Photowalk around Morocco

Morocco route

We flew from Dublin into Malaga, Spain and via coach crossed the ferry to Ceuta Northern Africa (which is still Spain) and then cross the border into Morocco.

In general Morocco feels safe, however large equipment and lenses do call attention. I would feel comfortable walking with my equipment at night on touristy places such as Marrakech, but on some other places like downtown Rabat some of the streets can be scary. Leave some of the equipment at the hotel safe and take only with you what you are going to use.

Equipment

If you bring anything to Morocco, bring a polarizer filter  :)

Olympus E3

Olympus E30

Olympus Flash FL-50R (Very useful for alleys at the Medina)

Zuiko 50-200mm 2.8

Zuiko Teleconverter 2X EC-20

Zuiko 11-22mm 2.8

ND Filters

Small Table top tripod (Gorillapod)

Hoya Polarizer Filters

Fes

The most important thing about Fes is the Medina (old city) is almost like being in India (Varanasi) where you will walk around food stalls, people selling clothes, artifacts and more. If you use a GPS, don't be surprise if you lose connection on the narrow alley ways.

At the medina there are great opportunities to take colorful pictures of food, donkeys and more.

Important thing to notice is that in Morocco other than in Marrakech’s Djemaa el Fna square, people don't like their picture taken. Be very mindful as picture of women (alone and accompanied) can be very offensive for them. I managed to get a couple of candid pictures, and as always no matter the culture is,  kids are always very open to having their picture taken.

This kid kept following our tour group, so while waiting to enter the tannery I asked him if I could take his picture, very seriously he said OK, but after I showed him his portrait on the LCD screen he smiled and ran away. I would recommend bring small trinkets for the kids (pens, candy, cheap small school supplies, or money from other countries) be careful on how and when to give them as you can quickly have a huge amount of kids surrounding you and that can get dangerous.

While walking in the Medina, is hard to manage removing and puting back on the polarizer, you will lose at least 1 f-stop on what are very narrow and dark streets. I suggest you leave it on, and either compensate +1 steps or bump your ISO to 200-400.

In Fes as in all of Morocco the harsh light is present from very early in the morning 7am for the whole day, clouds are rare, so rather than wait for the most optimal light, live with it and make the best of your shot

Marrakech

The most impressive place in Marrakech is without a doubt Djemaa el Fna just the sheer size and amount of people can be very intimidating. This is definitely one of the places I would go back for picture opportunities. I believed I lost a lot of great pics because of the hour we got there, the heat and the fear you can feel mixing with strange people, heat, snakes, monkeys and food.

Beware of the heat as well as your equipment, Marrakech is the entry to the Sahara and in August it can get up to 54C, 135F. I swear my E-3 stopped focusing when it reached 55C on the sun, weird.

The plaza has a different feel at different times, at evenings is a great place to take picture of people, food stalls, etc. Beware, there are hundreds of tourist here getting hooked by locals in trying to get their picture taken with their animals. Dont agree to anything until a price has been reached. First negotiate with them for the pictures, then allow them to put the monkey, snake or other on you. They will begin at 300 dirham (around 30 EUROS) but you can take them down to 50 dirham. If aggressive just tell them you will go get the local tourist police and they will back off, they are truly afraid of them.

Another good things to do at night or day is take a seat on one of the cafes above the stores surrounding the square, this have balconies that can make for great photo ops, with a long lense you might get away with some great shots.

During the rest of the day the plaza is full of street performers, orange juice stalls (don't be afraid of trying it, best frozen orange juice I have ever had)  and cafes.

If you go into the Medina, its not nearly as impressive as the one in Fes, it might be worth a stroll, but other than that, not much.

Rabat

I didn't get to see much of Rabat, the capital of Morocco, we stayed in a central hotel which was not very nice. The central streets of Morocco are going a lot of renovation and can seem scary at night. You can tell is not a town used to tourism as people will stare right at you. Also notice how in the French style cafes, only men no women or couples sit down outside to look at the bystanders.

In Rabat there are some famous Roman ruins, Its not  a very nice neighborhood so it should be safe to walk there at sunrise. It should make for a very nice shoot, (I didnt get to do this). The place is called Chellah or Sala Colonia.

We walked to city for a little bit as there were some celebrations due to the King’s ascension to the throne. This is July 30th, unfortunately the king wasnt in Rabat so the celebrations were OK, if you can be on the same day and the same city where the king will be, there is a very nice parade and fair as I saw on TV later that night. We just managed to see an open air concert

Impressive about Rabat is its mausoleum of Mohammed V. Bring a long lense and wide lenses to capture details as well as the size of the place.

Guards are allowed to have their picture taken with tourists, for some reason this guard was pissed off at me for using such a long lense to take his portrait. He argued with a tourist police (brown uniform) but there was nothing that he could do.

Another site is the Royal Palace where the king lives, a little bit disappointing as even though nice, you are only allowed to stand 100 meters from the royal palace entrance. The palace kind of looks like an expense California style house in my opinion. Bring a long lense (200mm) and have fun trying to take pictures of the guards and other servants.

By far the best site in Rabat is the Kasbah of the Udayas, great for people shots (if you pay in advance, $1 or $2 EUR) beautiful architecture that reminds of you of Oia, Santorini in Greece. Spend as long as you can as the sun, and shadows make every street look different.

There is also a spot that I didn't visit which is the River Marina, North of the Roman ruins, this reminds you of a French village with its fishing boats and people swimming.

Casablanca

Not much to see in Casablanca, nice little city, more famous from the movie than for anything worth visiting, however walk around the marina and on a hot summer day try to count the people bathing in the sun.

Tanger

Not much to see in Tanger, its a good stop before taking the long drive back to Ceuta, if you want stroll around the beach and see how people walk and bathe on the sea.

There is much more to see in Morocco, that is a place worth visiting several times with a personal guide. Marrkech is considered to be the entrance to the Sahara desert, as well as spending more time in places like Fes and Marrakech would be worth another visit.

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