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!
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.
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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