Paris | May 1 – 5, 2023
Celebrating 10 Years
This spring, Flytographer celebrated 10 years of capturing memories! 🎉 Did you know the idea for Flytographer was born in the streets of Paris, on a trip with two best friends? What better place to host our 6th annual Global Meetup than the City of Light ✨ – back where it all began!?
Needless to say, this was a very special year for us as it was our first meetup after a long hiatus due to the chaos of the last few years. (See our past events in Santorini, Lisbon, Florence, Barcelona, and our very first official meetup in Paris back in 2015!)
Let’s wind back to the beginning of the week, when 33 of our photographers and some of our HQ team members touched down in the magical French capital to celebrate our amazing community. 🥰
Photos: Aly in Victoria. Flytographer founder, Nicole, and best friend Erika 10 years later.
Day 1
Monday, May 1st
Our kick-off event was a stunning red carpet sunset river cruise on the Seine (a whole lot of adjectives that still deserve at least a handful more to try and explain what a special night this was)! 💃 Just before we were scheduled to gather, a huge thunderstorm rolled through Paris, yet somehow cleared just in time for us to enjoy the most spectacular sunset and skies. We were relieved, enthusiastic, and quite appreciative – a life lesson in gratitude and timing for sure!
@flytographer We are reminiscing about @Jillian Harris’s beautiful trip to Paris with Flytographer! 🇫🇷💕 Have you visited this beautiful city?! #Flytographer #CaptureMoments #ParisFlytographers #BeautifulPhotos #TravelTheWorld ♬ Epic Music(863502)
The boat, the balloon wall, our Flytographer team together celebrating after too-long apart… and of course, the views! Ahh! So much excitement was in the air. 💞
We also really enjoyed hosting our special guests and Flytographer faves, Jillian Harris and husband, Justin Pasutto, who came with us to Paris to celebrate as well. We love you, Jillian!
Our boat cruise was full of hugs, laughter, catching up, dancing, celebrating, and as you might imagine, taking lotsssss of photos. 📸
Day 2
Tuesday, May 2nd
Our first full day together started off with some classroom time – intros, updates, Q&A, and of course, goodie bags with our fave branded blue shirts and other fun surprises! 🩵 We had a group photo, and then broke into smaller groups for a photo hunt around the arrondissement (which, of course had everyone laughing hysterically because when aren’t scavenger hunts an adventure?!).
On Tuesday night we had a Flytographer gallery showcase at the breathtaking Place des Vosges. During gallery night, a favourite photo from each of our photographers is featured, giving us a glimpse into each of our photographer’s talents, along with their local city backdrops. 🌍
@flytographer Welcome to the Flytographer gallery! Located at 10 Place des Vosges, 75004 in Paris! We are open until Friday, May 5th! ✨ Stop by and say hello! 🇫🇷
♬ French music style, accordion, waltz
Fun fact: our gallery in 📍Le Marais is also the exact neighbourhood where the idea for Flytographer was sparked 10 years ago!
(Can you get over this architecture?!)
Day 3
Wednesday, May 3rd
The crew met back up bright and early Wednesday morning in our classroom space to enjoy workshops, team brainstorming, storytelling, and portfolio assessments with our VIP, Jonas Peterson. ☕
Wednesday evening brought a Fly-photog-fave event: the sunset photo walk! ☀️ This golden hour photo walk is a tradition we’ve held onto since our first meetup; we gather for a scenic stroll to capture photos of each other while the sun sets. This walk is our time to have fun with our cameras, build even deeper social ties, and to experience a little more of our meetup destination.
This year we were perhaps a bit overzealous with the ground we thought we could expeditiously cover because walking as a group of 30+ photographers in Paris at sunset is a little like trying to herd a group of kids through Disney on a summer afternoon. 😂 Can you imagine? You can imagine. #distracted #WAITONEMORE!
After our picturesque and leisurely stroll (😉), we had “family dinner” together in the 7th. There’s nothing like an amazing group meal in Paris – delicious food, incredible views, and awesome conversations.
@flytographer POV: You’re strolling through Paris with your fellow Flytographer’s 💕 #Flytographer #Memories #PhotoShoot #CaptureMoments #10years ♬ until I found you with em beihold - angel
Day 4
Thursday, May 4th
Thursday we were up early and ready to roll for another photo walk – this time a morning golden hour walk with Jonas Peterson. Aside from exploring beautiful streets with our lovely models (including our wonderful Paris photographers turned models, Olga and Kirill!), we also enjoyed watching the Parisians in the 8th as they started their day – patisserie pickups and kids riding scooters on their way to school. The majority of us surely didn’t look like locals (📸 📸 📸 📸 📸 📸), but we sure enjoyed being around them; oh, Paris!
Post photo walk, back at our meeting space we finished up our last day of workshops with editing tips and PechaKucha storytelling presentations. 🌟 By this point in the trip we’re all feeling comfortable, relaxed, and getting really sentimental! All the cafe au lait was keeping us going… but where was our time going?!
We have to take a minute to say that we had great sponsors who generously donated awesome giveaway prizes to our photographers. 😍 Our thanks to Peak Design, Topaz Labs, Narrative Select, Archipelago Quest, and ShootProof for bringing extra smiles to these happy faces!
Our final night together was celebrated with a farewell party on a rooftop patio, complete with the most magical sunset behind the Sacre Coeur and nearby Montmartre. 🍹🌇
After the rooftop closed for the night, we moved our celebrations downstairs to a bar for some world class karaoke and the (in)famous Flytographer meetup bathroom dance party! 🎶 (Are you familiar with our bathroom dance parties? Another long-standing and favourite tradition.) Thankfully this year we found a bathroom that was sized juuuust right…
…and we’ll just leave our final night festivities on that note. 😜
Day 5
Friday, May 5th
Our meetup technically ends on Thursday night, but we like to add in a final optional event if people are staying an extra day, and this year was a Fat Tire bicycle tour of Paris! 🚲
We had such a great group, and biking was a perfect way to explore the city in a breeze (seriously though, it was so breezy 😂).
Celebrating our community
The best part of our meetups is and always will be the tight friendships that spring up almost immediately when a group of like-minded colleagues come together. 🩵 Our 500 photographers worldwide are each carefully screened and selected to join our team based on outstanding professional skills, values, and personalities; because we all share such similar qualities, it is inevitable that we end up with a meetup group of 30 kindred souls when we come together in person. How wonderful it was to gather again after such a long hiatus! 🥰
Until next year, friends! Au revoir!
