Paris Fashion Week Fall 2009 R-T-W

Wow, what a fun week I had during Paris Fashion Week. I was asked by DossierJournal.com to cover the many designer fashion shows around Paris. They were late in finding me and couldn't provide photo credentials that would allow me inside the runway shows. They proposed I photograph the models, clothes, designers and people in the industry outside the venues.

I Googled the event, found the show schedules and planned my day. Not knowing what to expect outside each venue, I packed a lot of photo gear and off I went.

My first show was Balmain held at the Palace Vendome, home to The Ritz Hotel Paris. Outside the entrance was a swarm of photographers, professionals and tourist alike. Not knowing who was who or who I should be snapping photos of, I shot most of the people. Every now and then you knew a VIP had arrived as the pack of paparazzi rushed to get their cover image.

I quickly picked up the flow of the shows, I would photograph people as they entered the event and about 20 minutes later photograph them as they left the event. This would be my modus operandi for the week.

After Balmain, I walked by the Musee du Louvre, across the River Seine to the Les Beaux-Arts de Paris for the Rick Owens show. I saw a sign posted: Photographers/TV and behind it was a line of people with all types of cameras. I got in line with both cameras hanging from my shoulders, looked like I knew what I was doing and when they started letting us in, I walked right by the security guards (this was just a fluke, as I tried this at the next several events and was turned away as they checked my name against a very formal invitation list).

Once inside, I quickly set out to find a spot to sit/squat/stand on the photographer's bleacher, located directing at the end of the runway (you've seen the photos where the model is walking directly into the camera). Since I was last in line there wasn't much room left. I moved a big metal camera case and squeezed myself into a little spot just off center. Not thinking I would ever get into a show, I didn't bring my monopod for the low light shooting scenario. I just bumped up the ISO and opened up my 70-200mm to f/2.8 and hoped for the best. I did manage to get some shots I was pretty happy with.






That night while showing my wife, Gina the images she was getting excited as she kept seeing people she knew in the industry and couldn't believe I photographed them. I decided I needed to be more knowledgeable so I went to Style.com and viewed the images from last year's events and started committing to memory the faces to the captions.

The next day in the Tuileries was the Christian Dior show. This was a pretty good spot for photographers because it was wide open and you could see the attendees arriving, giving me amble photo opportunities.

From Dior I went back to the Palace Vendome to capture the Vivienne Westwood show. Once again I tried to get in, but was turned away. I was now one for three. I was able to secure a spot along a large window that looked into the show. Those of us, the wanna-be's would have limited visibility into the show. I was able to get a few photo of a couple of models through the dirty glass if they stood still long enough between the heads of the people sitting inside. The highlight of this show was model/actress/celebrity Pamela Anderson was strutting her stuff down the runway.

What was truly amazing was the chaos and frenzy that was created when Pamela left the show. I bet there were 50 photographers trying to get her photograph, me included. However, I felt I was about to be trampled so I bailed out of the moving ball of photographers and bodyguards.

The rest of the week went by very quickly as I usually photographed two shows daily, uploaded the images to my computer, edited and uploaded them to DossierJournal for their review and website posting.

I plan to work with DossierJournal and obtain the necessary credentials to get into future fashion shows in Paris or maybe even Milan or London.