5 star photography holidays

PHOTOGRAPHY HOLIDAY REVIEWS

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Well we’ve been doing something right on our photography holidays here in Essaouira, Morocco. Without tempting fate we’ve been given 5 stars by recent graduates, due in part to the wonderful location, atmosphere and service of the staff Maison du Sud where all guests stay during their week here. June’s workshop’s are drawing to a close and it’s a good opportunity to reflect on some impressive photography but more of that later…It’s perhaps an opportune time to announce future tour and holiday dates.  This October and the following February see us venture with small groups by 4×4 into the region of the Anti-Atlas in Morocco. We’ll be crossing the Tizi n’test pass which is rich in spectacular views, before descending down into Taroudant.  The tour also takes in Tata on the edge of the Sahara and Tafraoute situated in the middle of the Anti-Atlas before finishing in Marrakesh. It’s a 6 day tour guarenteed to hit the spot for landscape photography enthusiasts and those wishing to find out what the great traditions of landscape photography are all about.  The price is £695 or £625 is booked before the end of July. Read more about the workshop here.  Xmas and the new year also offer great possibilities for a photography holiday here in Essaouira. The average temperature is 18 degrees and there are many other activities to do apart from a week learning photography.  Essaouira’s beach and dunes of are perfect for horse riding and the Hammans are particularly inviting during the winter months. Prices start at £895 for 7 nights and start dates are flexible so get in touch. Photography Holidays in Morocco & Spain.

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RECENT HOLIDAY PARTICIPANTS

This month Adrian came to Essaouira on holiday and took a one-day workshop with us here at Maison du Sud. His selection of final gallery images produced some lovely surprises particularly this one of my friend Ali, shop owner and entrepreneur. The one-day workshop here in Essaouira is divided into a morning and early evening session, the first session focusing on camera controls and technique.  The evening session comprises of a tutor led tour of the Medina followed by an assessment of the photos taken and the selection for the online gallery, which is useful to have to shows friends and family back home.  We also cover a little post-production work using Photoshop.  Prices for the one-day photo-workshop are 750Dh which is about £60 so if you find yourself in Essaouira for just a short time then get in touch. Click on the link to read more about the workshops.

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Abby and Andrew have just completed their respective weeks in the sun. Andrew arriving the day, before got into his stride quickly, shooting some decent first images at the quite extraordinary visual experience that is the Sunday souk at Had Draa.  Both different in style and approach Abby and Andrew enjoyed their weeks and both now feel particularly confident photographing people. Abby rather excelled with her people gallery, Andrew preferring to find creative possibilities in shadows, a quite unique photography holidays gallery produced during my time here in Essaouira. photography-holidays-moroccoA & A can be seen left, entirely unposed! just outside the souk Idagouard which course participants visit on Wednesdays. Increasingly I’m using image manipulation programs, such as Aperture and Photoshop during the week’s course, to demonstrate the possibilities of controlling highlights and what can actually be recovered from an over-exposed image.  Understanding what software can achieve, can inform our use of histograms on location and encourage us to expose for the highlights and let the shadows areas fall away into darkness. It’s easier to “bring up’ the shadows than render detail in a “blown out” areas of white. Emma Simpson’s photo from last month, demonstrates what I mean.  She exposed correctly for the bright central area which on her camera led to a surrounding solid black area.  In post-production we brought up some of the foreground shadow detail offering more interest in the final image as seen right.

Abby’s & Andrew’s galleries can be viewed here.

You can book a photography holiday in Essaouira for £895 or visit our offers page for seasonal discounts. Alternatively check other news on recent course participants here.

Photography holidays at home in the desert

photography holidaysCreative courses should inspire and it goes without saying that tutors also need to fire up their creative juices on a regular basis.  Given the chance to venture further south into Morocco’s glorious past; mountain passes, Kasbah strewn oasis valleys and deserts teaming with nothing but sand, we jumped at the chance.  Our tour guides were Wheels Across Morocco, a long established company specialising in 4×4 tours all over Morocco.  They had a 5 day itinerary in mind that took us from Essaouira to Ouarzazate via Marrakesh, through the Dades Valley and onto the edge of the Sahara and indeed Morocco at the Algerian border at Merzouga.  We returned via Zagora and the Draa Valley.  Needless to say the scenery is quite exceptional and is a feast for the landscape photographer.  Of course there is a subtext to our 5 day trip  – even staying in a berber tent on a windy night – was part of our grand scheme.  Look out for future photography workshops that offer tours into the villages and desert dunes of the south and east of Morocco.  For now take a peek at the photographic highlights of our tour here.

Photography courses with an abstract perspective

Photography Holidays

Photography courses are most successful when there is an immediate return on the workshop tutorials and Emma Simpson certainly produced this, excelling with a gallery of abstract photographs.  Click here to see the complete set. Her three day’s of workshops produced a mighty fine gallery of 10 images displaying a breadth of subject and compositional sense in the images which really captures the choice of terrain here in Essaouira.   Clever observations of motifs as seen on the left here, show how even a walk along the beach can lead to strong images.  I think Emma’s sequence  is one of the finest produced on the photography course here in Morocco.

 

Xmas Deals

Book before the end of August to secure great deals over xmas with two extra nights accommodation at the Riad Maison du Sud as part of your week’s photography course. Email me for dates and details.

Craig and Darren team up on a photography holiday abroad.

Darren and course attendee, Craig, team up this month for a gallery of Fantasia images. Fantasia is the highly competitive equestrian tradition of charging with horses followed by the firing muskets. Only by the good fortune of my local baker mentioning the event taking place near Essaouira that same morning, we were able to include it in Craig’s week long photography course. Click here to see the gallery or alternatively browse the links above to find out more about learning photography as part of a photography holiday abroad.

fantasia on a photography course in Morocco