Morocco Photo Tour: Spending some time in the city of Fes

On this trip, we ended up spending a day and a half in the city of Fes. In the last blog post, I shared images from the largest tannery in the city. There was so much to see that I will add another day in Fes for the 2028 trip to Morocco.

We started our day by following our guide as he lead us through a maze of narrow alleyways through the medina. Trust me, there is no way we would have found any of the sights on our own!

We twisted our way until we came across a single small door that lead us into the Bou Inania Madrasa (a building constructed for religious education) that exemplifies Moroccan architecture. We got there as soon as it opened so that we would have a chance to photograph the building without throngs of tourists.

I started by using the Canon RF 24-105mm lens on the Canon R5 Mark II camera. I did use some perspective correction in Adobe Photoshop to straighten all the lines in this image.

Since the building was not very big, I thought I would try the Canon RF 7-14mm fisheye lens once again, to try and capture as much of the building in one photo as possible.

For one of the few times on this trip, I decided to use the RF 15-35mm lens here. I thought that it would allow me to capture more of the building, but without the wild curvature of the fisheye lens.

I put the camera down low to show more of the tile floor in this wide angle shot.

As we walked to the tannery (shown in the last blog post), I saw this guy with his horse, heading our way. I quickly grabbed this shot with the Canon RF 24-105mm lens. There were so many vendors with horses and donkeys in the medina, that I had to show at least one!

We saw many local artisans in their tiny shops. For this shot, I positioned myself so that I would see the reflection of him in the mirror (adding a little more interest to the photo).

Ali took us over to this guy who was working with metal. I slowed the shutter speed of the camera to 1/8 second and held the camera as still as I could. This slow shutter really shows the path of the sparks. You can see this clearer if you click on the image to see it larger.

This vendor was using a mallet to shape metal. I was taking photos of him when Ali picked another piece of metal which had already been completed. He held it up and I shot images through that, using it as a frame for this image. A perfect "circle within a circle" photo!

I was shooting images as we walked past different vendors and Ali got a little bit ahead of me. I looked ahead and saw him comparing his hand with one of the vendors and captured this image of them having fun. At that moment, I did not know exactly what they were doing.

Once I got closer, I could see what they were doing. There were two vendors who were dyeing yarn. One guy was working with red dye and another guy was working with blue. Clearly, it was discoloring their skin at the same time.

As you can see here, the colors in the final product was really impressive.

This guy was sharpening his knife, which was another great time to slow the shutter of my camera (1/10 sec) to get the spin of the wheel and some pieces of metal flying in the air.

Ali told us that there was a really nice view from our lunch spot, so Laura and I climbed up many stories to see the cityscape.

There was so much happening within the city that you see below us.

Ali had a friend who owned a carpet shop, and he wanted me to take some photos for him. It was a really beautiful building, and I was happy to capture some images for them. I took out the fisheye lens once again and positioned the owner right in the middle (to avoid distorting him), and took this shot. 

We were sitting in this area, where they showed us some amazing carpets. I turned around and captured this photo of the intricate room. Incredible tile work framed with the colors of the carpets. This was the perfect use for the fisheye lens.

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Morocco Photo Tour: A must visit to the Chouara Tannery in Fes

While in Fez, Morocco, we were told that one of the highlights of the city tour was a visit to the local tannery, where they process the hides from cows, sheep and other animals for leather products. I was told that it was a cool thing to photograph, but had no expectations.

As it turned out, it was a VERY cool place to photograph!

We walked through the medina (narrow walkways through the city) and eventually entered a leather store. We thought that maybe we were there to look at the jackets and other products for sale, but instead of shopping, our guide took us up a couple of flights of stairs and ended up on a rooftop. We looked down over the workers who were processing the hides in different vats, in the same manner that they have been doing for centuries. Some of the vats had mixtures for softening the skins and others had dye for coloring.

The hides are hung around the perimeter of the tannery to dry. I should mention that when we arrived at the tannery, we were offered mint leaves to hold in front of our noses as the smell can get pretty bad. Laura used hers, and I did not. 

While we visited different rooftops to get different vantage points of the tannery, I also noticed the onslaught of satellite dishes, and had to take a photo of that!

I was using the Canon R5 Mark II with the RF 24-105mm lens from the rooftop, which allowed me to get nice wide shots (like you saw before) and tight shots like this.

It was fascinating to watch the workers who worked inside the vats.

This guy was spinning the hides to remove the excess moisture, before starting the drying process. I saw the drum begin to spin and thought that this would make an awesome slow shutter photo. I switched the settings of the Canon R5 Mark II to ISO 100 at f/16 which gave me a shutter speed of 1/10 sec. I asked the man to stay still and then started shooting. I was shooting handheld, so I slowed my breathing, held on tight, and took numerous photos. I really like the final result.

Our next stop was inside one of the rooms of the tannery, where we saw this man working on the hides. He was standing in the room with the the light coming through an opening in front of him. It was perfect light for a portrait. Our guide helped me position the man for this shot.

I took the same image and processed it in black and white. I like both. Which one do you prefer?

We also got a chance to see this guy who was finishing up the final work on this goat skin.

I thought that we were done at the tannery when Ali (our guide) asked us to follow him. We ended up down at the vats, at the same level as the workers and it was a photographers dream.

I was taking portraits from all angles.

For this shot, I focused on the hides in front of me, making them the main subject of the image, while including the workers in the background to tell a story.

I waited for the workers to toss the hides and took photos trying to catch the splash of the water.

There were so many cool angles to take photos from.

I really liked capturing images of this guy with the drying hides in the background.

These last two photos show my favorite subject at the tannery. This guy had a great look, with the cap and long beard. He was processing the hide right in front of me, and provided so many great photos. I will look for him on the next trip. I know my guests will want photos of him!

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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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How to take one photo and create AMAZING art!!

I was scrolling through Instagram and came across this really cool company and had to stop and take a full look at what they were doing. The company is called Wirestyle and what they do is really amazing! They literally take a regular photo and turn it into a piece of art using nails and a single line of string.

I talked to the founder of the company (in Germany) to get more information about what they do, and to determine which images look best using their technique. After careful consideration, and their advice, I decided that this elephant photo from Botswana would look the best.

The first thing I did was convert the image to black and white (using Adobe Photoshop) and then I uploaded that image to Wirestyle. 

They sent me a confirmation that they received the image, and they also sent me this rendering showing how it would look once completed.

Two weeks later I received a delivery from DHL all the way from Germany, with my artwork inside. You can click HERE or on the image above to watch the video of me opening the well-packed box.

This is what the artwork looks like from a distance...

...but when you look closer, you see all of the nails and the single piece of string. 

The varying amounts of string are what create the dark and light parts of the image. It is really amazing to see up close.

Each piece of art comes with a time lapse video of it's creation.

You can click HERE or on the image above to see that video.

The packaging is more than sufficient to get the artwork delivered without any damage. I will say that the frame is not substantial and looks a little "cheap". Since the frame is a simple screw-together metal frame, I recommend replacing it with something nicer. I am going to do that for sure. I may also enclose mine in glass so that I don't have to worry about dust forming on the string.

If you would like to have one of your photos created using this string art technique, go to www.wirestyle.com and let them know that you found out about them from me. Also, if you would like to get one of my elephant photos in this string art, email me and let me know.

If watched the unveiling video, you may have noticed the other elephant image on my wall. This was created by a good friend of mine in the Chicago area. Jason has a unique technique where he takes his images (and mine) and prints on a special "rice paper" and then wets and dries the paper into a 3 dimensional image. 

This is equally cool and I have numerous images from Jason proudly hung in my house.

Hopefully you can see the way that the elephants are raised on the paper. It is truly beautiful.

If you are interested in these one-of-a-kind pieces, you can click HERE.

If you are a photographer like me, you probably get tired of seeing your own work, so it is really fun to see the same images created in new ways. Both the Wirestyle art and the images that Jason creates are totally unique. I love that they are conversation pieces hung up at the house. People are drawn to the unique creations and want to know more about them.

Let me know what you think!

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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, Alaska and more.

• You can purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• 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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After seeing the LA fires, it should make us all think about remote backups

Last week was complete devastation down in Southern California, with fires burning out of control. This reminded me of the fires up here in Northern California a couple of years ago. It is so sad to see so much destruction and the loss of so many memories. This made me think about family photos and the importance of keeping them safe. 

I highly recommend that you take your most important photos and get them into digital format (if they are not already digital images) and having them stored offsite. For offsite storage, you could use a cloud service like Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud or many other offerings, or create your own solution. 

When both of my parents passed away, I took their wedding album and took photos of each of the black and white images. I then put all those images into a Dropbox folder so that my brother and sister could have them as well. Since they are in the cloud, I know that they will always be available.

I also went through all of my father's slides and scanned the best of the old photos to keep and share with my siblings. 

Speaking of my siblings, here is a photo of my brother, myself and my sister from 1966. I scanned many slides and then cleaned them up in Photoshop to remove the dust and distractions. 

Here is a photo of me holding a box of Kodak film in 1964. I guess I was always destined to be a photographer. 😀

Here is a photo I took of my son playing with my Mac way back in 1997 (and now he is a photographer too.) This photo and every photo I have taken since the early 1990s are stored on my QNAP NAS drive which gives me some peace of mind. But in order for me to feel that they are ultimately safe, I want them stored in a remote location as well. 

For those of you who have read the blog for a long time, you may recall that I have a redundant QNAP NAS drive located hundreds of miles from my home. They synchronize every day at 1am to make sure that every photo is in multiple places. I currently have more than 2 million photos stored in both locations.

I not only keep my photos stored in numerous places, but all my important documents are saved on these drives and in the cloud.

Regardless of whether you are a professional photographer, a photo enthusiast, or just someone trying to keep important photos and documents safe, I highly encourage you to have those files in more than one location, and far enough from each other to withstand mass destruction like we are seeing more often these days.

My thoughts go out to all those affected by the Los Angeles fires. 

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

• You can now purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• 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.

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

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