A photography course in Paris

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This morning we were up reasonably early so that we could be at the Louvre by 8.45am to meet Sophie who we arranged to do a half day photography course with. After checking out our equipment, Sophie spent some time helping us to see the Louvre through different eyes. Sophie encouraged us to look for opportunities to take photos that are less 'touristy'. By heading to the side of the glass pyramids we were able to take some photos that showed the juxtaposition of the old Louvre building and the new glass pyramids in the forecourt - without including all of the tourists queueing to enter the Louvre!! Brilliant.

Next Sophie challenged us to find an image even more abstract - asking us to take a photograph of six triangles and only six triangles?! We both failed on our first attempt and Sophie had to give us quite a few hints before we could see the shot that she had in mind. That exercise taught us to think differently about framing our shots and taking the opportunity to think 'inside the frame' to create an interesting, abstract image.

Sophie then took us over to the arcade at the other side of the forecourt to try for some silhouettes framed by the arch of the arcade against the backdrop of one of the pyramids. Unfortunately it was already much to busy to capture this shot, but Sophie encouraged us to come back if we had a chance before leaving Paris to try to put the idea into practice.

From the Louvre, Sophie took us to the Palais-Royal. The Palais-Royal has a modern sculptural 'installation' of black and white columns in its forecourt so it is another example of old meets new. Initially I didn't warm at all to the stark black and white columns, installed in 1986, combined with the 17th century architecture of the Palais-Royal. However, as Sophie spoke with us about incorporating people into our photographs selectively, to capture a sense of scale or purpose and I started to see opportunities to do this, I felt more enthusiastic about the site. And, with Sophie's guidance and encouragement, we think we took a few pretty decent photos!!

Sophie was a bit frustrated that there are some restoration/renovation works going on at the Palais-Royal at the moment that are restricting some of the photographic opportunities that she usually includes. We had never been to the Palais-Royal before so we had no idea what we were missing?!

We negotiated our way past the workmen and their barricades to the palace gardens. Sophie talked to us about taking shots in the arcade bordering the gardens and creating shots incorporating the very formal avenues of trees. As luck would have it we managed to snap some shots in both locations incorporating some people who encapsulated Paris. I am particularly pleased with the shot that I took of the woman in a raincoat out walking her dog.

After the gardens Sophie took us through a couple of covered arcades nearby. The arcades were very popular before Paris was extensively redeveloped to include a reliable sewerage system. They provided venues where women could parade about without their hemlines swishing through raw sewerage!! After falling out of favour once the streets were cleaned up, the covered arcades are being rediscovered and redeveloped as fashionable shopping areas.

Throughout the morning Sophie encouraged us to work harder at taking the best images possible rather than relying on Photoshop to fix any deficiencies later on the computer. At the conclusion of our course Sophie gave us plenty of time to ask questions about what we had covered during the morning and encouraged us to email her with questions that we think of later. Sophie also said that she would be keen to see some of our future efforts if we would like to email them to her.

On the way back to the station at the Louvre, Sophie confirmed that the deaf/mute girls are running a tourist scam. She also warned us against anyone approaching us claiming to have found a ring. In this one they try to get you to give them money for the ring so that you can then go and pawn it or sell it for twice what they have asked for!!! Yeah, right. Do people really fall for these scams??

We mentioned to Sophie that we were heading to the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais. She told us that you can only go into the Grand Palais if you have a ticket for the exhibition that is currently on. She added that the Petit Palais has a beautiful courtyard with a cafe that does a reasonable, and reasonably priced, lunch.

We made our way to the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais planning to have lunch in the courtyard cafe ... only to find that the cafe is closed on Mondays! As we walked around the Petit Palais we encountered our first ring scammer. He demonstrated a good slight of hand and we almost could have believed that he had just 'found' the ring. Wise to the scam though, we just ignored him!!

So, Plan B - we walked along the Champs-Élysées towards the Arc de Triomphe and found a cafe in a side street for lunch. In Paris everything is cheaper in a side street than on the main tourist street!! I have just worked out how to insert accents using the iPad touchscreen instead of the Logitech keyboard. It's only taken me four weeks!! The next thing is - will the accents carry over to the blog???

After lunch we walked back to the Pont Neuf bridge to take some photos of the bridge and Des Invalides and Tour Eiffel. The ring scammers near the bridge were hopeless. They quite obviously had the rings in their hand the whole time - they didn't even give the impression of having picked it up from the ground!! They definitely needed to work on their sleight of hand. From Pont Neuf bridge we walked to the Place de la Concorde for some more photos of Paris before jumping back on the Metro to go back to the hotel for a bit of a rest.

After a Japanese meal for dinner we headed out again with our cameras and tripods for some night photos of Tour Eiffel and the Arc de Triomphe. There were lots of tourists at Tour Eiffel, but not a lot of serious photographers i.e. other nerds with tripods!! There were plenty of happy snappers with their iPhones though!!! Not to mention the hawkers selling illuminated miniature Eiffel Towers and other assorted tourist junk.

The photographers at the Arc de Triomphe were much more serious - tripods everywhere!!Bernie wanted to take his photo straight on from the Champs-Élysées and had to wait his turn to set up his tripod on the traffic island!!! I opted for more of a side view that was not so much in demand. Bernie captured better light trails, though, from front on.

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Comments

[Annika]

contacts?
Hi, your experience sounds great. Could you give me the contact of Sophie/ the organization that you arranged the photography course with? Thank you very much in advance, Annika