September’s bright start plus an upcoming cooking and photography holiday blend
Post Ramadan and more galleries are coming together in the first few days of September. Jay as seen left produced 4 outstanding galleries of photographs, particularly in architectural subjects and at the fishing port here in Essaouira, probably the best collection of port photos yet. His active participation at the Argan co-operative shows the perils of not using the histogram to check over exposure(note the hotspot on Jay’s shoulder). No fault of Jay, but yours truly. Jay’s work can be seen via this link. Jurgens also tripped into town with his wife and had a one-day workshop bringing a truly South African, fearless demeanour to his photography with the kind of interpersonal skills that the best doctors are renowned for. He simply got closer winning people over with his enthusiasm. He also had a great eye for colour. I was slightly envious of his Canon 7D and Sigma wide angle check but managed to put that to one side selecting a collection from the many great photos he took that day. His gallery can be seen here.
September sees the launch of our new course offering a week’s cooking and photography here in Essaouira Morocco. Moroccan food is a mild spicy delight and surely one of the world’s great cuisines. Using the best fresh ingredients from the fish stocks and locally grown vegetables around Essaouira ensures the pastillas, tagines and couscous can all be cooked to taste perfection which I can certainly vouch for. So now we’re combining a week’s holiday to include food and photography staying in the Maison du Sud. The week comprises of 2 Moroccan cooking workshops and 4 Photography workshops. Take a look at the page cooking with Naima under Offers for more details.
August’s photography holiday came to an end last week with plans to return next year. Becky, Louise, Susanne, Sara and Sonia, who all arrived individually epitomised what a solo holiday is all about – meeting new people and having a great time together over a shared interest. They’ll be be returning for a new photography project next Easter, Inshallah.
Diagonal lines
If the weather in the UK doesn’t offer too many prospects at Xmas time then there’s the option of fleeing to sunny Morocco for a photography holiday in Essaouira. July’s week of photography these past 7 days produced 9 excellent galleries. Jo, Eloise and Karen (her phone opportunity was well spotted) learnt a lot judging by their photos and came up with some superb images of people and locations here in Essaouira. After a week’s sun and good food I think they’ll be quietly missing the town’s Medina and ambience. Things are calm here in Morocco despite the upheavals of the region and in Essaouira events rarely stir the town’s laid back atmosphere. During their week we ran workshops: in how to use their digital SLR, understanding and controlling exposure using histograms; finding and framing for abstract images; learning how to shoot portraits; trying to capture people on location and finally there was a landscape workshop on the Wednesday afternoon preceded by a nice lunch above the valley at Sid M’Bark. In all, a full week of photography. You can view Karen’s, Eloises’ and Jo’s galleries