras, cheering and gawking.  I was actually more interested in getting all the people and their excitement in this shot, than I was about getting a perfect glamor shot.  Even though we were nobody’s, I still felt pretty freaking cool, and I think the models got a kick out of it as well!  If you ever want to experience something like this in Europe, hire a limousine!

I’ve been waiting my entire career to get a good shot of a bride with a cigarette!  This is kind of cheating because Oudrey is a model and not a bride after all, but I lept at the opportunity to get this shot!

Meet the lovely Paige Elizabeth

…and my new friend David!

 If my blog is anything like a personal journal that I keep—-I have fallen terribly short in content—or at least in updating content…  However, while I am about two weeks behind  I think I’ll treat these next few blog posts as a journal and sort of narrate my trip—minus all the personal stuff that most people would gag at or be horribly bored with…

We (Regina, Paige, Anne and I) arrived in Paris after a very long day of flying.  We were supposed to make a connection into Paris from Chicago, but of course (it was chicago afterall) were delayed and missed our flight into Paris.  We ended up having to fly from Chicago to London, and then finally to Paris.  Unfortunately, because of this delay I missed out on my first shoot that was supposed to take place the day we arrived at 2pm.  We arrived at 5pm, and had no daylight left.  Bummer! On the other hand, we were all very jet lagged and probably not in the best spirits for a shoot.  Did I mention that American Airlines lost our luggage?  Well, actually not mine.  I try to pack very light when traveling internationally and was able to carry on my luggage.  Regina, Anne and Paige, however were without clothes for a couple of days.

I think this shot below really represents how everybody felt the first morning in Paris.  Hee hee!   Once we sucked down a couple of cafe au laits, we were able to move on to the flea markets.  We went to Clingancourt to the Marche aux puces.

We only took the metro once–which was crazy to me…  I have always spent so much time in the metro on all my last trips to Paris. But on this trip, we were pretty much able to walk everywhere.  Paris is only 2 miles long and we were staying on the left bank in St. Germain, so all the “attractions” besides the flea market were within walking distance.  I will say however, that I have a love affair with the metro and kind of missed it on this trip.  Is this sick?  I got this shot of a canoodling couple on the one ride we did take.

Below are a few shots of the flea market….  best shopping I’ve done in years!  Seriously.

I love this image of Anne— not only the humor of it, but the beautiful view from our flat as well.

I decided that it may not be appropriate to post a bunch of nudes out there on my very public blog—-especially when those nudes are placed right below or above a sentimental wedding ceremony.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there is anything to be ashamed of when it comes to the human body, I’ve just given this category a new home….  Julie Harris Edge : www.julieharrisedge.wordpress.com

Check out my latest and greatest—-if you dare….

I went out to a couple of hotels on Federal and did a very dark, Nan Goldin meets Helmut Newton shoot, just for me.  Enjoy!

http://julieharrisedge.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/the-no-tell-motel-shoot-seriously/