Pont Alexandre III & the Seine bridges

Pont Alexandre III is a photograph from every angle: rows of Art Nouveau candelabra, gilded figures on their columns, cherubs and garlands, and the glass roof of the Grand Palais rising directly behind. Shoot on the bridge itself for the lamps around the couple, from the lower quay for the full arch over the Seine, and from the western footway for the Eiffel Tower downstream in the same frame.

Blue hour is the reason to plan an evening here. The lamps come on while the sky still holds colour, the gilding picks up the last warm light and the river goes glassy — roughly twenty usable minutes, so be in position before sunset with the frames already chosen. Daylight works too, but midday traffic and cross-bridge pedestrians make clean frames a waiting game.

What goes wrong: the bridge carries real traffic, so the middle-of-the-road symmetrical shot means quick, timed crossings — the photographer manages this, don't freelance it. And the wind off the river is constant enough to matter for hair and veils.