July’s guest photography

July’s galleries are now available to view via clicking on the photo. Jo and Lindsay produced some excellent abstract photos particularly at the non-touristic places.

Our photography holidays hopefully continue to inspire. At all levels there are techniques to learn as well as compositional approaches that come through practice and the benefit of looking at other photographers. Essaouira is the ideal compact place for intensive learning. Plenty of sun, texture, colour and oddities make this a paradise for photographers.

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Bring on the Night – photography workshops after sunset

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photography-workshops-at-night-images-in-the-sunphotography-workshops-at-night-images-in-the-sunPhotography is all about finding the light and here in Essaouira it’s usually in abundance but on a photographic holiday you want to explore the range of photographic opportunities. Night time photography offers something completely different when street lighting is the only source of illumination. Both Jackie and Ciaran were keen in the last week of September to take some photos of Essaouira’s atmospheric backstreets and alleys. The old fortifications combined with the night time sea air are suggestive of a town unchanging and of course this is part of Essaouira’s charm. The main challenge of night time imagery is firstly to be able to see what one is doing so at the very least always take a small penlight with you. Most DSLRs have an illuminated LCD screen but that can be tricky to see when your camera is positioned at head height so a torch will help you see the camera’s screen at the back. Of course you’ll also be using a tripod and this helps both steady the camera for slow shutter speeds and also slows down your working processes which can help you think about better compositions.

Many photographers always work with a tripod. It’s a much more Zen way of working. Whilst a tripod steadies the camera you’ll also need to use your self timer setting which also helps to eradicate image blurring as your finger is not engaged in pressing the button which can transmit vibrations. Secondly you may also have the option of mirror lock-up which can further prevent camera shake. In terms of exposure, cameras are set to give you an average reading so a dark subject will appear slightly lighter and a bright subject vice versa. To get naturalism and often the desired moodiness at night time, under-expose by a stop or so to see the shadows fall nicely into shade. Jackie and Ciaran came at for a photography holiday in the last week of September flying with Easyjet. Their galleries can be seen here.

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A photography holiday in Morocco – Craig’s week

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photography holidays in morocco

Craig’s photography holiday in Essaouira is drawing to a close and his eye for a picture has certainly come to the fore as the week has progressed. The image left taken at Souk Idagouard shows how photography is not always about clever compositions but is more often about spotting quirky juxtapositions and allowing the subject/objects to shine through with a simple framing.   Craig also took advantage of rare ‘Fantasia’ festival near Essaouira, not an event we’ve covered before on the photography holidays but once safely positioned in a good location at the front, Craig’s correct choice of shutter speed and timing gave him some truly exotic images.  Mind you, the fear of being trampled by a late braking horse was surpassed by the only real incident of potential danger when an ambulance wanted to pass through at some speed. Apparently a misfiring gun had broken a warrior’s arm and I can only guess the driver felt he had room for more!

Perhaps the most unusual finding of the week has been Craig’s topographic work, a long since forgotten genre of photography, on my part at least, formalised in the 1970’s through the photographs of Lewis Baltz and Robert Adams amongst others. ‘Topographic Photography‘ focuses on man altered landscapes and in Craig’s case it was an ‘organic’ development during the week to produce something more  than ‘pretty’ pictures. The topographic movement is  typically  characterised by photographs stripped of ‘artistic frills’.

Craig’s photographs are not as sparse as that but there is a detached and intelligent ‘eye’ at work. In all 5 superb galleries for the week.  A photography holiday here in Morocco often throws up a few photographic surprises particularly with how course attendees observe such different things.  I must also thank Craig for alerting me to the potential keyword search of residential photography holidays not something I had thought of before. You can view Craig’s galleries here.

 

 

near Essaouira on a Morocco photography holidayMorocco photography Holiday