Here is why you should choose Paris for a Photography Workshop or make it the best destination to take a couple of lessons to improve your photo skills.

There are two ways to choose a photography workshop in Paris.  The first one is to choose Paris as a destination first or to decide to take a workshop somewhere and then choose the place.

There are so many reasons to choose Paris that I don’t even know where to start.  Perhaps the obvious is that it is seriously beautiful, civilised and offers such a diversity that everyone takes pictures all the time.  Even if you’ve been before, taking a workshop will open up a new dimension.  You will not see and do what you did before and the whole idea will be to see it differently and put into practice some photography exercises that you would not normally bother to do. 

Paris offers parks, squares, statues, waterfalls, greenery, a busy river, cyclists, walkers, fashion, a cosmopolitan diversity of people, magnificent architecture over several historical periods, bridges, markets, , windmills, streets, staircases, narrow flowering passages, covered passages, shops of every description, beautiful food, patisseries and more.  It offers landscapes, city life and cameos that are so French, you could be nowhere else. 

Taking a photography workshop set in one place as a pose to one where you are on the move all the time is that it allows you the time to see somewhere properly.  It gives you time to discover it’s hidden corners and to tell a photographically different story from the one you would take as a keen photographer on a normal visit to Paris or the photo essay you would take on a country tour. Paris is relatively small as a major city and easy to get around which is a huge advantage. A quick metro ride and you are across town.

Weather-wise Paris offers a real diversity, there are lots of sunny days in all seasons and it when it rains it jjrarely rains all day,  and on those days there are covered passages and wonderful moody pictures to take.  I love the autumn and the winter here almost more than the summer.  I love the starkness of the trees against the diverse superb architecture that Paris offers.  The people huddled up in winter clothes or a sea of umbrellas. As a widely travelled professional photographer I have often been confronted by adverse weather conditions and have learnt to use it to my advantage. You could decide to shoot just black and white, no colour.  Paris in B/W is magnificent. Follow in the footsteps of the great masters before colour took over. 

Do not be put off by the attacks last fall, this can happen anywhere so make it a reason to come. Visit and photograph the Place de le Republique with its monument now dedicated to the victims and to freedom. Life  goes on.  Immerse yourselves in that life for 5 days, living like a local, brainstorming ideas, learning new techniques and applying them to one of the worlds most spectacular cities.

Paris has been my home base for 25 years.  As a news photographer in difficult countries my heart would lift as the plane touched down in Paris.  Safely home.  My heart still lifts when I come home so take a photo workshop or consult me for a lesson and share my Paris with me.