Paris Portrait Workshop

Paris Portrait Photography & Fine Art Nude studies with Kevin Hayden & Seamus Costelloe. Paris April 29th 2012.

Well it's all over 'bar the shouting', as they say. So I'm here to shout about it.

This week-end's workshop was a brilliant success from every point of view!

Everyone one bar none had a great time, and we all came away with great images thanks to our super talented and charming model Dyana.

The months of stress and now looking back on it the unnecessary anxiety were all worth it. This fine Sunday evening in Paris I feel fine and satisfied having put this workshop together without any real glitches. For someone who's not so so very well organised I did a friggin great job!

I'd like to thank Seamus Costelloe for his expert help and patience.

http://www.photographyatseamuscostelloe.ie

Our wonderfully talented and charming model Dyana

http://www.dyanamodele.book.fr/

A huge thank you goes to Jim Kezman who helped and advised and posted

our event on meetup.com

http://www.meetup.com/photo-68/members/964049/

To the Lord of Kerry Mr McGillicuddy

http://www.damianmcgillicuddy.com/

And last but not least myself Kevin Hayden.

http://www.kevinhayden.book.fr/

I now have a comprehensive resource of model and studio information, and if you need anything photographic from needing to know where and how to find and book a studio, model or photographer I'm yer man!

Paris Photography Workshop

Paris Photography Fine art Nude workshop

It's the early effin hours of April 28th. It's Paris on a cold and unspringlike day. I know it's not a word but I don't give a notch. This is not about grammar! I awoke at 04.56 squinting thru reluctant to open eyes, the gros mots adjectives came instantly to my mind when I saw the hour on the digital clock on Hélène's side of the bed.  Luckily she can sleep thru my restlessness and typing at such unGodly hours.  

http://www.kevinhayden.book.fr/

In the other room of our diminutive Paris apartment it's evident that my visiting friend Seamus Costelloe is sound asleep and that he needs his adenoids or whatever you call them removed because the walls are not thin and I still  thought he was next to me in bed when I was woken by his nasal Harley Davidson roar, not snore. I hear movement upstairs and downstairs, and I'm guessing my neighbours are not isolated from his primal alarm. 

Seamus is here in Paris to do a fine art nude workshop with me. I have been occupied many months in preparing for this week-end, from emailing and meeting many models who said "oui je peut parle anglais".  That part of my searching ended when I met Dyana. We met at metro Grande Boulevard and I knew right away that she was the one!  While we talked over coffee and I explained to Dyana what the work-shop would entail my enthusiasm grew and I just knew this girl was perfect for fine art nude studies and glamour photography. She was also very professional, and unlike myself always on time for our appointments. Next search was for an affordable studio. Space by the square meter in Paris doesn't come cheap! I was beginning to think I was crazy for having this idea having visited several studios and on hearing their rates per hour or per day I needed to sit down and rethink my sanity or insanity. I was restored to sanity when I found a small studio in one of the most expensive areas of Paris, the 16th arrondissement no less. Tony & Julien couldn't have been more helpful even by Irish standards they shone! Their studio is in the former Argentine embassy just five minutes from the Champs Elysée. Another stressful part of the process was over at last. Now it just remained for me to get paying and enthusiastic photographers. Now that's another story...
http://www.privateeventfrance.com/
https://www.facebook.com/PrivateEventFrance?ref=tn_tnmn 

Now fast forward to the evening of Saturday April 2!th and five hours since we took our last photo of the beautiful Diana. Diana has to be one of the most charming, alluring and sweet models I've ever had the pleasure of working with. http://www.dyanamodele.book.fr/

You should take a look at her book!

And mine too while you're there! You can also invest in my fine art prints on museum quality paper.

http://www.kevinhayden.book.fr/

Seamus has a fine body of work, and is one of the most laid back and easy going photographers I know.

http://www.photographyatseamuscostelloe.ie

The man known as The Big Dog and Lord of Kerry Damian McGillicuddy has a sense of humour, some sense of style and a fountain of talent that he shares for a price. And well worth the price. It's the damn Eurostar I can't afford it unless I can get a special offer like... http://www.eurostar.com/FR/fr/leisure/latest_deals/londres_88.jsp

Have a look at the man who's got more awards than most have hot dinners in a year and you'll see why on his website.

http://www.damianmcgillicuddy.com/

Paris photography is all the better for having great teachers like Seamus, Damian and dare I say myself.  I've had the spuds and I've uploaded a few photos to Facebook  now I'm ready to hit the feathers .  Looking forward to seeing Diana and all the gang again tomorrow. Happy Days!

https://www.facebook.com/kevin.hayden1

Khmer Rouge et le non violente and more...

Invitations to the cinema are too rare to refuse no matter how tired one may be! I'm nackered!

Plus it's a gentle way back into the hustle and aggression of Paris living or subsisting what ever way you look at it life's a bitch. I'm so confused these days as to whether I love or hate Paris or France period? I say that having spent a very enjoyable and peaceful week-end on the Normandy coast of the Cotentin. There really is nothing like the first fresh virgin breath you take on opening the window of a crisp almost Spring like morning. Even if it is a "soft day" as we say in Ireland. That means you're getting soaked without noticing it by the way.

Then add to this the sound of cock crow and church bells, and seagulls and croissants and more sex if I'm still dreaming, well what more could you want?

 That's just me! One of anything never fixed me.

Okay I still want more!  Almost forgot to mention the grub! The filet de beef and the lamb from the salt marches of Normandy kick the bollox of Wicklow lamb any day! And the new spuds...I'm never goin home!

I make more tangents and digressions while trying to write a blog than a bull in a  herd of hot cows. I sincerely don't do it with intention. Maybe it's the unearthly feckin hour I decide to write it at. Go and see Young Adult with Charlize!

Okay I'll retrace my thoughts. Now that's work! I'm laughing at myself. I've just realised I only need to read the beginning of this dribble to find out what I hope to write about.

Seriously.

I got invited to see a documentary, a very disturbing docu about the trial of "Douch"  the man who made the instruments of torture in S21 and who over-saw the torture for the Khmer Rouge and was directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of more than 12000 men, women and children. His defence lawyer was François Roux a very thorough and fair man, and who has also coincidentally represented José Bové the great man (for me) who has fought so much to protect us all from OGM foods and the cosy cartels like Monsanto.

http://blog.cinemadureel.org/2012/03/23/journal-du-reel-2-le-khmer-rouge-et-le-non-violent/

The film, or I should say François Roux in his defence brought up the question of civil disobedience, and also quoted Gandhi on civil disobedience. After all "Douch" as he was referred to in the docu was only obeying the laws of his superiors, and carrying out their orders. You could call it military obedience. Having now read some of Gandhi's philosophies and quotes on civil disobedience, I enjoy the thoughts of it and thought I'd share it here too. We need more of it! I'm thinking Ireland...

Civil disobedience is the assertion of a right which law should give but which it denies.

Civil disobedience presupposes willing obedience of our self-imposed rules, and without it civil disobedience would be cruel joke.

Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the State becomes lawless corrupt.

Civil disobedience means capacity for unlimited suffering without the intoxicating excitement of killing.

Disobedience to be civil has to be open and nonviolent.

Disobedience to be civil implies discipline, thought, care, attention.

Disobedience that is wholly civil should never provoke retaliation.

Non-cooperation and civil disobedience are different but branches of the same tree call Satyagraha (truth-force).

It's a documentary worth going to see!

Now all this talk of Gandhi and civil disobedience  reminded me of this book by Stéphane Hessel that has sold millions of copies around the world. I guess at 91 years of age you don't give a shite, and have no fear of reprisal from any quarter and this man in his book says it as it is, and how hoodwinked we are. 1984 here we come.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stéphane_Hessel

Indignez-vous

If you can afford this book get it, read it and pass it on.

Tonight Paris I love you!