One of the strategies I use to get photos of famous places, like the opera house in Paris, is to get there when they first open. The opera house opens to the public at 10am, so I was in line at the entrance at 9:15 and, as I expected and hoped, I was the only one there. By 9:45am, there were about 30 people behind me. As soon as the door opened, I went in, paid for my ticket, and I raced to the most photogenic places as quickly as I could. As a result, I had the stunning interior to myself for about five minutes. I had to shoot very fast, but I was able to get to the best places and take classic images without crowds of people. For another 5 or 10 minutes, there were a few people in the large building, but I knew I was able to clone them out. However, at 10:15, there were already tour groups, classes of students, and miscellaneous tourists cluttering the interior. But by that time, I had the best shots of the cavernous entry. I then focused on the details where crowds didn't interfere.