Perfectly Paris SOME OF MY FAVORITES FROM MY WORKSHOP IN FRANCE

MY 2ND WORKSHOP IN PARIS

There's something very special about getting to go back to a place you've been before, shot before, researched before, and now, six years later, you get to experience it all again, but with new skills, a new creative vision, new gear, new software, and new locations you missed the first time. Best of all, I got to do it all with the same guy I did my workshop with last time – the wonderful Mimo Meidany.

It was 14 of us, getting up before dawn and heading out to shoot in wonderful weather in the most photogenic city on the planet. It was just about a perfect week.

I 'll tell most of the story through the captions below the photos, some of my favorites from the few days before the workshop and during.

We hired a wonderful French ballerina to meet us at the Trocadero overlooking the Eiffel Tower. When you get there before dawn, you avoid the tourists (they don't like getting up early). I brought the red umbrella from home (thanks for the speedy delivery, Amazon).

We made a quick stop on this street, which has a quite timeless look, before heading over to our sunset shoot.

TAKING A CHANCE

We took a chance and tried something that's pretty much the opposite of every photographer I know who has shot in Paris – we visited Paris' Montmartre section at dawn, rather than at sunset. The idea was to shoot it when it's not absolutely packed with tourists, and it paid off. Empty streets, beautiful light, and we were wrapping up our shoot just as the first tourists started to arrive. Here are a few of the shots from there.

We did something different – we visited Paris' Montmartre area at dawn, rather than at sunset when it's absolutely packed with tourists, and it paid off.

Another one from Montmartre – right down the hill from the previous shot, but with the Church of the Sacré Coeur in the background.

The star of Montmartre is the Church of the Socre Coeur (seen above), but without the flood of tourists that gather there at sunset. About 30 minutes from when this was taken, the first tourists start to arrive and before you know, the place is a zoo so getting up early really pays off.

A closer view of the Church of the Sacré-Cœur taken right at dawn. Its official name is Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre, but I'm not very official, so....Sacré-Cœur. I should receive at least five points for the accent and cojoined letters being included.

CLASSIC PARIS

Everyday we head out well before dawn in an 18-passenger van and get out on location well before sunrise. We usually shoot at three locations and then head back to the hotel for breakfast by 8:00 am. At 9:00 am, we're in the classroom editing the images we took that morning (and in some cases, also the ones from the night before), then the class all turn in three of their best images from the shoots for an in-class critique.

This has become a popular spot with the Instagram crowd, so I decided to take a different take on it, showing only a part of the Eiffel Tower to bring something at least a little different.

The Palais Granier Opera House

We were able to work directly with the opera house to provide a unique opportunity for our workshop photographers – the abiility to photographer the opera house after hours with no one there but us. There were three spots I wanted the group to be able to capture: (1) The amazing lobby (see below), (2) The hallway at the front of the building that looks like something from the palace of Versailles, and (3) of course the auditorium of the opera house itself, all without tourists roaming through our shots. We also got lots of historial info from our guide, including a tour backstage, which was pretty incredible. Here are a few of my shots from that evening.

If the lobby looks like this, imagine what the auditorium looks like, right?

This is the hallway at the front of the opera house, shot from a low angle with my camera mounted on a Platypod. Normally this hallway is brighter, lit with natural light from the row of windows along the left side, but they are restoring the front of the building so there is a giant Samsung billboard covering the left wall from the street level to the to roof of the building.

Part of the incredible lobby at the Opera House.

The view from the stage to the back of the house (my favorite view of any theatre).

A PERFECT LOCATION

There are a lot of considerations when we're choosing our hotel for the workshop, including does it have a great classroom (since we spend a decent amount of time in there each day), and does it have a great breakfast, but most importantly, it's got to have a great location. There have to be lots of nice restaurants, shops, bakeries and grocery stores nearby, and ideally some shoots you can do without having to jump on a bus.

Well, our hotel couldn't have had a better location, just steps from the Pont Neuf bridge, and less than a 10-minute walk to the Louvre or the Musée d'Orsay. Notre Dame is at the end of the block. It doesn't get much better than that.

This scene along the Seine river was just steps from our hotel, which overlooks the Pont Neuf bridge (seen above). It's my favorite bridge in Paris (even though most folks consider the King George III bridge to be the most beautiful of the bridges over the Seine.

Above: Here's the view if you take the previous shot and then turn around. A wonderful view of the beautifully restored Notre Dame Cathedral.

Here's a shot of the newly refreshed interior, with its beautiful lighting and much brighter overall look.

A side shot, just above the heads of hundreds of tourists in the cathedral that day.

Below The Surface

We took our group to the Arts Et Métiers Metro Station, as it's themed with a Jules Verne-style look.

We set up on one side and take our shots of the folks on the other side of the tracks.

Above: A young man waits pensively on the platform as a Metro car goes whizzing by.

The Richelieu Library

This historic library is part of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF). It takes up a full city block and I wanted to photograph it since the first time I saw. About eight years or so ago I contacted the library and arranged for me to shoot it before opening hours. I had been emailing with one of the library staff and we set up a time for me to meet. I got up early, took an Uber to the address I found on Google, went to the front desk, asked for my contact's name, and they hadn't heard of her. As it turns out, I was at the library at Bibliothèque nationale de France, just not the right one. I was on the other side of town. It was too late, she couldn't wait for me to take a taxi 30 minutes to the location you see below. I wasn't only heartbroken, I was so mad at myself for not reading the address she gave me in the email, but instead I just "Googled it." Rookie mistake.

So, this time around I was determined to at least walk in the front door since I read it was "camera friendly." I went a few days before the workshop group arrived to scope it out, and I got these shots, and brought the group a few days laters. Well, I finally got it (and so did they, thankfully without all the heartbreak).

One of the most spectacular reading rooms in any library – the Oval Room (Salle Ovale).

Above: The Labrouste Reading Room, a research library located just down the hall, is nearly as remarkable. This library is only accessible to students and researchers, so you're only allowed to enter a small viewing area in the front for taking photos.

Believe it or not, this ultra-modern spiral staircase is inside the National Library, between the two libraries you just saw before. This one building held three amazing places to photograph – this staircase being just one.

That same staircase but different part of it and a different angle.

Paris’ Pantheon

It was originally constructed as the Church of Sainte-Geneviève, and designed by architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot in the late 1700s. Today It's kind of a church, kind of a museum, kind of a tourist attraction that looks Greek on the outside and pretty incredible on the inside. It reminds me a bit of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, but on a much smaller scale.

The beautiful interior of the Panthéon, a neoclassical building in the Latin Quarter, not far from our hotel. I didn't realize that I had been there before, but last time the security guards stopped us from using our "Professional Cameras" (Mine was a 5D Mark IV. LOL!!! I tried to point out how many other people in there were using a similar camera, but to no avail. This time, nobody bothered us and we were able to shoot to our heart's content..

The interior looks, lighting-wise, much like you see above, but in the images below, I intentionally under-exposed by about 2 stops to get a darker, more dramatic look. Hey, it was worth a shot.

Musée du Louvre

The Louvre is as beautiful outside as it is on the inside. We tried to visit there with the group on Tuesday night to get some blue hour exterior shots because the Lourve is closed and it's a lot less crowded (many thanks for the tip, Serge), but on this night they had the area blocked off for a private formal event, so we had to stay on the other side of the barracade, but at least once everyone was inside for the event, there were no tourists, so we could get a couple of shots.

I went back on the last night in Paris, after the workshop had ended, to try and get a few of the shots I was hoping to capture during the week (they're below).

CLASSIC PARIS

Here are some of those classic Paris shots that you just have to take while you're there.

Another shot of our ballerina just as the sun is coming up.

We hired Eva, a French model I had worked with six years ago, and we brought over a trench coat and scarf (among other accessories), staging our shoot at the Bir Hakim bridge close to sunset.

Another shot of Eva after an outfit change.

The credit for this photo goes to Karen Grillion. I saw her wander away from the group, and I knew she had spotted something cool, and this charming cafe was it. I wouldn't have seen it without her. Thanks, Karen.

Six years ago I got a similar shot, at night, and the sky is solid black. I like this blue hour version so much better.

the Château de Chantilly

A 25-minute train ride from Central Paris is a fairytale castle (originally a hunting estate, now a museum) with its own moat (more like a small lake) that you can tour, photograph, and enjoy inside and out. We weren't there under ideal lighting conditions, so we did the best we could with the hand we were dealt. Luckily, the castle wasn't very busy (it opens at 10:00 am, but you can still photograph the front (seen in the 2nd image), unobstructed, anytime from the road right in front.

Yes, the sky is the sky that was there. No replacement necessary.

The view from the front entrance gate (there's a small fee once they open at 10:00 am). In this instance, I did a long exposure, so I went all "Mimo style" on the post-processing on this one.

That last one is an iPhone long exposure.

More Shots From Around Paris

BEHIND-THE-SCENES

Here's a few behind-the-scenes shots of the crew shooting out on location. Most of these were taken by Mimo, and some are stills from video.

That's Mimo, the man himself, pictured at the bottom, and the group shot of us at the Louvre is by Miguel Bejar.

Thanks for letting me share my trip with you.

I consider myself so blessed to be able to lead workshops like this, where you meet wonderful photographers, share delicious meals, and wander the streets of amazing cities like Paris. You take lots of pictures, make new friends, laugh, edit photos, help each other out, and just enjoy the whole experience. I have to pinch myself sometimes that I get to do this at all – it's something I don't take for granted, and the whole time I'm there, I just can't believe how fortunate I am to be there in the first place. It marries two things I love, travel and photography, and adds one thing I love even more: people. It's like the saying goes: "Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer."

Au revoir, Paris. À bientôt.

CAMERA NOTES: Most images were taken with a Canon R6 II body, and almost all with a 24-240mm lens. Two or three shots were taken using a borrowed 10-20mm lens, and a few were taken with my iPhone 16 Pro.

CREATED BY

Scott Kelby

Credits:

Scott Kelby Photography 2025