Photos et lettres des Philippines, de France et d'ailleurs

It was finally only 24 hours before my departure that I took delivery of my son's hooded T-shirts and it is on a corner of a desk at the DHL office that I finalized the documents required to export and customs clearance.
Therefore, I arrived in France on 16 December, two days before the two boxes I sent in such a hurry that I could not check closely the quality of the garments. I was relieved when my "clients" told me how satisfied they were by the quality.
At home, the weather was cloudy but mild for the season though two months later after a cold spell and a lot of snow, we are still awaiting the sun so much desired and I am now getting bored in our sweet France especially as the general atmosphere here is moreover morose.

(Our French house under the snow)

How can a country so diverse and beautiful with people full of talent has reached such neurasthenia? I think we are all responsible because after all we have political, economic, social and labor leaders we deserve.

The next week I celebrated Christmas my family and New Year's Eve with friends of our village and finally on 1 January in the company of our Parisian friends.
After followed some galettes des rois parties (Pastry traditionally eaten on the Twelfth Night) for our greatest pleasure.

(Christmas 2012)

(New Year Eve)

(The "foie gras")

(January 1, 2013 in Paris)

Then, I mostly stayed at home sharing my time between my computer, books, music or TV in the evening. As often in this season, I just entered a period of hibernation with the inevitable consequence of putting on weight, increased blood pressure and more knees pain.
At the end of January, a new request of my "clients" put pressure on me. They rented a photo studio in our region to take shots of their textile products. To do so several professional models were coming from Paris and I had to be one of two photographers. The second was counting on me and me on him.
I only had two hours of studio experience, I began reading everything I could find on the internet until a fashion photographer, and teacher living in Quebec helped me in giving valuable advice to get out the better of my session.
At last, the day arrived and after a restless night, I would have gladly given my place to someone else but I arrived an hour early to be able to place lights and do some testing with the second photographer also the graphic designer.

 Finally, nothing happened as planned, everyone arrived an hour late and the shooting with a change of clothes and accessories followed on at a brisk pace for three hours with models in solo, couple or three.

(The studio shooting)

It was not until 8 pm after returning home that I was finally able to get an idea of ​​the work. The result was quite satisfactory, especially with a good retoucher to improve it and for once, I felt very proud of myself. Moreover, I wanted to continue my studio practice studio with one model at a time and just for my own pleasure.

In any case, my "clients" were again satisfied.
January ended with the preparation of my next trip to the Philippines along with three of my classmates of the Ecole Estienne and their wives.