Paris! Moulin Rouge, the Champs Élysée, the Louvre, the Musé d’Orsay are all there. So is the Eiffel Tower. That was to be the subject of my self assignment in the City of Lights: create a singular portrait of this iconic landmark.

It’s Everywhere

The Eiffel Tower dominates the Paris skyline. You see it everywhere you go. The Empire State Building is like that in New York City. Look up and boom. There’s the Tower. I had a week in Paris to explore, go to museums, eat, drink coffee and chase the perfect place to photograph the ubiquitous edifice. The sculptures at Musée Rodin are amazing.

Altitude matters

Practically all of the photographs I’ve seen including the wonderful fashion work by Richard Avedon shows the tower from street or eye level. I knew I had to have a change of, well, altitude. During a visit to see Gerhard Richter‘s exhibit at the Pompidou Center, a coffee at Le George showed me the way. All I had to do was find a place above the rooftops…

In the middle of Paris near the old post office historically accurately remodeled into an Apple store is Napoleon’s Opera. Close to that are department stores with rooftop cafés. Maybe… just maybe. I scoured these open air venues hoping, beyond hope, that I could find a location. The photo goddess smiled. So the next day found me on the Metro headed downtown with my gear: a trusty Canon 5D Mark II, Really Right Stuff tripod,  24-70mm and 70-200mm f/2.8 Sigma lenses. It was mid-afternoon. Early is good. I shot a lot of photos from that rooftop. Those are for another post. The Tower is the center of this story. It’s 6:46pm. All that’s left is to wait for the right moment.

Luck…

Luck is where preparation meets opportunity or so the saying goes. Sometimes the preparation part comes from the strangest, impossible to imagine places. Nicolas was running the café that evening. The store closed at eight. The café had to be cleared by 7:30. He’d made that clear after I’d asked permission to make photographs. About 7:15 I’d finished shooting a series of exposures. Nicolas came over. We started to chat about photography. He told me he loved working in Photoshop. I said “Me too.” He asked if I knew about Photoshop User magazine. I said “Yes, I have.” He told me that his favorite column was “The Digital Photographer’s Notebook.” He asked me if I read it.  I nodded, smiled and said “I’m really happy you like it so much. I’m Kevin Ames.” He knew me because I wrote the column! He smiled really big, shook my hand and told me I could stay until he left at five ’til eight. That was just before full dusk. I couldn’t believe my, uh, luck. (Seriously, this is a true story. I couldn’t make this up if I were writing a feel good movie.) The sky darkened, the tower’s lights came on and… magic!

Returning to where I was staying at Pont Sully, I downloaded the take, made a version and emailed it to Nicolas. Just goes to show that you never know how what we do can come back to us in very nice ways. Self assignment fulfilled.

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Kevin is a commercial photographer from Atlanta.  He works for fashion, architectural, manufacturing and corporate clients. When he’s not shooting, he contributes to Photoshop User magazine & writes for Photofocus.com.
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http://kevinamesphotography.com
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Photographs in this post are by Kevin Ames except as noted. ©2015 Kevin Ames ~ All rights reserved.

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