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!

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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.

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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: Portraits and Camels in the Sahara Desert

When visiting Morocco, you have to be prepared for a lot of driving, since the best places to visit are spread out across the country. On this particular day, we were driving from the north, down into the Sahara Desert. It was a full day of driving, but luckily it was broken up with some really fun stops.

Our first stop was unexpected for me, as I did not expect to be photographing monkeys in this country.

There is a "rest area" where the monkeys hang out. I used the Canon R6 MKIII with the RF 100-500mm lens to get in tight. I avoided photographing any monkeys interacting with the people, but chose to wait for them to be in a more natural environment. 

I am always a sucker for the babies. So cute!

This monkey was raising his hand, but he never asked me a question. :)

It was fascinating to drive through so many different terrains. I saw this view as we were driving, and I asked our driver if we could stop for a couple of photos. I love the composition with desert sand and snow covered mountains in the background.

I also asked our driver to stop in this location, as I saw this man herding his sheep. 

I took some photos of him from a distance and then our guide asked if he would come over for a portrait.

After hours of driving, we arrived in the Sahara. It was the first time seeing camels in Morocco, and I had a great time taking portraits of the camels and their owners.

We stopped for lunch and I loved the people who were serving us. Time for more portraits!

For the portraits, I used the Canon R6 MKIII and RF 100-500mm lens once again. 

After lunch, we went to see some local musicians performing in a small room.

I photographed them for a couple of minutes.

They took a break, and we asked this one young man to come over to the window for this portrait, in classic window light.

I also took this portrait of him and his instrument.

Then it was camel time!

We drove around the sand dunes in a four wheel drive vehicle, and stopped to get some photos.

This camel is clearly a fan of my photography!

In the evening, we rode camels up into the sand dunes and I was very excited to get photos of them in the sunset. For this shot, I used the Canon R5 MKII and RF 24-105m lens, positioned myself so that the sun was just at the horizon and shot at f/11 to get the starburst effect.

Our camel guide had a great look, so I had him pose for me in the last bit of sunlight that evening.

I took portraits of Laura and some of the other people who were with us, and then Laura took the camera and captured this image of me.

I asked the guide to walk the camels back and forth in front of the setting sun. We did this numerous times, to get a variety of photos.

This was the last photo before we got back on the camels and headed back down the dunes. I wanted to stay longer, since the sunset just kept getting better and better. Next time we come back in 2028, we will stay out longer.

As we got back down to our camp, I was a little disappointed that we missed such an amazing sunset, but as we walked towards our tent, I saw this one guy up on a hill. I quickly turned my exposure compensation down to -1.7 and grabbed this shot. I showed him the shot and he loved it. He even gave me his WhatsApp number for me to send it to him. I love that! While I was a little disappointed to not get the camels in this light, it turned out to be a great opportunity to capture something different and unexpected.

__________________________________________________________

• 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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