Morocco Photo Tour: Our last stop - Essaouira along the coast

This blog post (the last from my Morocco trip) takes you to the last stop on my two week trek through the country. After visiting Casablanca, Fes, Marrakesh, the desert and many other locations, we ended up on the coast of Morocco.

Our last night was spent in a small town called Essaouira, which we really enjoyed. This fishing town had great shopping, a coastal breeze and some fun photo opportunities. As always, the colors in the markets were awesome, as you can see from this display.

Laura and I were exploring all the different alleyways in Essaouira, when we came across this woman sitting in a covered walkway. I asked her if I could take this photo, and she agreed. 

After walking the markets of Essaouira, we ventured over to the water, where we found all the fishermen. This guy was peering out from these blue doors and I liked the composition.

There was also this guy wearing a blue jacket in front of the same blue doors. 

Almost every boat in Essaouira is colored blue. When they are all in the marina, it makes for an awesome photo. I looked for individual fishermen who were surrounded by the blue boats...

...and finishing up their days at sea.

I saw this guy sitting on his boat, and loved isolating him amongst all the other empty boats. I used the Canon R5 MKII with the Canon RF 100-500 lens to zoom in and get this shot, with the man off center.

There were many seagulls in the area, looking for good scraps from the people selling fish along the shoreline. I saw this one carrying a fish back to the dock and grabbed this frame.

As we walked around the area, we were captivated by the streets and the endless arched doorways. I saw this woman walking away from us, and perfectly centered in the arch of this door. I had to grab that photo.

I stopped to take a photo of this blue door and archway, when I saw this cat come around the corner. I decided to make the cat my main subject with the archway the secondary subject. 

More beautiful colors in a store window.

This is another case when I stopped to take a photo of this doorway, and another opportunity presented itself. I was about take a photo of just the door and bikes, when I saw this young man peek out from a nearby door. I reacted as quickly as I could to include the boy in my photo.

At that point, I had a theme going on, so I kept photographing people in front of the arches. 

As we were driving out of Essaouira, I saw a whole bunch of camels that were cooling off in the ocean. I asked our driver if he could stop so I could get a couple of photos.

How often do we get to see camels in front of the ocean? 

And that my friends, ends the series of blog posts from the amazing country of Morocco. Many of you have seen the previous blog posts and images posted on my social media channels, and asked about my next trip to Morocco. I will be returning to the country in March of 2028 for another photo tour. I already have 9 people signed up, but have room for 3 more people. Let me know if you would like to join me to see this amazing place for yourself.

__________________________________________________________

• 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.

_________________________________________________________________ 

Morocco Photo Tour: Portraits in the Kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou

I know..I know...yet another blog post from my Morocco trip in April! There were so many unique photo opportunities from this country that they lead to a wide variety of images that deserve their own post. In this post, I am sharing with you some of my favorite portraits taken within the Ait Ben Haddou, a Kasbah located in the Ouarzazate Province of Morocco.

This is a photo of the Kasbah from a distance. When we arrived at this location, I figured that I would be taking photos of the building and landscape, but our guide had something else in mind for us.

As we entered the historic fortified village, we saw this woman. Our guide helped me place her by this window to beautiful portrait light on her face. I was using my Canon R5 Mark II camera with the RF 24-105mm f/4 lens for this photo and all the images in this blog post.

We found another subject and another window opening to create this portrait. For many of the portraits, I could not decide whether they should be color or B&W, so I created two versions of each in Photoshop. I am curious to hear from you all, as to which you like best.

We entered into a small dark room, and the only light source was coming from the ceiling above. I asked this man to look up into the light and captured this.

Once I was done photographing this gentleman, we walked back towards the entrance of the Kasbah. When we entered the village, we saw a couple of camels and I really wanted to photograph them. Ali, our guide, told me that we would have a better opportunity for photos in the next hour or so. He was definitely right!

We had the camels and their keeper to ourselves for portraits, and it was awesome. I was able to position them at the entrance to the Kasbah, in perfect late afternoon sunlight. I shot some images tight...

...and some a little wider.

After showing him some of the images on the back of the camera, he loved them, and smiled for this shot.

I saw that the sun was hitting the wall to my right, and asked him to lean against that wall of this shot. One of my favorites from the trip!

Even Laura and I got into a photo with him.

He and his camels were such great models

I loved the previous shot with him against the wall so much, that I took some more. This time with slightly more light on the camels.

I wanted to get some photos of him and the camels with the Kasbah in the background. We tried a couple of different locations, but this was my favorite, and what a great pose for him and the camels.

I took a couple more portraits in the late afternoon light...

...this was the last one, before we walked back towards our vehicle.

Once we walked back up the stairs, I saw this view of the Kasbah and loved all the tagine pots that were in the foreground. I am always looking for interesting leading lines and unique photos, and thought that this was a good one.

One more Morocco blog to come!

__________________________________________________________

• 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.

_________________________________________________________________ 

Morocco Photo Tour: Visiting the city of Marrakesh for the first time!

You can't go to Morocco and not visit the city of Marrakesh. This city is like one giant market, and so much more. There is also a ton to photograph there.

We went to a rooftop along the edge of the main market to get an overhead view. I used the Canon R5 MK II camera and RF 24-105mm lens to get this wide shot. I slowed the shutter speed of the camera to show the movement of all the people. 

I also used my RF 100-500mm lens to zoom farther into the market from that same spot.

I know that it is a really touristy thing in Marrakesh, with the snake charmers performing for the crowds, but I really wanted to get some photos of the cobras. This one was on the ground in front of me, so I grabbed some photos.

Better lighting on this one.

Our guide arranged for one of the guys to perform for me.

I was glad that I was taking the photos and not holding the snakes!

This guy was playing the music while a snake was on his hat. 

We had a really fun day walking through the market, but I wanted to go back out and photograph the same area at night.

This photo was taken from the same rooftop.

Laura and I both loved the nuts in Morocco, with amazing varieties of flavored almonds, cashews and so much more. There were many stands like this one selling nuts, fruit, olives... 

In Morocco, it is important to ask people if you can take their photos, before doing so. I also found that, unlike most countries, the majority of the people were not open to having their photos taken.

I really loved the colors of the market, and the lighting at night. 

This vendor was pouring tea as we walked by. I love the way that the Moroccan people pour their tea from high above the cup, and had to capture that!

The next day, our guide took us to see the watermen of Marrakesh (also known as gerrabs). I had never heard of these guys but learned about their tradition of serving water to the people. Their costumes were really beautiful!

I photographed them from different angles...

...and I even got in on the fun.

Our next stop was the Majorelle gardens. This land was purchased by Yves Saint-Laurent in the 1980s and restored. We enjoyed the time walking around the gardens.

I preferred shooting with the Canon RF 100-500mm lens in the gardens. This long lens helped me isolate some of the plants and animals, and also avoid the crowds of people who were around us.

I was photographing these pretty water lillies in one of the ponds...

...and did not notice until editing, that there was a frog inside the flower bloom.

Here is a tighter crop of the same image. I love the way that the frog was peaking out, just above the petals.

There were some really beautiful plants in the garden...

...and the colors weren't so bad either.

__________________________________________________________

• 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.

_________________________________________________________________