One of the greatest perks of being a photographer is getting to meet people from all over the world, people who often become part of the fabric of my life through future interactions. Even if most of those interactions are online, the connection is still that much stronger after having met in person. I feel the same way about experiencing new locations: once I have traveled to a place, I become particularly connected to it, and that bond registers even through seeing photographs of the area online. Similarly, I sometimes get an extra special feeling about a region when I first encounter it, that tingle of excitement that usually accompanies the start of a great friendship.  When I first visited the French Alps about five years ago, I knew that I had just met a new best friend and that we would be spending a lot of time together. It’s a feeling that is difficult to describe, but it’s the same one that I get when meeting certain people. Sometimes it’s the way they smile, or some extra sparkle in their eyes, or the way that they make me laugh—it’s simply that “je ne sais quoi” that signals the start of something special.