Today we’d like to introduce you to Serge Ramelli.
Hi Serge, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started photography over 20 years ago in Paris. I fell in love with shooting the city at sunrise, golden hour, and at night. For years I just shot for the love of it, walking Paris with my camera before the crowds showed up.
Then I started teaching what I learned. I put free tutorials on YouTube about Lightroom, Photoshop, and how to make a photo look the way you saw it in your head. That channel grew to over 650,000 subscribers, and my audience across platforms passed a million people. I published books of my Paris work and sold courses and presets, and that became a real business.
But the thing I’m most proud of came later. I realized most people don’t need another tutorial — they need real coaching. So I built the Institute of Photography, a coaching program where I take someone who doesn’t fully know their camera, can’t compose, can’t edit, and turn them into a world-class photographer. The results speak for themselves: Tim Shield made $5 million teaching photography after my training. Jacob Boris makes a million dollars a year selling photography products. Sherry King landed 12 magazine covers. JT over Earth won 38 international awards. Hundreds of students have won awards or built real income with real estate, portrait, and wedding photography.
Today I run that coaching business with a full sales team, and I’ve also stepped into filmmaking — I have two movies coming out on iTunes, including From Paris to Hollywood. My philosophy has never changed: create from genuine love, and the money follows over time.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Not at all. The biggest struggle early on was that I gave away everything for free for years. I was making tutorials, building an audience, but I hadn’t figured out how to turn that into a real living. It took me a long time to understand that free content builds trust, but you need a real offer behind it — and that pricing your work high enough to actually coach people properly is not greed, it’s what makes real transformation possible.
Another struggle was moving from being a solo creator to running a real business. When you sell a high-ticket coaching program, you can’t do it alone. I had to learn how to build and manage a sales team, how to run paid advertising profitably, how to build funnels — none of that is photography. I had to become a businessman, and nobody teaches a photographer how to do that.
And honestly, the struggle never stops. Right now, social media is harder than it has ever been. I have over a million followers, but the algorithms changed, and growth that used to come easily has flatlined. I post constantly and I’ve had to completely rethink my organic strategy instead of relying on what worked five years ago.
The same with my movies. The traditional film industry doesn’t open its doors for you, so I decided to build my own path — releasing on iTunes and building my own distribution instead of waiting for permission.
The lesson through all of it: every plateau forced me to learn a new skill. Photographer, then teacher, then marketer, then CEO, then filmmaker. If the road was smooth, I’d still just be a guy taking pictures of Paris at sunrise.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I do three things: I’m a photographer, an educator, and a filmmaker.
As a photographer, I’m known for my work on Paris. I’ve photographed the city for over 20 years, specializing in early morning, golden hour, blue hour, and night photography. My style is cinematic — I want a photo to feel like a movie still, like there’s a story happening just outside the frame. That work led to published books and fine art print sales collected around the world.
As an educator, this is where I’ve made my biggest impact. I run the Institute of Photography, a high-level coaching program where I take people who have a great camera but don’t fully know how to use it — usually passionate amateurs, often retired, who finally have time for their dream — and I coach them to become genuinely world-class. Camera mastery, composition, and editing in Lightroom and Photoshop. I don’t just teach software; I teach people how to see.
What I’m most proud of is my students’ results. Tim Shield built a $5 million teaching business after my training. Jacob Boris makes a million dollars a year with photography products. Sherry King has 12 magazine covers. JT over Earth has won 38 international awards. Hundreds of students have won awards or now earn real money in real estate, portrait, and wedding photography. My proudest achievement isn’t my own photos — it’s that I coach people who go on to outdo me.
What sets me apart: I actually coach. Most photography education online is a pile of videos you watch alone and never finish. I built a real coaching structure with real accountability, because transformation doesn’t come from information — it comes from someone pushing you past your plateau.
And now, as a filmmaker, I’m taking everything I learned about visual storytelling into cinema, with two movies releasing on iTunes, including From Paris to Hollywood. Same philosophy I’ve always had: create from genuine love, and monetize over time.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
What I love best about Paris is the light. There is nothing like Paris at sunrise. I’ve photographed this city for over 20 years, and I still get up before dawn to catch that golden hour when the streets are empty, the light hits the Haussmann buildings just right, and you have the Louvre or the Seine completely to yourself. Paris rewards people who wake up early. The city was built to be beautiful — the architecture, the bridges, the way every street corner is composed like a painting. As a photographer, it’s an endless subject. Twenty years in, I still find new angles.
I also love that Paris takes beauty seriously. Cafés, food, art, the way the city is lit at night — beauty is not an afterthought there, it’s the whole point. That shaped me as an artist more than anything else.
What I like least? The gray. People don’t realize Paris spends a huge part of the year under flat, gray skies, with rain and drizzle. As a photographer who lives for dramatic light, you can go weeks without a single great sunrise. It forces you to be patient — or to get very good at editing.
And honestly, the crowds. Paris is the most visited city in the world, and the famous spots are packed from mid-morning until night. That’s actually why I became a sunrise photographer — it was the only time I could have the city to myself. So in a way, the thing I like least about Paris is what gave me my style.
Pricing:
- 4000
Contact Info:
- Website: https://photoserge.com
- Instagram: www.instagram..com/photoserge
- Facebook: www.facebook.com.photoserge
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SergeRamelliPhotography
- Other: https://www.sergeramelliphotos.com
