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Paris Stock Photography We offer stunning professional rights-managed stock photography of Paris. Terry has traveled to photograph the City of Lights many times over the past decade. If you are looking to license photography then we would love to assist you. We frequently supply art directors, editors, publishers, and image researchers with the stunning and unique pictures their projects require. Our pictures of Paris have been licensed by clients in many countries world-wide.
Paris Photography Portfolio
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Paris Stock List We have just returned from our latest trip to Paris and are editing thousands of new Paris pictures. A complete stock list will be posted soon. Please contact us regarding any subject matter image research inquiries.
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May 01, 2011
We got back from Paris this morning after spending a night in Chicago due to a 4-hour departure delay in Paris, our second "maintenance issue" and overnight-layover in a row. At least it wasn't as bad as the total nightmare of the last return flight. If possible I never plan to fly out of Paris again. Let's face it, the French are much better at pastries than airplane mechanics and they certainly don't get in a hurry for anything. I've flown into Paris several times and have never had a problem with that, but I'll be passing through and flying back home from somewhere else the next time, whenever that may be. We had a very good week though. My game plan of traveling around light and agile with small, non-zoom lenses (a 35mm and a 50mm) lasted about half a day. I just couldn't handle the fear of mentally setting up a shot but not being able to execute, so I hauled my mid-range zoom and heavy 70-200mm 2.8 around all day long. My prayers were answered and my hip and back problems totally disappeared for the whole week -- until we landed in Chicago last night. So I either need to pray for an extension or leave the country more often. We rented an apartment in Paris this time which worked out quite well. Our room was at the top of a 5-story building built in the 1600s. No elevator, just a spiral staircase. I've stayed in several very small European hotels in old buildings, plenty with no elevators, but this one was one of the steepest and tightest staircases I've ever seen. The closest thing I've ever seen was the stairs to the top of Notre Dame which start out wide and get narrower and narrower the taller you climb, except these were all wood instead of stone. The apartment's location was great though. We were a block-and-a-half from the Louvre, so I walked over at sunrise one morning and photographed the Louvre and Tulleries gardens. Our window had a view of Sacre Coeur from which I setup my tripod one evening and photographed from dusk through dark. I'll try to share more details and photos soon, but for now I'll leave you with just a snapshot I took while walking along the street in front of our apartment. This is actually a perfectly "normal" parking scene in Paris: 
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Paris
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April 05, 2011
This past January was the 10th anniversary of Terry Smith Images. (Sorry, I didn't get a party invitation either, but the IRS told me it was great!) I started out as an aspiring travel photographer who wanted to travel to as many countries as I could. I had a goal at that time of getting to every continent except Antarctica (too expensive) before I was 30. Well, I didn't meet that goal. I've checked a few countries off the list though. My first international trip (not including to Canada -- sorry Canadians) was to Paris in 2002. I spent a week in Paris traveling alone as I did in those days. I covered a lot of ground in that week as a tourist. Unfortunately, my travel photography at the time was... well, let's just say it was an on-the-job learning experience. Ten years later and I've now been to Paris several times. Though at the detriment of checking other places off my list, I've always loved returning back to Paris. Each time my depth of subject matter there gets a bit deeper, and my Paris photography has been licensed many times worldwide. My other goal, like any travel photographer, was to get my trips paid for via photography. I'm going back to Paris soon, and TSI pays for my travel now. :)  Parisian Cafe Roussillon at night on the corner of Rue de Grenelle and Rue Cler, Paris, France. I was looking through my license sales from my stock distributors recently. I've had many, many worldwide licenses so this is not a complete number, but just counting licenses for publications in specific countries, my work has appeared in 24 countries and counting. In most of those 24+ countries my pictures are traveling there even before I get too! (I wish they would write, but no, they don't.)
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March 03, 2011
Shot from a side street in the Latin Quarter, just a short distance from Notre Dame (obviously), I was trying to come up with something a bit different than just a straight-on night shot of the Parisian icon (tried that already). What do you think? Share your comments on my blog.  Notre Dame cathedral at night, Paris, France
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Paris
Night Photography
Travel Photography
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October 27, 2010
This could have been a really great photo. I missed the peak fall color in Paris though. Jen and I both love the Louvre so much that it would probably be hanging on our wall right now had we been there a couple of weeks earlier. Even still, it was recently licensed for the front cover of a book, to my pleasant surprise. Magnifique! Look closely at the tiny little people... then the Louvre. Yes, the whole building is the Louvre... It is HUGE. You can see Notre Dame in the right background and the Pompideau in the left background.  Aerial view looking over the Jardin des Tuileries toward the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France.
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Paris
Aerial Photography
Travel Photography
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April 21, 2010
Rue Cler is one of my favorite locations in Paris. It's a cobblestone, pedestrian-only street lined with quaint little shops covering all the Parisian essentials:wine, cheese, chocolate, bread -- even a bank and post office. Most Americans, including myself, first learned of rue Cler through the excellent travel articles, books, and videos of Rick Steves. Smithsonian Magazine has published a special issue called Smithsonian Presents: Travels with Rick Steves. It's dated Summer 2010, so it should be on the shelves for several months. My photo below of the street sign along rue Cler is on page 40 of the magazine. It's a paragraph opener printed at "spot size" which means it's "very difficult to spot"; however, it's an honor nevertheless plus they pay very well. They also sent me two free issues (aka "tearsheets") which is a virtually non-existent practice in the industry anymore. They're great people to work with. With all of the color photography in this magazine maybe Rick Steves will start printing color pictures in all of 30+ travel books (and keep some spots reserved for me since I've used his books for nearly all of my traveling in Europe).  Rue Cler in the seventh arrondissement of Paris is a popular pedestrian street.
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Paris
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August 13, 2009
I love Paris, and I think I get most excited when one of my pictures from Paris is licensed. The picture below is of the Thalys train at the Gare du Nord station in Paris. It was recently licensed for an advertising piece in the U.K. Is it drop-dead stunning? Admittedly no, but it worked for this client likely because of the combination of the clock, train in clear view (bright red at that), and the two travelers in the distance rolling with their luggage. Plus, it leaves a lot of room for text to be overlaid above and below.
 A high speed Thalys train at Gare du Nord station, Paris, France.
I'll soon be returning to Gare du Nord station when my wife and I take the Eurostar from London to Paris on an upcoming trip. It's officially a vacation and not a business-paid-for photo trip, but of course, I'll be taking tons of pictures as always! This will be my second time to London and fourth time to Paris. I've been doing a lot of mental planning on my shooting strategy. I have a set of subject matter I'm going to focus on that are not so much the top tourist locations: local markets and shops, shopping, etc. I've been fortune to have licensed many images from both London and Paris, but I hope to build more depth to my collection.
Choo Choo
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Paris
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May 20, 2008
I'm almost done editing pictures from my last shoot in Paris. Just a few more to go. Here are a few selects from the last batch of images.
The historic square of Place de la Concorde, with its 3,200-year-old obelisk from Egypt, is where all those famous people that you faintly remember from history class were hung (plus nearly 2,800 who were not famous). Look closely at the sidewalk and you can still see the blood. The Champs Elysees leads the way to the Arc de Triomphe.
Street signs in Paris are just cool:
The best time to take night shots is after sunset but before the sky goes totally black. Ideally, you want some dark blue left to the sky, and it will become even bluer with a long exposure on a tripod. However, after standing in line for two hours at the Eiffel Tower you take what you can get. Meaning, a totally black sky. There are three levels to the Eiffel Tower and this shot was taken from the second level. The top of the Eiffel gives you the same view as Google Earth. Even at the second level the cold, cold, cold wind was so bad that it was almost impossible to get a tack sharp shot.
Here I used a very fast Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens, hand-held, with an exposure of 1/10 sec at f/4.5 with an ISO of 800. I probably should have used a wider f-stop and slightly lower ISO, but I didn't. I did, however, take a ton of pictures just hoping some would be sharp. Even for the pros, in a case like this that is about all you can do. Keep your feet planted in a good "human tripod" formation, elbows tucked in, support the camera and lens well, press the viewfinder tightly to your eye, and roll the shutter after exhaling...
A 50mm f/1.4 is great for shooting in museums and cathedrals as well. This next pic of the inside of the Louvre Museum (Bronze statue Mars assis by Luigi Valadier, 1726-1785, in the Grande Galerie) wasn't taken with the 1.4 but with its short lens, equally-inconspicuous cousin, the Nikon 24mm f/2.8. After you get the "right" lens on the camera, it always helps to pray profusely that someone with a red jacket will walk into the frame to give it a little "pop":
I'll close with a black and white shot of the Louvre looking up through the glass pyramid:
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Paris
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May 13, 2008
I don't know of anything to even begin to compare it to. It and the size of the collection within it are impressive beyond belief. The Musée du Louvre's is by far the most intimidating place I have ever been, but I can't wait to go back and get lost within it once again.
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Paris
Black and White Photography
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May 01, 2008
There are photographers in the world who think the Eiffel Tower is overdone and passé.
I feel sorry for those people.
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Paris
Black and White Photography
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April 29, 2008
On the top level of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris there a somewhat narrow little room, the back of which held a table with tour guides and art books on my last visit, and out the other side holds this peek-a-boo view toward the Sacré-Coeur basilica. The Musée d'Orsay was originally a railroad station, the Gare d'Orsay, and is itself as impressive as any of the paintings or sculpture it contains.
 Clock silhouette looking out from inside the Orsay Museum toward the Sacré-Coeur in Paris, France.
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Paris
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April 24, 2008
It just dawned on me that since this is a photography blog I should probably start posting some photography! OK, actually I have been planning to do this for quite awhile , but I and am just now getting around to it.
I believe this image is my favorite from my trip to Paris last October. The city is amazing, one of the most beautiful in the world. You can not comprehend the art and architecture of Paris without having been there, and you can't cover it all in just one trip. It still amazes me that I have been to Paris three times now and definitely plan to go back, yet I have only scratched the surface.
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Paris
Black and White Photography
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