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Take your Bagage
@take_your_bagage
Creative team based in France
Cyndel:
The art of photography is something I’ve always loved, especially when it conveys an emotion, a sensation. I might not be a talented photographer myself, but I enjoy working together with François helping him to realize his objective.
François:
Since I was very young, I have loved cinema, which combines the fact of telling a story while enhancing it with images. Over the years, my passion for images has grown. One of the turning points that would turn photography into a passion happened during my studies.
One professor gave us a task, which consisted of heading into the city (Lens, France) for the afternoon and creating a story using photography – without a specific subject. I took this project seriously and enthusiastically. When walking through the city, I saw one specific tag on the walls of the city that I encountered in different streets. I decided to take this tag and make it like a signature; transforming a simple, banal, almost ugly tag into a signature of a painting created by the shadows of the buildings in the city and the sunlight, as if the author of the tag was becoming a sort of city artist signing his temporary works captured in a photograph. By playing with the shadows and the sun I created paintings in the middle of the city. My project was presented by my professor at the National Library of Paris in front of an amphitheater full of students. I enjoyed the project and realized at that time that photography allowed me to tell stories, my stories. And photography is now attached to my core business (Graphic Designer) and follows me everywhere in my travels.
"My passion for travel started the moment I listened to this intense urge or need to step out of my comfort zone."
To see something different. To break free from the familiar. I decided to depart on an adventure to Rome, which was my first trip outside of France. I realized that travel enables me to discover the art of other cultures and countries. Rome is an open air museum and I enjoyed strolling through its streets and photographing the city decor. Then the desire brought me to other capitals like Barcelona and Dublin, but also smaller cities like Florence or bigger ones like New York or Toronto. The passion for wilder landscapes developed later during a road trip in the United States in 2018.
I remember I hit the road, on my own, at 4 AM to watch the sunrise at the Grand Canyon. Indescribable with words, this experience overwhelmed me with beauty as how an electric shock rushes through your whole body. Alone and in front of this vastness in a powerful silence, where the light of the rising sun slowly turns the landscape into gold. I understood that the world in its raw state and nature offer the most beauty, so I promised myself to discover the world and to freeze the lively paintings of nature worldwide through photography. I decided to link my two passions in order to bring as many people as possible with me through my photographs, to try to convey these magical moments outdoors and present these places in the best possible way. The creation of the blog on takeyourbagage.fr followed.
Cyndel:
I had explored several places in France with my family, but I truly got the taste of travel when I went to London for a work-summer holiday. I lived with a family that warmly welcomed me for a complete (cultural) immersion. It was the first time I had left home, by myself, and to a foreign country. The feeling of exploration and freedom that took over me was incredible; it’s these moments and sensations that mark our lives. However, until I met François, I was one of those people who ultimately made excuses not to travel. Too expensive, too complicated, too busy, too risky… It was François who made me realize that you shouldn’t be afraid to live your dreams and that no excuse is valid enough to hold you back. Today I am the happiest of all to discover the world by his side!
François:
From our very first chats, Cyndel quickly understood that travel and photography made up an integral part of my life. We got to know each other through a dating app, and Cyndel organized a hiking day for our first real meeting, visiting places I didn’t know yet in our region so I could discover a little more. I immortalized those first moments together with my camera and I knew instantly that Cyndel embraced my two passions as a part of me. The bond between us was immediately established and only grew with each trip.
It can translate our emotions and sensations. Without photography, the story is not complete when we tell it to others. With only words it is difficult to get across the impact and the meaning of an experience. And even more important, photography allows us to freeze what we experienced, making it last for an eternity.
The most recent trip we went on was to Iceland. A trip that we prepared from A to Z for several months. We knew that three weeks to travel this country in a van would be a challenge both in terms of the specific weather conditions and the technical level for the equipment, but also a challenge of perseverance and self-sacrifice for both of us. We traveled to very remote corners which allowed us to become one with nature and to rediscover that special silence that I could feel in front of the Grand Canyon or in Lapland in the face of the Northern Lights. The diverse Icelandic landscapes amazed us. You sometimes feel like you are alone on another planet and that feeling has clearly taken hold of us. We felt happy and free.
"Seeing with your own eyes how powerful nature is, forces you to modesty. The worries of everyday life are erased, nothing else matters."
The country has also pushed us to our limits. We had psychologically tough times with rain for several days and the accumulated fatigue from the many, many hours of hiking. Some photos and images for our video were complicated to make, and required mental strength. It’s necessary to adapt to the situation and not give up. Iceland calls to go above and beyond yourself. This mystic country pushed us to free ourselves from preconceived ideas and to change the way we see the world. Many people limit themselves to a few famous places without integrating the soul of the country. In our idea of “making people discover the world” we want people, even if they cannot physically travel, to travel and discover this country as if they were there. Let them feel what we have felt. This involves photos, videos and blog posts. We want to take people with us.
After some first trips, I set myself the idea of showing the landscapes on video in addition to the photos, summarizing our road trip. At first, I did this through fairly classic videos where the goal was to show the places we visited in a simple way but with an epic style. I perfected my shooting techniques in Greece, while Lapland resulted in a big visual evolution where I started to find my style. However, I had this feeling that something was missing. A real story to tell. So, for Iceland I thought about a specific plan and a storyline before the trip.
"We reflected together on the story from Iceland that we would want to convey to the viewer."
ICELAND
VIDEO
Over the months our ideas came together, and our goal was to show the soul of Iceland. This idea of freedom, of greatness and of how the atmosphere of a country can mesmerize us. We wanted to show how a journey can touch our heart and make us experience multiple intense emotions. The question that we asked ourselves was how to represent all of this in a cohesive story in line with the beauty of the country.
After some brainstorming, Cyndel had the idea to bring a dress and we immediately thought of creating two Cyndel identities. One would be the Traveler: Cyndel who leaves an urbanized, noisy and gray life and finds herself propelled into this incredible and colorful country through a brightly illuminated door. And the other one would be Cyndel in a dress, representing the Soul of Iceland. A mystical representation that guides the Traveler in the discovery of this country and in the discovery of herself. To represent the emotions and this journey, the video has been split into 3 distinct parts by 3 different types of music.
The first part represents the discovery of the two characters. The Soul of Iceland guides the Traveler to places that offer her visions of places to visit. It begins with the representation of the symbolic veins of the country of fire at the volcano. The Soul of Iceland guides the traveler to this place where contact with the illuminated door represents withdrawal from the cityside of the Traveler, inviting her to live the real, remote experience of Iceland.
The second part therefore represents the feeling of freedom that the country has given us. The music takes an epic turn to symbolize the Traveler who is overwhelmed by the beauty of the Icelandic fauna and landscapes. We witness the transcendence of the identities where at the end, the characters meet.
The third part shows the total integration of the Soul of the country in the Traveler. The transition becomes frantic, which is translated into noises and speed. The Traveler then undergoes a rebirth in Icelandic water while the country awakens in her the warlike cries of the past. The music accelerates, the Traveler integrates the Soul of Iceland into her identity, before she leaves again in the dark door representing urban life.
Cyndel:
Of all that you see in the video, of all that we did, the hike to the waterfall of Glymur has most challenged and impressed me. I have always been more competitive with myself than with other people. That feeling of personal challenge, saying to yourself “I can do it, I can do it!” I learned that when it comes to taking on a challenge that nature imposes on you, this feeling is even stronger. During the night and in the morning, it had been raining a lot, but a nice sunshine accompanied us the rest of the day. The hike began with a path with some small rocks to reach a first viewpoint. A cave that overlooks the Botnsa river at the bottom of the canyon where Glymur is located. The sound of the river echoed in the hollow of the rock. We descended toward the inside of the cave and continued along the river which is much more fiery than what we had seen and read on the internet beforehand. The path continued until the next stage where we had to cross this river, raged by the rainfall it had absorbed in recent hours. To cross it, there was a rope over the rocks we could use, but the violent waterstream and a slippery trunk formed the obstacles. There was a more secure path but one that would not offer the point of view that we came to seek. François checked with me if I was fine doing this even without knowing what would await us next. I put myself in my bubble at that moment. I tied my hair, my shoelaces, and judged the tension of the rope. One last look at him and I said, “I go”. I launched myself into the fear of falling into a violent and icy water stream. The adrenaline rushed through me, I watched my steps carefully and focused on the rope while water entered one of my shoes.
Next was an almost 400m vertical climb with rocks, ropes, slippery passages and rope stakes fallen from previous passages. The canyon began to be revealed, the few flat passages offered an already magnificent view. Our calves and thighs heated up because of the physical effort. And then we arrived in front of the waterfall. We felt like we were in Jurassic Park with birds flying in the groove of the canyon. The place is just amazing. We took advantage of the place to relax and recover from our emotions and then set off again. You can choose to turn around and go the same way back, or climb a little further and cross the Botnsa above the waterfall. We chose the second option to do the entire loop even though knowing that this time we would have to cross the 30/40 meter river with no help of any tool. The current was much less present but it seemed deeper and the other side seemed far away. I put on my water shoes and challenged my fear again. The water came halfway to my calf, and it slipped a bit. But I succeeded again in conquering my fear and the challenge was won. This time it was a tear of joy that ran down my cheek as Francois took his turn. The view from above was indescribable as the sun set over the fjord in the distance. This day will forever be etched in my memories!
François:
This was only one example of the many adventures we had. During our road trip, we moved places almost every day and visited 52 spots with a lot of hikes, so for the creation of the video, the challenge was to succeed in having the good itinerary for the story that we wanted in a short period of time while juggling the weather. The weather conditions made filming difficult. We had to think about how to deal with the wind for a shot or accept that some days we couldn’t fly the drone. That’s where creativity comes in and it had to happen fast, we had to be flexible. The film was therefore refined over the course of the trip, adapting ourselves to all situations. And of course Cyndel needed a lot of courage to put on a dress during a storm! There was also the technical side that challenged me. When you go on this kind of adventure, it is difficult to bring heavy equipment, so I shot hand-held with my camera and two lenses.
Travel and video/photography are two distinct things that make the viewer dream. I try to link these things. My style is evolving all the time so as not to be stuck on what I have learned. I like to use light and colors to bring out the soul of the place and transcribe the emotion, the dream that the trip evokes. I aim to enhance the photo to achieve these goals. Each image tells a story, a feeling. And it’s this authentic aspect that I want to emphasize by just playing on a few lights and details. The goal is absolutely not to distort nature but on the contrary, to just give it more power, character, relief. If you want a good meal, you need good, well-chosen ingredients! It’s kind of the same principle in photography. For a beautiful image, the raw photo must already be better than good when it comes to the technical aspects.
As an example, I can show a photo of a geothermal area hidden behind a mountain. The natural beauty of the lake is undeniable and begs to be revealed. This is where the power of modest enhancement comes into play. The idea is to focus the gaze on the main subject that I want to highlight by making it stand out more than other details around it. I can do this for example by increasing the natural light to accentuate the color of the lake, while adding a blurriness to the rest of the photo.
I want to bring the viewer into a dream. When you dream, often you remember specific things but the rest is somewhat blurry or lacking in detail. This is where I am heading more and more. I process a photo in such a way that what surrounds the subject is blurry and with less texture, just like in the example. The viewer should feel immersed by the subject and not let go of their gaze and imagination too soon.
As we try to evoke dreams within others through our photography, we have dreams ourselves too – dreams about trips that we want to make come true. This is what leads us when selecting our destinations. We are passionate about animals and nature, we are thirsty for discovery and adventure. We like to surpass ourselves and challenge ourselves. Our trips are therefore always indescribable and mark us for life. So even if we like to have a minimum of comfort, we let ourselves be carried by the sensations that a destination can offer us and sometimes we have to choose one or the other. For example, in Lapland we wanted to go snowmobile AND sled dogs. But our budget did not allow for both. The call of nature and our love for animals made our hearts choose the sled and the dogs. A historical and immersive experience, imagining ourselves as real Samis in search of sensations.
"And when we don't agree on an activity or have to make a choice but we don't succeed, it's three rounds of rock paper scissors! Whatever the outcome, we know we will have a blast!"
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