SPECIAL SECTION: Paris Photography Workshop - Day 2

Get Up at Dawn: Photography News from Paris

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On-The-Ground Reports from the Ultimate

Travel Photography Workshop in Paris

Since you couldn’t be with us in Paris for our workshop, I asked Dave Morgan — a freelance writer and photographer — to fill you in on what we’ve learned. You’ll find his second report here below.

— Lori

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Dear Travel Writer,

Our second day of the Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop has come to an end.

And what a day it has been…

We waited for dawn in the dark at Sacre Coeur, a cathedral on a hill overlooking Montmartre and all of Paris.  When light rays broke over the horizon, it washed the rooftops below us in warm hues of pink and orange.  The stones of the cathedral almost seemed alive, soaking in the cool morning air.

Youngsters, still out from the previous night’s revelry, lounged under trees and on the grand stone stairs, sharing bottles of wine and talking quietly.  Street cleaners in green trucks with matching green brooms and coveralls scoured the streets.  An old woman, slowly climbing a staircase under centuries-old eaves, stopped for a breath of air before continuing to the summit.

The sunrise cast tender light on the flowers almost hidden in the park.  The gargoyles guarding the cathedral were brought to life, ready to pounce on ne’er-do-well passers-by.  

And a streetlamp still lighting the fleeting night provided the perfect foreground for photos of the moon hanging over Paris at dawn.

My name is David Morgan, and I am providing you with FREE on-the-ground reports from our Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop here in Paris.

Yesterday (again, check the e-letter archive at www.thetravelwriterslife.com if you haven’t read the dispatch), I reported how shocked I was at the excellent quality of the images our participants, many of them completely new to photography, were already producing by the end of the first evening, thanks to Rich and Blair’s instruction.

Today I want to tell you how jealous I am.

Many participants walked away from the morning shoot with more sellable shots than I did.  And I have experience!  Our two expert photographers who are teaching the course, Rich Wagner and B. Howard, said the same thing, both in awe and envy of how well our “new professionals” are doing.

Mind you, it wasn’t just the break of dawn at Sacre Coeur that our Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop participants captured so expertly.  Their shots often dwarfed our own at all of the shoots today…

…children listening intently to a street saxophone player…a man in a wheelchair massaging his lover’s feet…a truly unique photo of the Eiffel Tower shot through etched glass…

…a girl on a bicycle at St. Germain…a fruit stand at the Marais…

…all of them photos I wish I had taken.  And every one of them sellable.

So here’s a tip we learned that you, too, can put into use immediately:

FREE PHOTO TIP #2: Get up early, even if it hurts.

Professional photographers do not shoot in the middle of the day.  They shoot early in the morning, from dawn until about 10 a.m., then again in early evening through twilight.

Fewer tourists are out at daybreak, that is for sure.  But that is not why the experts roll out of bed in the wee hours.

The reason they get up so early and skip midday shooting is simple: the light is much better in the mornings and in the evenings.

Rich and Blair refer to the quality of this light as “warmth.”  The light spreads evenly.  The shadows cast are not as dark, and details in your subject matter stand out, without the intensity of the noonday sun “blowing” your highlights.

That’s why the stones of Sacre Coeur seemed so alive this morning: You could see every detail, and every five minutes the color changed as the sun climbed higher in the sky.  Simply put, it was breathtaking.

Your white balance is also much easier to control in early morning shoots.  You won’t have to worry about part of your photo being too dark while the rest is too bright.

Give it a try.  Get up early some morning and walk outside with your camera.  The light of dawn could turn an ordinary object, whether a garden tool or a mailbox, into a beautiful, PROFITABLE photo…one that you can sell time and again. 

You don’t have to know anything about photography to get started making money and traveling like one.  You just need people like Rich Wagner and B. Howard, with decades of experience in the field, to show you how to do it.  And that’s exactly what is happening right now at our Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop in Paris.

I’ll talk to you again tomorrow!

Sincerely,

David Morgan
Writer and Photographer

[Editor’s Note: Learn more about opportunities to profit from your travels (and even from your own home) in our free online newsletter The Right Way to Travel.]