Morocco Photo Tour: The Roman Ruins of Volubilis

When you think of Morocco, I'll bet that you don't think of Roman ruins. I know that I didn't have that on my shot list for the visit, but was happily surprised to see some amazing ruins in Volubilis. 

This site is a UNESCO World Heritage site, with excavations starting in 1915 and still going on today. Ali asked us how long we wanted to walk around the ruins, and I told him that we probably needed about 45 minutes. I was definitely wrong about that!

As we walked around the ruins, I kept looking for interesting vantage points, aiming for something different from what 99% of the mobile phone shooters were taking. I looked for flowers and other interesting foregrounds and backgrounds.

I saw these two red poppies growing out of a wall and thought that they would make a perfect subject in front of the ruins. I had to hike my way to them, but it was well worth it.

As I photographed in this area, I kept thinking of all the teaching I could do here. There were so many interesting patterns and unique vantage points.

Going at this time of year provides cooler weather and greener hillsides.

As I mentioned earlier, they are still excavating much of the ruins, but in the last hundred years they have found some incredible discoveries, like this mosaic floor.

As you can see, we had overcast weather, which actually worked well for photography. This provided nice even light over the ruins, without the harsh light and shadows of direct sun.

I looked for interesting reflections in the puddles, but did not find much.

I saw this one column standing on it's own, and in front of the farmland in the distance. I really liked the contrast between the ancient ruins and the agriculture of today. I also liked the patterns and lines in the distance.

I took this photo to show more columns, this time with the nearby city and mountains in the background.

There were a fair number of people visiting Volubilis when we were there, and I had to wait a couple of minutes to get a clean shot like this, without anyone in the photo.

Same for this photo.

We looked at the time and realized that we needed at least another 30 minutes to explore more of the area. 

The more we walked around, the more incredible things we saw. 

For most of the year, there are not any flowers in this area, but we were there at the right time to get pretty flowers like this. This is why I am aiming to do the next photo tour at the same time of year.

More to come from Morocco in the next blog posts.

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• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Costa Rica, Peru, Galapagos, Africa, Iceland and more.

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
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Morocco Photo Tour: Visiting the "Blue City" of Chefchaoen!

When working on the itinerary for the Morocco photo tour, I knew that the one city that would lend itself most to photography would be Chefchaoen, also known as Morocco's "Blue City". We were definitely looking forward to getting to Chefchaoen to see if it would live up to the expectations.

Our driver pulled up to a stopping point, our guide grabbed our suitcases and we followed him along some cobblestoned roads. After a minute or two we ended up at a large blue exterior door. When we walked into the door, we were surprised to see how large and pretty the building was on the inside. More on that in a minute...

We dumped our things in the room and then Ali took us around to see some of the sites. We were excited to see all the blue walkways and buildings, but we were also not expecting to see so many cats roaming the streets.

I was taking a photo of this stairway when three cats came running down the steps. At the time, I thought "what are the chances of that?!"  After spending almost two weeks in Morocco, I now know that the cats are everywhere in this country.

As we walked around in the late afternoon, there were a lot of tourists walking the narrow streets. Our guide told us that we were going to walk around the next morning at 8am and we would have the walkways to ourselves. In the mean time, I saw this peacock and thought that it added to the blue theme of the afternoon. I positioned myself so that I would have some of the blue building in the background and took this photo with the Canon R5 Mark II and RF 24-105mm f/4 lens.

The next morning we woke up and had the place to ourselves. It was just us and a bunch of cats. It was great to take photos unobstructed.

It was fun to walk around and try to find great compositions. 

There were interesting photos at almost every turn in this small town...

...and built-in subjects as well.

Here is a shot of Ali, who was nice enough to dress in traditional clothing. He was also a great subject for me.

When I say that there are cats everywhere in this country, I mean everywhere!

After taking portraits of Ali and Laura in different locations, Laura suggested that I step in for some. 

Ali wrapped his scarf around Laura and I took this portrait of her. I really like it because it is so different.

I even taught Ali how to use back button focus and he took some photos of Laura and I.

After shooting mostly blue stairways, I started looking for other interesting locations. 

This guy was baking bread in this wood fire oven, and I loved the contrast between the orange fire and the blue walls. I was able to climb down into the room with him to get this shot. I had the ISO set to 3200 and still only had a 1/15 second shutter speed. Luckily neither he or I moved much, so I could get a clear shot.

More fun doorways...

...and interesting walls.

Photographing in Chefchaoen was really fun. I really loved exploring the different narrow walkways and trying to find the best photo locations. These will come in handy in 2028 when I bring my next group here.

I saw this cool doorway and wanted to get a shot of it, but the walkway was so narrow, I was not sure it was possible. Luckily I had my RF 7-14mm fisheye lens with me. I put that lens on the Canon R5 Mark II and took this shot from just feet away. This lens is so wide that, even though Ali was standing almost parallel to me,  I kept having to move him to get him out of the frame. 

Laura and I went back out to take more photos after lunch. This time I was wearing a blue shirt, and so we took a couple more portraits. The tough part of editing these photos is removing the blue color cast on our skin. I will teach that technique on the photo tour.

In the next blog post, I will take you to Volubilis to see the Roman ruins. Something very different from the blue colors of Chefchaoen. This is one of the things that we liked best about Morocco. Every city offers a completely different "look" from the last. Variety at every turn!

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• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Costa Rica, Peru, Galapagos, Africa, Iceland and more.

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
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Morocco Photo Tour: Visiting the capital city of Rabat

After seeing the sights in Casablanca, our driver (Rachid) and guide (Ali) took us to the city of Rabat. Before visiting Morocco, I would have guessed that the capital city of Morocco would be Casablanca or Marrakesh, but I would have been wrong. The capital city is actually Rabat. 

As we drove into Rabat, we were surprised to see such modern architecture, buildings like the Grand Theatre which is a very cool looking structure. 

The tallest building in Africa is also located in Rabat. You can see the tower in the background of this photo. It was just completed this year and soars above everything else in the city (and continent for that matter). In the foreground of this image, you see the Chella, which is a medieval fortified building from the 14th century. I found a position in between two bushes where I could capture the old and new in one photo. For all the wide shots, I was using my Canon R5 Mark II camera with the RF 24-105mm f/4 lens.

At the entry to the Chella was this drummer who was hamming it up for us tourists. I grabbed a couple of photos of him before we moved on.

Once we looked around the outside of the Chella, our guides took us up to the Mausoleum of Muhammed V. As we approached the entryway, we saw two guards along the wall. There were some tourists taking photos of the guards, and all of them were taking photos straight on to the guards and horses. The background was really not great and I thought that there must be a better composition here. I always look for something different than the typical shot. I noticed that both of the Royal Moroccan Guards could be captured from the side position, and had a really nice background. I grabbed the Canon R6 Mark III, with the RF 100-500mm lens and focused on the first guard at 400mm. I took numerous images, waiting for both guards and both horses to be head up and in similar positions. I showed this to our guide and he was surprised to see a photo from this location, and he really loved it. Since he was surprised to see the photo taken from this location, it made me feel good, that I found something a little different.

This is the typical wide shot that you see of the mausoleum. It shows the Hassan Tower and the ruins surrounding it. It is nice to have, but very commonplace.

Our guide, Ali, sat down right in front of me, providing the perfect subject for this door shot.

As is true for most of the structures in Morocco, the mosaic work is stunning, and needed to be captured.

I walked up the steps to the mausoleum and saw this ornate brass lantern along the edge of the steps. I turned around and took this photo, using the lantern as the main subject and the Hassan Tower as the supporting subject. I took this photo at f/4 (focusing on the lantern) making it sharper in focus than the tower. This helps the viewer know what my main subject is.

There were many Royal Guards around the property. I lined myself up so that the guard was centered on the doorway behind him.

I also took a photo from the side of the guard.

Inside the mausoleum was a small room covered in beautiful mosaic patterns. I saw guards standing in each corner and wanted to get a shot of them, but it was pretty dark inside. I cranked the ISO of the Canon R5 Mark II up to 2500 and held on as steady as I could with the 1/15 sec exposure.

I really like this photo, showing both the amazing architecture and the royal guard. 

For the remainder of the day, we made our way to the blue city of Chefchaoen. Speaking of amazing architecture, this was our riad in Chefchaoen. It was so pretty that I had to take out the Canon RF 7-14mm fisheye lens to grab some shots of the interior foyer of the riad. This was the view from the door to our room.

This was the view inside the room. It was so nice!

If you think this was cool to see, just wait for the next blog post showing the famous "Blue City" of Chefchaoen!

One more thing... I am planning on leading a photo tour to Morocco in March of 2028. I already have 6 people on the list, and room for 6 more. Final details have not been released yet, but I am adding info on the photo tour page HERE. Let me know if you are interested in seeing this amazing country with me in 2028.

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• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Costa Rica, Peru, Galapagos, Africa, Iceland and more.

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
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Morocco Photo Tour: Starting off in Casablanca

I have been teaching photography in Africa for many years, but mainly to places like Tanzania, Botswana and places where we look for wildlife. This time around, I am visiting the North of Africa, to see the sights of Morocco. This is a test trip for me, as I fine tune the next trip here with my photo tour. Before coming to Morocco, I had many of my friends tell me that this was one of their favorite locations in the world, and I can tell you that photographically, it is a treasure trove of opportunities.

For this "test trip", it was just Laura and I with our guide and driver.

We arrived in Casablanca a couple of days early, to get time adjusted, and did a little exploring on our own.

We walked from our hotel to the Hassan II Mosque, which is the main attraction in Casablanca. As you can see, it was wet on the ground, but we did not have to deal with much rain during our long walk. I was using my Canon R5 Mark II with the RF 24-105mm f/4 lens (and Canon R6 Mark III with the RF 100-500mm lens.

I looked for good vantage points for photos, and the rain provided some nice reflections on the ground.

The mosaic work is just beautiful.

I played around with different views of the mosque, this time pointing straight up to get a photo of the detail work in the ceiling, while also including the minaret in the frame.

For this shot, I got down low and just photographed the repeating patterns of tile work.

As always, I try to shoot wide and tight, to show the different views of similar subjects. We also learned from our guide that each pattern of mosaic has it's own meaning. As you will see in a future blog post, creating these gorgeous mosaics by hand is a very intricate process, done by skilled artisans.

We had a great time walking around the French market in Casablanca. If you have followed the blog for a long time, you know that I love photographing the local people in all the countries I visit. Here in Morocco, it is important to ask people for permission before taking photos of them. This man was OK with me taking his portrait.

If you have ever been to Morocco, you know that they love their olives here. They are served with bread at just about every meal. I saw this vendor selling loads of olives and took numerous photos of him and his stand. For this photo, I zoomed out quickly as I was taking the shot, creating a slight motion blur at the edges of the frame.

As we walked further into the market, we saw more and more olive vendors. I looked at different ways to capture photos of them. This time I focused on the nearby olives at f/4 (making them the subject) and let the vendor go out of focus (becoming the supporting subject).

For this shot, I decided not to include the vendor at all, but to just focus on the many varieties of olives being offered. I should also mention that I love olives and have never eaten so many in a one week period.

We made a second visit to the Hassan II, this time capturing the mosque from a distance. The skies were grey and cloudy, which added an interesting mood to this wide shot.

The next day was our first official day on tour, meeting our guide and driver for the first time.

The first location on our tour was back to the Hassan II Mosque, but this time for a visit inside. Ali, our guide, not only gave us some great insights, he also acted as our model for this really cool silhouette shot.

I also enjoyed photographing the reflections.

For the first time ever, I decided to bring a fisheye lens with me on a photo tour. I figured that we would be going inside some interesting buildings and thought it might make for some unique photos. After using the new Canon RF 7-14mm lens often at the Olympics in Milan, I have become a fan of really wide shots.

Just like in the Galleria of Milan, I pointed my camera straight up to the ceiling for this very interesting perspective.

This is the prayer area underneath the mosque. I waited for the other tourists to leave and took this fisheye shot.

After visiting the mosque, we went to one of the local markets. Unlike the market Laura and I had visited in the previous days, this one was more for the locals than the tourists. I like that a lot more!

This guy was making filo dough, and flipping it in the air. I HAD to get a good action shot of that! I turned up the burst rate of the Canon R5 Mark II and fired off a bunch of frames to get this one (which I liked the best).

In the late afternoon we went back to our hotel for a rest before having dinner and doing night shots. I noticed that the rain had stopped and we had blue skies. I sent a message to our guide and asked if we could go back to the mosque yet again for some photos in better weather.

In the quest to get something different, I tried the RF 7-14mm fisheye lens once again.

I also went back to a location that I had scouted on our earlier visit, knowing that this image would look even better now that we had blue skies and clouds. I used the RF 24-105mm f/4 lens for this shot.

After taking those photos, we went to dinner and waited for sunset and the blue hour. While waiting for the sunset to happen, we walked around to see some other interesting sites. I saw these apartment buildings and liked the murals which were painted on the sides (which is very common in Casablanca).

Just after 8pm, the sun was gone and we had the right amount of light for my "blue hour shot" over the water. So pretty! I used the Canon R6 Mark III with the RF 100-500mm lens since we were pretty far away from the subject.

This last shot was not planned, but as we were walking back to our vehicle, I saw that the local lighthouse was lit nicely, and in front of great colors in the sky. I framed it a little wider than I normally would, to get some of the blue in the sky at the top of the image. It was a great way to end our last full day in Casablanca.

There is SO much more to come from this amazing country. And for all of you asking, yes, I will be planning a photo tour here in 2028. If you are interested, let me know.

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• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Costa Rica, Peru, Galapagos, Africa, Iceland and more.

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
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