Paris Portrait Shoot | Opera, Louvre, Jardin des Tuileries, Seine River, EIffel Tower | Alexia

As many of you know, I had the trip of a lifetime just recently. It all started with the wedding of my good friend and honorary cousin, Sabrina. I say honorary cousin because she’s actually my best friend’s cousin but after bonding with her and her siblings during our first trip to Paris years ago they have become family to me. We’ve all kept in touch over the years and they’ve come to visit us here in Cali a couple of times too. I was super excited because Sabrina was about to marry the love of her life, Djamel, who is just the sweetest, kindest guy. They are perfect for each other.

As my best friend, Mona, and I began to make plans to attend the wedding I started daydreaming about doing photo shoots in Paris. I had been twice before – once with Mona and once with Ronnie – and each time, I found myself itching to do photo shoots in the city of love. There’s just so much beauty and character in every nook and cranny there. As my idea started to take form, I decided to work on two of my bucket list goals – travel alone at least once and set up a photo shoot internationally. Mona met me in Paris the second week and we attended the wedding together. I left Paris and met Ronnie in the Tokyo airport for our vacation in Japan together. I think that is the longest I’ve traveled and I LOVED it. I’ll have some more photos of my Paris and Japan trip up on the blog soon.

For the first half of my trip to Paris, I was completely alone – somehow made it safely to my hotel which was awesome. It may not be a big deal to anyone else, but I am a bit directionally challenged and I don’t speak French. I did four shoots over the course of a week and had a blast. I feel like I know so many little alleyways and corners in Paris, along with the big monuments. I will have a blog post later about how to get shoots set up abroad while traveling – so more on that later.

It was also a learning experience in many ways. Many people are either heavily introverted or extroverted. But I am split between the two almost 50-50. Test after test comes back with that same result. So I go through phases where I am super social and outgoing and then I feel like I need to pull back and have some me time. I’ve never been afraid of being alone with my own thoughts and really love having that time to let my brain wander and sort things out. I’m actually quite a reflective person and one of my favorite things to do is journal.

Traveling alone was great in some ways because I set my own schedule, went to all the places I wanted to go and never felt worried I was taking too long taking photos. Mona and Ronnie both are very relaxed about me taking photos and I couldn’t ask for more patient travel buddies. But I also always have it in mind that this is also their vacation and I don’t want to hog up all the time taking photos. Plus, as I learned in Turkey, sometimes you just need to put the camera down and live the moment. On the flip side, I saw so many fun, funny and beautiful things and I felt the urge to turn to someone and point it out so we could laugh together. Thank goodness for WhatsApp, FaceTime and free wi-fi at the hotel because I at least got to share those moments with Mona and Ronnie.

Conclusion: just like going to the movies alone (which I have done from time to time), I occasionally enjoy the solitary experience and even welcome it. But I think I like being able to share it with someone else at the moment and have those memories together even more. I would totally travel alone again now that I know I have what it takes, but I would structure the trip almost the same way and organize some photo shoots.

 

Here are some photos with my shoot with Alexia, fashion blogger extraordinaire. You can check out her website at www.girlous.com.

We started out in the Opera district since that is where I was staying. Ironically, there are a lot of Japanese restaurants in that area.

I love photos with strong elements of color and couldn’t pull myself away from this gorgeous red restaurant with the chalkboard menu outside. We then made our way to the areas near the Louvre Museum. It was a super busy day with tons of tourists so we opted for some of the architectural elements and gardens nearby.

There is this fabulous labyrinth maze off from the Louvre Museum that was fun to get lost in. 

As we made our way out of the Jardin des Tuileries we took this bridge and I had to stop Alexia as she made her way up the steps. The backlight was just gorgeous and the architectural elements of the bridge were so beautiful. Plus I loved how everything is so gray and metallic but she pops out with her coral colored dress.
It may be cheesy to some, but I will always love the Eiffel Tower. We did a lot of different shots near it but I liked this one the best because Alexia was just in her own moment, walking along the river with the tower in the back.

And of course, like any fashionable Parisian, Alexia has a lovely pair of black Louboutin pumps. The contrast of the red against the walkway stood out to me and I like the anonymity of this last photo.I’ve had the travel bug since my first trip years ago and I’m obviously passionate about photography. I’m incredibly happy to have found a way to marry the two. Fingers and toes crossed for MANY more opportunities like this. 

That’s it for now, friends! I have a few more shoots to share with you soon and am working like a mad woman to get them out as soon as I can. Leave me some love down in the comments below and let me know what you think!