601 - Join Us in France Travel Podcast

Table of Contents for this Episode

[00:00:00]

Welcome to Episode 601

Annie: This is Join Us in France, episode 601, six cent un.

Bonjour, I’m Annie Sargent, and Join Us in France is the podcast where we take a conversational journey through the beauty, culture, and flavors of France.

Today on the podcast: What Your Paris Photos Are Missing (And How to Fix It)

Annie: Today, I bring you a conversation with Bob Soltys, a black-and-white street photographer who has been capturing Paris for decades.

Bob shares practical advice on travel photography, from what gear to actually bring, to the best neighborhoods and times of day for memorable shots.

Whether you shoot with a phone or a Leica, there’s something here for you.

Podcast support and extras

Annie: Before we start, this show runs on listener support.

If you want to work with me directly, I do [00:01:00] itinerary consults, I also wrote eight self-guided tours of Paris on the VoiceMap app, and I can take you on a day trip around the southwest of France.

And everything is at joinusinfrance.com/boutique.

And if you shop on Amazon anyway, starting at joinusinfrance.com/amazon costs you nothing but helps the show, and I’ve seen an impressive increase in the number of people who do this. Thank you so much.

Magazine segment

Annie: For the magazine part of the podcast, after my chat with Bob today, I’ll discuss a new tunnel under Paris and why it is great news.

Meet Bob Soltys

Annie: Bonjour, Bob Soltys and welcome to Join Us in France.

Bob Soltys: Bonjour. Glad to be here. Thank you for having me.

Annie: It’s wonderful having you. We are going to talk about Paris [00:02:00] and photography because you are a photographer and you’ve done a lot of this, you still do a lot of this, and we want to get some tips from the pros.

Bob Soltys: Be happy to do it.

Annie: Wonderful.

Why Black and White

Annie: So you mostly do black and white photography, why is that?

Bob Soltys: Well, like, most of us who started taking pictures back in the ’60s, black and white was the way to go because you could, you can still do it yourself, but you couldn’t do it yourself then it was inexpensive if you wanted to have the lab do it. And for things like the school newspaper and eventually the weekly newspaper that I did some work for, they all printed black and white pictures.

Maybe they’d run a color picture on Sunday, but black and white was, de rigueur.

Annie: Right, right. And it has this kind of moody feeling to it, doesn’t it?

Bob Soltys: Yes. It really, it does have a moody feeling. [00:03:00] Shadows and the bright areas are more pronounced in black and white, and you don’t have the distraction of color. And particularly at night, you get a true black, as opposed to, you know, if you look at a color film taken at night, there’s some blue or there’s some color of the streetlights and so forth, and it’s timeless.

Annie: Right. It is quite timeless. All right. so obviously this is not a photography class that we’re going to do. We want to help people who visit Paris take better pictures, perhaps have a better organization, think through what their travel photography should be like.

Tourist Photo Mistakes

Annie: What’s the biggest mistake you think tourists make when they start taking photos somewhere besides home?

Bob Soltys: I think people get unexpected results because sometimes somebody, they’ll get all excited, I’m going to Paris, you know, and it’s their first time. Or for example, we’re going to Paris for our honeymoon, something [00:04:00] like that. And maybe they go out and buy a brand-new camera. The week before they leave and don’t have time to really learn the camera and all the features, particularly with digital and smart cameras that we have today.

And another thing that might cause unexpected results is carrying a lot of equipment. Particularly if I walk a lot, so I carry one camera and one lens. Sometimes, you know, you’ll see people, it’s really tough to walk around with a bag of lenses, and then you’re asking yourself, okay, what lens do I use for this picture?

Where if you just had the camera and one lens, you don’t have a choice, you just make the picture.

Annie: Yes. Yes. If you have the wrong zoom, you just walk closer to it or something, or further away or whatever it is that… so do you do any phone photography or only with cameras?

Phone vs Camera Workflow

Bob Soltys: I use my phone, say for example, one of the pictures on my website [00:05:00] Under Vin Chaud under the Paris tab, there’s a picture of my camera there with a glass of hot wine and some contact sheets that I was going over, and the phone takes pictures in color. You have to convert it, to black and white, but the wine was red wine, so it just seemed to me it was a lot nicer in color. So if I want to take a color picture, I’ll use the phone, because the camera that I use, it’s a monochrome camera. It doesn’t take color pictures at all. But I primarily use, or say if I saw an interesting bird, or something, a dazzling sunset where you obviously would want to have color.

But other than that, it’s black and white and my camera.

Annie: Right. Right, right, right. So you gave the advice, which is very good advice to learn your camera. Have you learned all the tricks that you can do with your phone camera as well?

Night Mode Phone Tips

Bob Soltys: Yes, I have in particular. That’s a, I’m glad you asked that question because if you’re going to take pictures at night, in an area, say, where there are not a lot of street, well actually even on my front porch, I’ll go to take a picture of the dog [00:06:00] with the telescope or I’ll go to take a picture with a phone at night.

The light is not as, there isn’t as much light, and so you almost have a, like a crosshair or a reticle. And it’s good to try that out and try taking pictures with your phone at night before you leave home because you’ll see what you have to do. The nice thing about the phone is it does all the settings automatically.

So at night it will automatically use a slower shutter speed, and the purpose of that reticle, you’ll just see two… they’re crosshairs, and actually there’ll be four, and so what you want to do is you want to just turn the phone, so that all of those crosshairs dissolve into just one line, one vertical line, and one horizontal line.

So that way the phone is being held still. And it’s using its own stabilization feature, so to speak. So you want to be familiar with that.

You want to be familiar with, or [00:07:00] recognize that the phone is going to make the exposure for you automatically. Whereas, if, you know, with a camera, you can choose a different F-stop.

So if you want lights in the background, for example, I think one of the pictures I sent you, and it’s on my site of Shakespeare & Company, they have this beautiful string of lights in the background of the outside of the store.

And with your lens set open wider, those lights are not going to be as sharp and they won’t, it’s a compositional thing too.

They’re not going to take away from the foreground of the picture.

With the iPhone, generally everything’s going to be in focus, which is nice because you just get the picture up, you push the button and you’re done.

Annie: Right, right. But you, with the iPhone, you can go into portrait mode and then you have more bokeh, you know, you have a bokeh it’s what you call this kind of fuzzy background, and you can tap, so like if I want to have, I don’t [00:08:00] know, a lamppost sharp and everything around it blurry, I just tap on the lamppost and it will do a decent job.

I mean, it’s surprising how much you can play with the different settings at the bottom of your camera, of your phone. I’ve used an iPhone forever, so that’s really all I know.

Bob Soltys: More than I do.

iPhone Modes Explained

Annie: Just look at the bottom and you have lots of modes. Like with my iPhone right now, I have time lapse, which is fun only if a lot is happening.

So if people are, ton of people are moving around, say, for example, you’re inside of Notre Dame, and there’s all of these people moving around. You can just set your phone on a church bench, for example, and do a time lapse. And the time lapse, you have to stay there at least two, three minutes, and that’s going to give you a five-second time lapse.

And it’s fun to do, but only if you are [00:09:00] in a place where there’s a lot of movement.

If it’s a place where nothing’s moving, there’s no point to a time lapse at all. Cinematic is where you could say, okay, so this person is coming towards me, and so you tap on the person and as the person comes towards you, she’s getting sharper and sharper, and the background is getting blurry.

It’s really interesting to do at different lengths and see which one you’re going to like. Of course, video is just video. Photo is just, photo. Portrait is where you can do the stuff with the bokeh. Spatial I have never used, so I don’t even know what it is.

And pano is when you do a panoramic thing. So you hold your phone vertical, like a sheet of paper and you just swoop around to somewhere big. And the great thing about photography and museums or places like buildings and things like that, is [00:10:00] they don’t move.

Chasing Great Light

Annie: Like, you know, if you want a good photo of Notre Dame, well, just wait for the right time. Just wait the right light. That’s the other thing. Light. The natural light is your friend, right?

Bob Soltys: Yes. Absolument.

Annie: Even in black and white photography.

Bob Soltys: Oh yeah, exactly. It actually, the word photography means writing with light. So what you’re really doing is you’re photographing light. You’re not really photographing the object, you’re photographing the light that reflects from that object, or if it’s the sun, the light radiating from the sun, or well, in the case of the moon, it’s reflecting off the moon.

So, for black and white, it’s perfect because all you get are white where there’s a lot of light black, where there’s heavy shadow or no light. And then ranges of gray in between. And so one of the pictures I sent you, it’s called City of Light because I was walking out of Notre Dame one day and there was this couple ahead of me just walking right into the [00:11:00] sunlight.

And the beautiful lamps were there and everything. But it’s primarily, mainly white, some gray and a shadow. And that’s again, that just tells you that what you’re really dealing with is light, and time of day, with light. You know, midday, the shadows are going to be harsh, whereas in the morning or towards sunset, the light’s going to be softer.

Annie: Right, and that’s one advantage to visiting Paris in the wintertime because the days are shorter. And so you don’t be out there at 5:00 AM to get the sunrise. You can wait until 7:00 or 7:30 even. And same with the sunset. Like the golden hour is going to be easier to catch if you do a winter visit than if you do a summer visit.

I mean, honestly, in the summer, if you want to catch both sunrise and sunset, you’re going to be on your feet a long, long time.

Bob Soltys: That’s for sure.

Annie: Can you tell me about one of [00:12:00] your favorite Paris shots? Like you mentioned the one of the couple walking towards Notre Dame. Do you have a favorite?

Bob Soltys: I think it would have to be that one, Or… yeah, it would be that one. That’s certainly been the most popular with people buying, wanting to buy prints. The other one that I really love is one that I took actually in the winter, about a year and a half ago. Went there for the snow, no snow.

But one morning, I’m up at 5:00 and I’m out of the hotel at 6:00 or 6:30, and I was out taking pictures along the Seine. And as I came back along the Île Saint-Louis, these people were familiar with me, because I had run into them several times before. And these gentlemen, one guy was walking his dog, another gentleman was sitting with his dog.

And so it’s a picture, you can see the guy walking his dog, and he’s sort of turned to the side. To, me it just, it’s the perfect slice of life. And it’s something that if you make the time to go to [00:13:00] places other than the iconic tourist sites, you get to see what life is really like in Paris.

And yeah, I think that’s… and the other thing is it was taken at night, so, you know, I mean, any picture from my standpoint is going to be 50 to 100% better at night, depending on the scene, of course.

Night Photography Magic

Annie: You prefer night photography?

Bob Soltys: Yeah. You know, when I was a kid, it’s the 1951 film, not the one with Keanu Reeves in color but the original Day the Earth Stood Still was filmed entirely on black-and-white film, and a lot of the scenes were at night and they’re perfectly exposed, and the film was perfectly developed, and it just, to me seemed so magical.

In terms of, for example, I have another picture that I took of a couple kissing at the Eiffel Tower. It just seems more romantic and more alive and more magical. There’s just an added mystique, I think. And when I started [00:14:00] taking pictures, if you wanted to make night pictures, you had to buy special film or you, well, actually, you couldn’t, it wasn’t available back then. You had to develop your film for extra time and use a special developer to take those pictures at night. Whereas with an iPhone, boom, you the picture and get your crosshairs lined up if it’s telling you the exposure’s slow or with a digital camera.

You know, you set your ISO to like 3,200 and you’re good to go, I don’t need a tripod either. You had to have a tripod back in the day.

Tripods and Infrared Film

Annie: Right, that was my next question. Do you carry a tripod?

Bob Soltys: Not anymore. I do have one. I may take one on my next trip because I’m going to bring a film camera and Infrared film. And infrared film is very slow. I mean, the ASA is like 40 compared to your iPhone.

Is, you know, somewhere around 400 or so. And so you have to do it on a tripod. And then because the infrared focus is at a different point than visual light does, [00:15:00] you have to use the lens stopped all the way down, ergo, a tripod.

Annie: So why you want to do that? Just experimenting?

Bob Soltys: Infrared film, there’s something called the wood effect.

The water in the leaves makes the trees and the grass and vegetation look white and the sky is almost entirely black. It’s almost surreal. And I’m not aware of a lot of infrared pictures being made or at least being posted of Paris. So that, that’d be a different twist.

Annie: It’s original. Yeah. It’s a fun twist on that, but you do have to have a tripod, I must admit, I carried, you know, a 200 millimeter pro lens back then a Canon 200 pro lens, which is pretty heavy. Not as heavy as you have some of them. Yeah, they’re much heavier.

But, you know, you get that, you get a fixed lens, a fixed 50 or 30 or whatever it is.

Those are much smaller. But [00:16:00] you have enough lenses in your bag, it’s a job. Like it’s, you know, you need a Sherpa. Or a husband.

Bob Soltys: Yeah, a partner.

Annie: A partner who will take your stuff because, oh, it’s… Yeah, it’s a lot.

Planned vs Street Moments

Annie: Clearly you plan your photography, right? You don’t just go out, set out and see, oh, what am I going to find today?

Or do you do sometimes that sort of thing as well.

Bob Soltys: It’s mainly, I just go out and see what I’m going to see. The last time I was there, for example, I wanted to get a photograph of people kissing with the Eiffel Tower in the background. So I got myself over the Pont Alexandre III and kind of hung around for a while, and the universe, the photo gods were smiling on me because this gentleman came up with his phone in his hand and asked me, would you take a picture of my girlfriend and me and… Oh sure, and I’ll do you one better. Then I’ll take one with this professional camera that I have. And so I [00:17:00] did, and then I asked them if they would kiss. But normally I just, you know… one time I thought, you know, you’ve been here for, and I was at a workshop and the guy’s like, you know, you’ve been here for a week and I don’t see any pictures of the Eiffel Tower.

So I went over there. With the idea of making a picture with the Eiffel Tower in it, not necessarily just the Eiffel Tower, but 90% of the time I just go out. Well, the morning on the Île Saint-Louis, I didn’t plan that picture. I just, oh, hey, this is a great moment. And again, they were familiar with me.

They knew I had a camera and it’s a small unobtrusive camera, so, but that’s typically the way it goes. City of Light wasn’t planned. The end, you know, the picture I showed you, the picture I sent you, it’s on my website. So on the streets of Paris. It’s the last picture in my exhibits, it’s the last picture.

It’s medical students mooning me. I didn’t plan that. This was back during Bush II and the United States was not really popular at that point.

Annie: Neither was France in America, [00:18:00] by the way.

Bob Soltys: Yeah. And I raised the camera and I, you know, I said… I think that’s one of my favorite photography stories is they all just dropped trou continuously.

You know, I had to think, these guys have done this before.

Annie: Of course, of course.

Bob Soltys: And they were laughing and, you know, everybody just kind of laughed. And it was a funny moment, but again, not planned. Most of the stuff I do is not planned. The couple kissing at the Eiffel Tower, I almost never pose a picture, but it was Valentine’s Day and they were there on their vacation.

And they wanted a picture with the Eiffel Tower. I said, well, why not take one of you kissing? Which reminds me of another point. I told them, I will send you the jpeg. I said, here’s my card. I have a card with my email and a photograph of the Eiffel Tower on one side and a picture of Paris or somewhere else on the other.

And I said, you know, if you send me your email, I’ll send you the file. I mean, that’s the least you could do, somebody made the time to let you into their world, share their world with you. [00:19:00] And back in the old days, mail them a print, but yeah.

Annie: Yeah. Yeah. You don’t have to do that anymore. I’ve been around Paris with my big photography bag and taking photos, and people ask me for a photo.

There was a group, they were like a rock group and they wanted to do a poster and they wanted, and I was at the Buttes… Ah, what’s the name of that park?

Buttes Chaumont. I was just walking around Buttes Chaumont, taking photos, looking around, and they stopped me and they go, take our photo. Can you send us a photo? Like, we’ll pose and whatever. So I did take a nice photo and sent it to them and they sent me tickets to their concert, which was in Paris.

Bob Soltys: Oh, very nice.

Annie: Yeah, yeah. I was back in Toulouse by the time the concert happend so I did, I did not make a special trip just to see them in concert, but they were very nice young people. And when you can do that it’s sweet.

(Mid-roll ad spot)

Annie: But this bring me to another thing is that compared to [00:20:00] when people carried cameras by now with a phone, you can do anything. People are not at all worried about you walking around with a phone, snapping pictures. Even if you go into a grocery store, because for my patrons I like to do things about the prices of things and whatever, special things for my patrons. And I do short videos and things like that.

Anyway, I was just in the grocery store where you think like, why are you taking pictures in the grocery store? But because it’s on the phone, nobody cares that you have your phone out. You know what I mean?

Bob Soltys: Yeah, exactly.

Annie: If you had a camera out in the grocery store, I think people would kind of like, what are you doing?”

Photo Etiquette in France

Annie: So having just a phone in a way helps you be more discreet.

Now, you know, you don’t want to be doing stuff that you shouldn’t be, like, [00:21:00] you shouldn’t be taking photos of kids.

Don’t take photos of kids in France. It’s creepy!

You know, and if somebody says no, then it’s no. Don’t do it.

That’s really important. Sometimes, if I’m trying to take photos of a market stall, somebody who spent a lot of time clearly, you know, arranging their stalls just so, and it’s really pretty and stuff, they are worried that they’re going to be copied.

Bob Soltys: Mm-hmm. Oh sure.

Annie: And sometimes they just say ‘No photo’ and Okay, fair enough. You know, I just move on and I thought, oh, but you did it so nice.

Bob Soltys: Yeah, exactly. Or they’ll hold up a hand. You know, I wanted to take a picture of somebody, in a restaurant. I was outside Le Deux Magots, and it just seemed a quintessential scene to me. And they had these wonderful suits and raised the camera and the guy held up his hand. I put the camera down, and walked away.

That’s what you do. It’s in France it’s droit à l’image, right? You [00:22:00] own the copyright to your image in France. And so yeah, no means no. Whether you’re taking pictures or anything else.

Annie: Right. That’s true. But most people don’t really

Bob Soltys: Yeah. They don’t care.

Annie: You walk around Paris, you’re going to be in hundreds of photos that people snapping all over, you know, it’s just how it is.

Bob Soltys: C’est la vie.

Annie: Yes.

Selfies Photographers and Safety

Annie: I think it’s, it helps if you set out with a bit of a plan, not of each photo and whatever, but at least, imagine you’re going to Paris for the first time and you want to come home with some nice photos.

You might want to hire a photographer

to come get some shots of you. And over the years we’ve had a lot of people recommend photographers, professional photographers. I don’t really have a list of photographers, but it’s so easy. You just go to any number of services aggregators, and they will list a ton of private photographers who will come meet you.

But probably they will meet you at the crack of dawn, [00:23:00] you know?

Bob Soltys: Or at least for breakfast.

Annie: Yes, and that’s just how it is. But that’s a good idea. And also just have a plan. And people do a lot of selfies. Selfie sticks are not anybody’s favorites, but sometimes they come in handy. Just put it away as soon as you’re done.

Okay?

Don’t wave that thing around. If you need it to have the Eiffel Tower in the background, for example, you want you and your partner, or you and your kids or whatever, Eiffel Tower in the background, you really need a selfie stick because it’s too tall. Your arm is never going to be long enough, you know?

Bob Soltys: Yeah, and I don’t, I don’t know that you really want to be handing someone, most people are honest, but there are dishonest people and it may not be a good idea to just say, Hey, would you take a picture of me? 9 times out of 10, you’re going to be okay. But, I think if somebody walks up to you and says, Hey, I’ll take your picture, maybe that I’d be a little bit worried about, because all they got to do is run [00:24:00] and then you got to go find the Apple store in France. So yeah, for that, a selfie stick is perfect.

Or a photographer with a wide-angle lens.

Annie: Exactly. I guess you need to be a bit thoughtful because there are some people who will take a ton of video and I’m not sure they ever put together that home movie that they intended to. Whereas photos you will probably, your phone will remind you, will show you again all the photos you have on your phone, of today, over the last four or five years.

And that’s one of the great things about taking photos with a phone is that it will show you your photos again. And to me that’s a really good way to revisit nice times that I’ve had in the past. Video is different. Video, you really have to sit down and stitch it together, and it’s just a lot more work.[00:25:00]

So I would recommend people do mostly photos when they’re on vacation because they will enjoy the photos, even if it’s just a cellphone photo.

Photo Walk Hotspots

Annie: So which neighborhoods do you like to go into in Paris to take photos?

Bob Soltys: Well, obviously the Île Saint-Louis, I stay at Hôtel Abbatial Saint-Germain, it’s actually in the fifth. And so the Île Saint-Louis is just go across the quai. So I spend a lot of time there, spend a lot of time around Notre Dame, along the I’m going to say, au bord de Seine. Along the shore…

Annie: The Seine River Banks.

Bob Soltys: Yeah, the Seine River Banks, thank you. I’m working on thinking French, and so obviously it’s working. Yeah. Banks the Seine. The Banks of the Seine are perfect, Montmartre. If you really want to… you think, all right, what do I want to do?

Eiffel Tower Backdrops

Bob Soltys: Well, okay, so you want to go somewhere and get a picture with the Eiffel Tower in the background, maybe from the Trocadéro, because then you’re going to have some people doing interesting [00:26:00] things, rather than just the tower by itself.

So that’s an establishing shot that shows Paris. Montmartre, you’re going to have the, you know, an American in Paris, the people painting. It’s classic, but I saw a beautiful picture that somebody took at night, of a lone artist painting a picture of a child.

So again, that would be a great place to go at night. Let’s see where else… cafes. I think just about any cafe, whether it’s inside or out, is a good place to watch people. And again, with a phone, you know, nobody’s really going to pay that much attention.

I’ve never… I mean, one time I had a guy tell me, no, it actually turned out he’s a famous American author who lives on the Île Saint-Louis. And so I just put the camera down.

Markets And Night Lights

Bob Soltys: But, so the Île Saint-Louis. Marché Maubert on Boulevard Saint-Germain in the Fifth, it’s like two blocks from the hotel where I live. It’s a market. It’s the oldest market in Paris, they [00:27:00] say. The Christmas markets, Marché de Noël. I particularly, you know, for somebody like me who lives to make pictures at night, you’ve got the Christmas lights.

You’ve got the illuminated stalls, you know, you’ve got the holiday people. Yeah, the vin chaud, chocolat chaud. It’s just very happy and loving. Pont Alexandre III. Get some nice pictures of the Eiffel Tower and again, people involved there.

Annie: Yeah, that’s really interesting because the Eiffel Tower is still at a distance, so you can see it quite well, even with a regular lens. But you have the bridge in the foreground and that is a, I think that’s a really good recommendation.

I’m sure wedding photographers do a lot of shots right there.

Bob Soltys: Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was there at night. So there, there weren’t any wedding photographers. But the other thing is that because the Eiffel Tower’s in the background, another good place, Pont des Arts. If you get the Eiffel Tower in the background at night. Or from Pyramide du [00:28:00] Louvre, you can get the pyramid and the Eiffel Tower at night, and here’s your iPhone could get a nice picture of thebeacon turning around. But the nice thing about all those places is the Eiffel Tower’s in the background. So you have a sense of place. It’s automatically, everybody knows it’s Paris, but the Eiffel Tower is not overwhelming the picture. It’s not the primary subject. So you’ve got what we photographers call the sense of place.

Louvre And Time Lapse

Bob Soltys: And again, anywhere where people are congregated inside the Louvre, although it’s getting much more crowded than it was. I would say that might be a good place for that time lapse, you know, with all the people walking around the Mona Lisa or something, or inside the Louvre for a panorama in some of the, if you can find a room that’s not, you know, overflowing with tourists.

On the escalators, you know, going down into the museum. That’d be, I think it’d be another nice place for maybe a time lapse.

Annie: Yeah, that’s the [00:29:00] thing when you look at a place, is this place best for a bit of video? For a bit of time lapse? For a portrait?

Dog Portrait Tricks

Annie: Am I trying to get a portrait of this cute dog? By the way, when taking photos of dogs, always shoot dogs low. So you want to have your phone low to their face. If you take a photo of a dog from the top, from your height, it doesn’t look like anything.

It looks like a sausage. It’s not interesting. Put the phone down and wait until the dog looks at your phone.

Bob Soltys: Mm-hmm. Good idea.

Annie: Snap, snap, snap, snap a lot of times until you get one where the dog is looking at the camera and then that’s often much nicer.

Wonderful. Okay, so try to get the Eiffel Tower or Notre Dame in the background so that you establish a sense of place and decide what sort of shooting moment is this.

Is this a time lapse sort of moment? Is it a night [00:30:00] photography time? You know, just what are you trying to show is the question you should always ask yourself before taking a photo, because it’s very easy to take thousands of photos.

Film Mindset Tips

Bob Soltys: Yeah!

Annie: But the advantage of film is that it trains you to not take thousands of photos, you know!

Bob Soltys: Yeah. This is 36 shots, that’s 36 exposures on a roll, and can’t tell you how many times one of the pictures on my website is not of Paris, the oil pump jack, that was the last frame on the last roll of film that I had in my pocket. And you don’t have that issue with digital.

But the nice thing about using a Leica is it’s not motorized. I maybe take one or two images at a time.

Food Shots And Servers

Bob Soltys: Obviously if you’re in a restaurant, and you want to make sure, for example, you ask the waiter, would you make a picture of us please? And you hand them the phone. If you keep your, the button pressed, it will make a lot of pictures so you don’t have to worry about whether you blink so forth. That’s another idea for pictures is if you’re in a [00:31:00] restaurant, and you’re having the most magnificent meal in the best restaurant that you’ve been in for a long time, you want to take a picture of the food? Flash off though. I don’t know that I’d want to do the selfie there.

Right? If you want a picture of y’all with the food, I’d say ask the server to do and make a big show of merci monsieur, merci madame, and put down a two Euro coin or even a five euro note, because they’re working and they get paid. I do it all the time, you know, Hey, would you make a picture of my friends with me, then I’ll, sometimes I’ll give them 10 or $20 because it’s a picture that I really want and I’m like, Hey, now you’re a professional photographer.

Put that on resume. So one of the things you want to show your friends is, hey, we had this fantastic meal, or we had this magnificent croissant or these wonderful macarons, you know, so I get pictures of that. That’s where color would work really well because, you know, black and white picture of macarons really isn’t going to be all that exciting.

So that’s a good thing [00:32:00] for the phone.

Annie: Yeah, food photography it’s color, I can’t think of any food that I would rather take black and white. Not really. So you mentioned your website, but we didn’t say the name of your website, so let’s do that now.

Bob Soltys: bobsoltys.net

There’s a tab that says Paris. So there’s pictures in the daytime streets of Paris, the Paris Noel, are primarily night pictures, and a recipe for vin chaud, hot wine.

Annie: Yeah, the hot wine.

Bob Soltys: Yeah.

Leica Gear Choices

Annie: You mentioned you use a Leica, what specific… so it’s a Leica, what zoom lens do you carry?

Bob Soltys: I use a Leica rangefinder. I did use Leica single-lens reflex cameras, with fixed lenses. I used a 35 1.4 and an 80 millimeter F1.4 lens. They’re designed for making pictures in low [00:33:00] light. I was a Navy officer and I injured my back on active duty. It actually put an end to my Navy career.

Again, universe, whatever. You know, I didn’t want to carry around all that heavy stuff. Did a number on my back and my neck. So I had a Leica rangefinder that I’d bought right before I went on active duty. And I switched to that. And so I have a Leica M6 TTL, it’s a film camera, and I use a 35 millimeter, 1.4 lens.

Again, that’s a lens that’s designed, so for example, the pictures, one of the pictures on my website in the Paris Noel page, there’s a picture. I’m actually looking at it, the print on my wall here at home of a bartender at the Brasserie de Saint-Louis. I made that picture wide open at F1.4 because, you know, I wanted to use a faster shutter speed.

I use that for film. I have a Leica M11 monochrome. It’s a digital rangefinder camera. It only takes black and white [00:34:00] pictures. But the nice thing is I can use my 35 millimeter lens on that. Again, they’re expensive cameras. The best camera, I’m often asked at gallery, you know, openings and so forth, what’s the best camera?

The one you have with you! That might be your iPhone. You’ve always got a camera with you and you don’t need to go out and buy an expensive camera to make good pictures.

You just want a simple camera. I started out with a Kodak Instamatic.

Shows how old I am. I still have the camera too.

Annie: Yes, I have quite the collection of old cameras at my house as well. I don’t, I like cameras. I think they’re interesting objects, but truly, I mostly use a phone anymore.

But I can tell you’d be the kind of guy, if they take away the F-stop and the iSO and all of these choices from you, you’re not going to be quite happy enough. You like your manual settings.

Bob Soltys: Yeah. Yeah. Actually, [00:35:00] I sold all my Leica stuff before I was released from active duty, because I figure I’m going to be so busy working, I’m not going to have time to take pictures. And I bought one of these simple point-and-shoot automatic cameras and I hated it.

The next day I called the dealer and I, they’d sold most of my stuff, but I was able to get one camera back and yeah, it’s just to me, it’s nice because I can play a little bit with that depth of field, make sure those lights in the bar, you know, you get some nice bokeh. But yeah, phone’s fine.

Phones Versus Manual

Annie: Yes. I was intimidated by manual settings for the longest time. But once you get it, it’s really easy. Like, you know, it’s three parameters that you’re working with.

If you’re trying to get photos of birds or photos of sports, or photos of the sky, or photos of planets, there are some very specific settings that you need to apply.

Fireworks, you know, there are specific things you need to learn for [00:36:00] a manual setting, whereas a phone can do all of these things. Of course, a phone cannot do good bird photography or sports photography inside. You’d still need the wonderful cameras and the manual settings and all of that for specific situations.

But for most travel photography, it’s nice if you have it, but the phone is fine.

Phone will do.

Bob Soltys: And the nice thing about the phone is, so the phone is, you want to take a picture outside, then you go inside, you don’t have to change anything. Whereas with my camera, it’s really easy to do, but I got to change the ISO from 400 to maybe 1600. Phone, you don’t have to do that. You just go inside and it’s good to go.

Annie: I think my iPhone 16, I think you can set the ISO if you want to.

Bob Soltys: Really? Oh, ok.

Annie: Yeah, I think you can, but you have to dig into the settings quite a bit and I don’t ever really need to do that, you know? It will do fine without me telling it much.

(Mid-roll ad spot)

AI Filters And Purism

Annie: [00:37:00] Do you have thoughts about the latest AI photo stuff and all the filters that people apply and things like that?

Have you played with any of this stuff?

Bob Soltys: Being a purist, the only thing I use, I’m a purist, I’m also a pilot. I don’t fly anymore. And you know, having been a Navy officer, I like to be the captain of the ship and fly my own airplane. The only thing I use AI for is when I’m shooting at say, 100,000 ISO.

So I’m coming back from Paris and there’s a full moon. I want to get some pictures of the clouds, you know, out of the window of the airplane. Did that at 200,000. You’re going to get a lot of noise grain, what we call it, in film. So I use AI, there’s an auto denoise and it does a wonderful job, that’s it.

The picture, I was a photojournalist, I’m a documentary photographer. I’m not going to change anything. People might want to change things, but I don’t do it. National Geographic actually has a policy [00:38:00] of no AI and there’s something called the Photography Collective, Leica actually makes a camera where there’s sort of, when you take the picture, it records that as the original picture.

And if you make any changes, the software, or something tells the file that it’s been changed. You know, I’m not that much of a purist. And it’s another, it’s not a black and white only camera. Filters. You want to use a yellow filter for clouds, but I think we have to be careful with filters, because well, make a duplicate of your file before you apply the filter, because otherwise you’re going to ruin a good picture and it may not work.

Even in color, you have to be really careful, because of what you’re going to do with people’s faces or hair colors and things. So I don’t do it, but you want to try it.

Annie: Well, a lot of the, like [00:39:00] Lightroom and things like that, they make non-destructive kind of adjustments. You can always dial back to the original if you want to, but I don’t know how much you’ve played with Lightroom and things since you…

Bob Soltys: I use it a lot.

Annie: Use it a lot.

Bob Soltys: Yeah. Yeah, use it.

Lightroom Monochrome Workflow

Bob Soltys: Well, you have to because, so with a monochrome camera, we have to be, if you’re working with a monochrome camera, the sensor is different. And it’s very sensitive to overexposure. So with a monochrome sensor, I have to underexpose my picture by two-thirds or a stop, or maybe a stop and a third, because to keep those highlights from blowing out.

That means that back in the day with film, you’d say you exposed for the shadows and worry about the highlights later.

Well, with slide film and with the monochrome sensor, you expose for the highlights. And so the nice thing about Lightroom is one of the first things I do and one of one of the few things that I do in Lightroom is I bring [00:40:00] up those shadows, because with the camera I have, you can actually underexpose the picture.

Two or three stops and still get a, you can still pull detail out of those shadows. Then I, you know, monkey around with the contrast and crop a little bit. The same sort of thing that I would do in my dark room, when I’m printing, you know, a film picture.

But other than that, no, I don’t do fancy stuff.

Haven’t quite mastered burning yet, and dodging, but… yeah.

Annie: Yeah, it’s fun to play with these things.

Bob Soltys: It’s really… Lightroom’s intuitive, you know, you just sort of move the slider and you can see the result, and if you like it, you keep it.

If you don’t, you undo it.

Annie: Right. But at the same time it will also give you, like, the auto balance is interesting.

If you just want a clean, you know, like a clean photo and you didn’t expose it quite right, auto balance will do a good job for you. You don’t need to know that about photography, but…

Bob Soltys: That’s AI and that’s fine.

Annie: Yeah. ‘

Bob Soltys: because that’s just, that’s we’d do that. We’d do that in the old days [00:41:00] with film prints.

Annie: Right.

Prints For Charity

Annie: So, you have sold some quite a bit of photography and you also donate some of your photography. Tell us about some of the charities you donate to.

Bob Soltys: So, because I love Paris and because Parisians have been so kind to my cameras and to me, yeah, I want to give back, we’re all here to help each other.

So I became aware of Secours Populaire Français. It’s sort of the French United way to it, say it in one sentence. So I actually went there once because I was having trouble donating and actually the president of the place called me back on my phone and I went there and just gave him the money in cash.

Now I do it all online, so all of the proceeds from my prints go to charity and I have a book of that my dog and I wrote before he died. The money from that goes to rescue. If there’s a picture of a dog on my website, the money from that goes to Happy Paw [00:42:00] Ukraine. You know, again, I have enough, I’m doing all right, and I ask myself, how much better am I going to live for whatever I get from that print? You know, I can help feed somebody there. I want to give back, you know, I don’t live there. I don’t pay, I mean, I pay taxes, you know, on things that I buy there maybe. But I don’t pay income tax or anything. I’m using the services. This is my way of saying thank you.

Annie: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you support Happy Paw Ukraine, right? So that’s a charity that helps dogs in trouble in Ukraine because of the war?

Bob Soltys: Yeah, there’ve been a lot of dogs that have just, you know, the homes have been destroyed, the people had to flee and sometimes they couldn’t take the pet with them. Mine’s sleeping there on the bed. But you know, you can’t take the pet with you. So they collect these pets or bring people, bring them these pets, and then they take care of them, and it’s kind of like a rescue.

Annie: Yeah. Place them.

Bob Soltys: So I sell a book about the dog or I sell a print, you know, a picture, a print of a dog. Then [00:43:00] the money goes to Happy Paw Ukraine.

Book And Dog Rescue

Annie: What’s the name of your book?

Bob Soltys: The book is called My Wonderful Life. It was written by not the dog I have now Nitro, but the dog I had before that it actually has a chapter, it mentions Paris, because I had to cancel a trip to Paris when he got sick, and unfortunately he did not come home from the hospital.

So that’s how I wound up going to Paris in February instead of December, again for the Christmas market. But all the money from that goes to Multiple Breed Rescue, which is the rescue in northeast Ohio that took him in, after his donor died.

And just coincidentally, it’s the same rescue that took care of my current dog, Nitro.

So there’s a link books on my website and you’ll see My Wonderful Life. And they had to pay about $1,400 to get Nitro squared away before they could put him up for adoption. So yeah, they get all the money from the books right now.

Annie: Yep. Yep. All [00:44:00] right.

Farewell And Thanks

Annie: Well, Bob, wonderful talking to you. I think you shared some great thoughts. I continue to encourage people to take a lot of photos because, you know, life is short and photos you can always put on a slideshow of your photos, you know what I mean?

You put it on your laptop, you put it on your TV or even whatever devices you have, you can play photos on these devices and have them like, close to you where you see them all the time.

Whereas video, eh, not as easy. So, just enjoy your photos and keep going to Paris and taking interesting photos. Sometimes you luck out, but sometimes it’s like having the eye of a photographer really helps as well.

Merci beaucoup, Bob, and happy visits to Paris with your camera.

Bob Soltys: Thank you very much.

Au revoir.

Thank You Patrons!

Annie: Again, I want to thank [00:45:00] my patrons for giving back and supporting the show. Patrons get several exclusive rewards for doing that. You can see them at patreon.com/joinus.

And a special shout-out this week to my new Join Us in France champions, Janice Fox, Jim McDonough, Patricia Leonard, and Jennifer Peterson.

Would you join them too? You can do it for as little as $3 a month, but if you can afford it, I would love to have you pledge more so you can have access to more of the rewards. Go to patreon.com/joinus.

And to support Elyse, go to patreon.com/elysart.

600 Episodes Appreciation Messages

Annie: I have received many wonderful messages from listeners who wanted to show me their appreciation on the occasion of my 600 episodes.

Cheryl wrote, “When I started to listen to the podcast about four years ago, my Francophile spirit was truly [00:46:00] reawakened and reignited. I found myself wanting to listen to one episode after another. Yep, I’ve listened to all 600, and it inspired me to subscribe to the French channel, pull out my French books, and study again. The podcast gave me the incentive to join the boot camp, and I was so excited to attend in 2024 and 2025, where my dreams of meeting the both of you came true.

And it was lovely meeting you as well, Cheryl.

I had such a wonderful time on both of the boot camps and absolutely loved exploring all the villages we visited as well as that day in your electric car. Yes. These memories I will cherish forever, she says, and so will I, honestly. And I look to all the people I got to meet to make friends with, including both of you, I feel a special attachment to.

On top of all that, I am now hooked on returning to France at least yearly, and traveling to as many places in France as I can.

Can’t thank you enough for how much this [00:47:00] podcast has rekindled my connection to France and its language and its people.

Thank you so, so much, Cheryl. You are a friend of mine as well.

Brian wrote, “Thank you, Annie, for persisting.” And Brian knows I’ve persisted. He’s been listening, and he’s been a supporter for a long, long time. We all know how much work you put into every one of your episodes. Your indomitable and infection glee when sharing your beloved France is so addicting. When a new episode drops, no matter what I am listening to at that time, I switch to listen to you.

And that’s high praise. Thank you so much, Brian.

And one last one. Christopher wrote, “Not sure if you have another 600 in you!” We’ll see! “But I’ll be listening as long as I’m interested in France, which will probably be as long as there’s the Eiffel Tower, the 24 hours of Le Mans, and the Tour de France.”

Yes, Christopher did an episode with me about Le Mans. Thank you so much to all the [00:48:00] people who have come on the podcast to share their love and appreciation for France as well.

Forgive me for just quoting a few, but I just wanted to say that your support is so important to me because I’m sitting here talking into a microphone, and that can be lonely at times.

Paris Tunnel Update

Annie: Now, onto the tunnel and why it’s good for anyone visiting or transiting through Paris. If you’ve ever had to switch between Gare du Nord and the Gare de l’Est in Paris with luggage, you know what a pain it is. My husband had to do just that at just a few weeks ago and reported being utterly confused as to where he should go and never being sure that he was on the right track.

So I decided to mention this because the Gare du Nord and the Gare de l’Est are very close on the map. They’re only about 600 meters apart. But on the ground, with a rolling suitcase and a backpack and navigating that stretch of sidewalk, dodging cars and bikes can take a long time. 10 minutes maybe [00:49:00] will turn into 20, okay?

It’s not ideal when you’re trying to catch a connection.

So the SNCF, that’s the French national train company, is fixing that. They’re currently building an underground tunnel linking the two stations, passing through the Gare Magenta stop that sits between them two. The tunnel itself is only about 50 meters long, but it will cut transfer time to under five minutes in a covered, comfortable passageway.

What’s interesting is how they’re building it. It is too short and too shallow for a tunnel boring machine. It runs just below the sewer network and under building foundations that had to be reinforced, so it’s being dug by hand and by excavator, centimeter by centimeter every morning. It’s old school construction in the middle of one of Europe’s busiest rail hubs.[00:50:00]

The Gare du Nord, by the way, handles 800,000 passengers a day. It is the busiest station in Europe by traffic. About 150 of those passengers make the Nord to Est transfer every single day. So the tunnel is expected to open in March 2027.

You’re going to have to be a bit patient. It’s time to coincide with the launch of the Charles de Gaulle Express, the direct rail link from the airport into central Paris.

So if you’re planning a trip that involves both stations, say Eurostar in from London and then a TGV East, by 2027, that connection should be a lot less stressful.

And of course, if you’re going to Paris this summer, take me in your pocket with my VoiceMap tours.

Tours Newsletter Wrap

Annie: Take a look at the listener discount on JoinUsinFrance.com/boutique and enjoy Paris to the fullest. Complete freedom to [00:51:00] do what you want. I tell you about the most important places that you can visit. And my Eiffel Tower tour in particular take you to some of the most wonderful photo shots in the city.

Annie: If you want a short recap of what came out this week in France, travel news, episodes, what I’m paying attention to? Sign up for my free newsletter at JoinUsinFrance.com/newsletter.

And my thanks to podcast editors Anne and Christian Cotovan who produced the transcripts.

Next week on the podcast

Annie: Next week on the podcast, an episode with Elyse about the Allier Department and Vichy.

It’s a goal of mine to visit every part of France and share what I learn here.

And some really important things happened in Vichy, as you might have heard.

Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you join me next time so we can look around France together.