Candido Camero

A friend just forwarded this video of Candido Camero .
Born in 1921 in a Havana barrio called El Cerro, Candido was initially a multi-instrumentalist. He later became the king of bongos and congas. After a six-year spell with the CMQ Radio Orchestra and a residency at the famed Cabaret Tropicana in Cuba, he moved to New York in 1946. He worked with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Machito and his Afro-Cubans, and Mario Bauza.
I had the pleasure to see him performing Live in NYC at a few memorable weddings.
Now 87, he still rocks!





photographe © Olivier Lalin © photographer
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Michele and Stuart's wedding in France

Just another slice of Happiness and some beautiful wedding photos taken in Paris a few days back.



You can also access larger images via this link for the aficionados!
Michele & Stuart's Wedding in Paris





photographe © Olivier Lalin © photographer
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Wedding photographer France
Wedding photographer Paris

Portrait in Paris

It is my Birthday celebration today -
My beautiful wife has organized a little surprise party! She has been actively preparing for a couple of days now. Looking at the bottle of Wine on the table, Cheeses, food and deserts, I guess we have friends coming over !
Just one little portrait for the day, taken on the Isle de la Cite, overlooking the Seine and the beautiful building of the "Now Closed" "La Samaritaine department store" .



photographe © Olivier Lalin © photographer
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Wedding photographer Paris

Un Homme et une Femme

I titled this photo "Un Homme et une Femme" . It is actually the title of another one of my all time favorite movie from Claude Lelouch with Trintignan and beautiful Anouk Aimée.



For Michele and Stuart, I dedicate those moment of pure beauty.
And what a soundtrack!
Shot in between Deauville and Paris in 66, home sweet home. The weather was just like Paris today.
It is a gem of "La nouvelle Vague" period, that made French cinema famous worldwide. Somehow, you might think that, because of this movie, Paris has become the city for Lovers.






photographe © Olivier Lalin © photographer
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Wedding bouquet in Paris

Carnation (pink) - I'll never forget you
Carnation (purple) - Capriciousness; whimsical; changeable
Carnation (white) - Sweet and lovely; innocence; pure love; woman's good luck gift
Lily (white) - Virginity; purity; majesty; it's heavenly to be with you

The bouquet were genuinely put together at a Flowers Shop in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.
Sol y Flor Flowers Paris
Karine Garillon
5 rue Coetlogon
75006 Paris
Tel: 01 45 44 75 31


I would highly recommend you have a look at the website of Flower designer, Laura Dowling . She is a specialist in the French approach of flower arrangement and does frequent travels to "L'ecole des Fleurs" Paris, France to study advanced concepts and new trends in French flower design.
She has a project section where she gives you the "ingredients for the making of a few of her delightful flower arrangements.


Laura Dowling named this flower arrangement "Fleurs d'Amour"

You will need

1 4 X 4 inch square glass cube vase
1 brick soaked floral oasis
glue gun and hot glue sticks
1 sheet pink foil wrapping paper
wired floral picks
1 bag of candy hearts
1 - 2 bunches of pink nerine lilies
10 stems of pastel spray roses
Multi-colored pastel ribbons

Directions

1. Cover vase with foil paper and insert floral foam to fit.
2. Hot glue candy hearts to vase in random, overlapping pattern.
3. Insert spray roses to create a dense round pavé.
4. Add nerine lilies in between roses.
5. Tie ribbons into bows and attach to wired floral picks. Insert in bouquet.



And here is a link for anyone interested in the George IV, Paris and its classic flower arrangements.
"Flower arrangement at The four season, George IV, Paris"




photographe © Olivier Lalin © photographer
view site at Olivier Lalin Weddings

Wedding bouquet in Paris

Lily (white) - Virginity; purity; majesty; it's heavenly to be with you
Carnation (pink) - I'll never forget you
Carnation (purple) - Capriciousness; whimsical; changeable
Carnation (white) - Sweet and lovely; innocence; pure love; woman's good luck gift
The bouquet were made at Flowers
Sol y Flor Flowers Paris
Karine Garillon
5 rue Coetlogon
75006 Paris
Tel: 01 45 44 75 31

Pierre, my Son at 5 months

I couldn't help shooting this little video of Pierre this Morning ! My 5 months old baby is realizing that he has a voice he can use and abuse of. I have been documenting his little Life every day, at least snapping a few pictures. He has no inhibition in front of the Camera - Funny !

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Asuka Wedding Albums

I have just ordered my first Asuka wedding book. I have heard a lot about their line of modern, stylish coffee table wedding albums. I cannot wait to get our first sample back to the studio!


This is what " Kevin Kutoba "; great wedding photographer has to say about Asuka wedding albums.
"...We are constantly searching for unique and beautiful ways to showcase our work – ways that complement the style of the images and stand apart from typical presentations. I think the Asuka Books are a major breakthrough in our industry. The presentation is beautiful, contemporary, and easily adaptable to a variety of markets and photographic styles..."






photographe © Olivier Lalin © photographer
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Wedding photographer France
Wedding photographer Paris

5 Things a wedding photographer ...

... cannot do without !
You pick the order, play with the number and let me know which you think works for you. - Five morning essentials, your Paris wedding photographer find difficult to do without.

First, The Ritz hotel on the prestigious corner of Place Vendome. It is grand, Classic, Chic, Elton John has a suite and the room drapes are peaceful, pastel pink!

Second, Shoes by Christian Louboutin , he himself was born in a working class neighbourhood of Paris, hanged out at The Palace in 78 and his line of heels rock. The French version of his site is still under construction!

Third, a great make up artist with an English accent reminiscent of Jean Seberg's in "Breathless"
For hair and make up, contact Brigitte Bigeard in Paris
@ + 33 6 61 12 22 34 and say Hello for me !

Fourth, a big breakfast, preferably with Lots of Coffee, very Dark.

Fifth, a classic dress by Vera Wang.




photographe © Olivier Lalin © photographer
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Family and Friends in the park

This is the Month of May in Paris and Time for everlasting, long weekends - So the little Lalin family took some time off and we went to the Park to meet with Emah and the Girls.
Nice to just chill out under the trees. Summer has definitely arrived!
Let it be long and fruitful.

Wedding digital photography enhancement

I am going to try to be concise in this post!
Digital file enhancement is quite an intricate topic that would deserve a more lengthy discussion.
You would commonly process a digital RAW file with bridge or Adobe Lightroom and bring back Colors, range of tones and sharpness in order to optimize the file for printing. This is what a professional wedding photographer would do!

For the Bride, make sure you ask your wedding photographer actually, if he shoots JPG or RAW format. I would say 60% use JPG and those guys, you should keep away from!

For Photographers, as long as you work with a Raw file, you will for sure obtain ( with a bit of training ) some great printing results. Again JPG is just good enough for the web and doesn't have the necessary data to optimize your print quality.

I do like to push the envelope a step further though and play with the images some more. Like a painter with your photoshop brush, you can further enhance each photos to your liking. This is a wonderful way to be creative, tweaking the color a touch more, as well as the saturation to obtain some Blue tones or pastel looking images. You might want to convert to Black and white as well and recreate the grain that we loved so much with film, add a sepia tone, a selenium look to the images or add a texture to give the photo a unique look.
So called artistic image manipulation where each of the images is individually retouched and manipulated to achieve dramatic artist effect.


I used to spend hours in the darkroom working on a print.Photoshop has replaced the chemicals and acids that you used for toning.
Great for your lungs and terrible for your eyes :(

Below are a few sample images that have been custom processed one by one.









Wedding gown designed by Vera Wang




photographe © Olivier Lalin © photographer
view site at Olivier Lalin Weddings

Wedding at the Ritz, Paris

I am just starting to look at the photos from the wedding I photographed yesterday at the Ritz, Paris. There are a lot of quite beautiful images that I am going to have to open one by one and optimize for printing.
For photographer's I shoot in RAW format which is the digital file equivalent of a negative. All the information are there, for you to optimize the file and get some beautifully toned prints.( NO JPG Please ! )

Wedding gown designed by Vera Wang

Herald tribune article on weddings in Paris

I have spent the day photographing Lisa and Sean's wedding in Paris. Finally summer has arrived and we went around the city taking photos. Paris is definitely the best background for wedding images, I am now convinced !!
Now 10pm, I had to go through some of the images to send "my one best of" to Anne Mulvihill, my wedding planner for an article on Paris weddings for the international Herald Tribune! So watch out everyone.
Time to Chill out now. I will have a sneak into the photos tomorrow. IT has been a long and very enjoyable day.

And the article is out in the Herald Tribune about destination wedding France



photographe © Olivier Lalin © photographer
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Olivier Lalin Weddings in London

IT is quite simple, London ROCKS!

We have decided to export our little "Luxury wedding photography business" to London and England. After traveling the world for some 20 Years, we are again getting one step away from home! I was in Hyde Park with friends on a beautiful day last week. It hasn't changed a bit from the time I was a student, doing a degree in visual arts. I graduated in 87, assisted commercial photographers for a couple of years and off I went to Australia. I couldn't take the London drizzle anymore.
And today, thanks to global warming, the drizzle has gone, spring has arrived and London is a strikingly interesting city that so much reminds me of New York. You will find a similar energy and comospolitan edge to it which Paris is lacking.

You can now reach us directly on our London new phone number at : + 44 ( 0 ) 20.3239.5316



photographe © Olivier Lalin © photographer
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Labour day in Paris

Loving it !!
Perfect way to start a Labour day in Paris.
Just saw this classic ABBA video going through an illustration blog called "A print a day". Beautiful work there, I so much adore the Warm toned B&W prints such as the leaves.





photographe © Olivier Lalin © photographer
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