Trocadéro

The Trocadéro esplanade looks straight across the Seine at the Eiffel Tower: no other viewpoint in Paris puts the whole tower in frame without you having to back away from it. It’s also, by long tradition, where people get down on one knee: wide enough to breathe, recognisable enough that the photo says “Paris” before anyone reads the caption.

I shoot it almost exclusively at sunrise. After 8am the esplanade fills with tour groups, street vendors and selfie sticks; before that, the light comes in low and soft and the railing is yours. The proposal itself takes five minutes. The rest of the session moves through the esplanade or down toward Pont d’Iéna.