Shooter Files by f.d. walker

Street Photography Tips, Interaction, Travel, Guides

Morocco

Street Shot Sundays
Photo of the Week:
“Marrakech Colors”

61 Photos-47

Street Shot Sundays Story & Stats

Story:

This Sunday’s Street Shot of the Week was taken by Place des Ferblantiers in Marrakech, Morocco. This square is in the heart of the Mellah, the old jewish quarter, and just north of the Bahia Palace. It’s also known as the tinsmith’s square due to all the artisans that hand make items out of tin sheets. In addition to these craft shops, there’s a few restaurants too that make it a popular spot to stop.

You also have some busy streets intersecting here, which combined with all the other attractions in the area, make it one of the busier spots to capture life in Marrakech.

For this shot, I had just finished shooting most of the day around the Mellah and was making my way back up to Jemaa el-Fnaa to catch it before sunset. While carefully walking across traffic at the chaotic intersection here, I noticed how nice the light was hitting a collage of colors across the street. The complementary colors of the orange signs and building next to the blue sky, and the purple cloth against the yellow door caught my eye.. 

Just as I noticed the beautiful light and mix of complementary colors, I saw a pale man dressed in matching off-white coming towards me on a bike as I was crossing the street. So while trying not to get hit by any motorcycles, I quickly lowered down and captured the shot as he rode by against the colorful background. The great light and abundance of color within the desert make Marrakech one of the most photogenic cities I’ve been to yet.

Stats:

  • Camera: Fujifilm Xpro1
  • Lens: Fujinon XF 18mm 
  • Focal Length: 18mm (27mm full frame equivalent)
  • Aperture: f/11
  • Shutter Speed: 1/500
  • ISO: 400

61 Photos-47

Street Shot Sundays
Photos of the Week:
“Grand Taxis”

Marrakech Shooter Files-2

Street Shot Sundays Story & Stats

Story:

This Sunday’s Street Shot of the Week was taken at the Grand Taxi street right outside of the medina in Marrakech, Morocco. In Morocco they have two types of taxis, petit taxis and grand taxis. A petit taxi is your normal taxi used for local city transportation, while grand taxis are used for city to city, or village, transportation in a shared taxi system. Grand taxis are also almost exclusively older Mercedes-Benz W123 sedans. 

The Grand Taxi street here is around a kilometer long and filled with these long distance taxis the whole way. I ended up coming here a lot while in Marrakech because it gives an interesting scene. There’s usually a lot of activity with all the people coming for longer distance travel and it can get a little chaotic with the groups of drivers all trying to fill up their taxis. You really don’t see many foreigners using the grand taxis, either.

For this shot, I was walking along a stretch of white grand taxis parked tightly together against a wall. In the middle was a taxi driver trying to squeeze into his cab. I liked the two white taxis against the tan wall with him in the middle dressed in black and an orange cap. The light and shadows were nice too so I walked up closer and took the shot right before he got inside.

Stats:

  • Camera: Fujifilm Xpro1
  • Lens: Fujinon XF 18mm 
  • Focal Length: 18mm (27mm full frame equivalent)
  • Aperture: f/11
  • Shutter Speed: 1/500
  • ISO: 400 

Marrakech Shooter Files-2

Street Shot Sundays
Photo of the Week:
“Almost”

61 Photos-42

Street Shot Sundays Story & Stats

Story:

This Sunday’s Street Shot of the Week was taken around Bab Doukkala in Marrakech, Morocco. I had just finished making my way out of the medina and started exploring outside the wall. This actually became one of my favorite spots for street photography in Marrakech. The Grand Taxis, for long distance travel, are all located here and there’s plenty of merchant stands around too. It’s more open so you get good light, the long stretch of Grand Taxis bring a lot of activity, and most of the tourists don’t venture this far out of the medina. 

Marrakech is known for being a difficult place to shoot Street Photography. There’s so much to capture here, but most want money first, or they don’t want any photos at all. They are very aware of any nearby cameras too.

While walking down the street, I noticed this man looking up into the sky with a ray of light hitting the side of his face. I knew I’d have to be quick and wouldn’t have time to get any closer before the moment was gone. I also saw there was more going on around him, so I fit it in. 

Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite quick enough, as the extremely attentive man on the right put his hand up just as I clicked the shutter. So it’s another “almost” shot, but it probably would have been better closer up, anyway (as cropped below). That’s way too much cropping, in my opinion, but it would have been nice to be able to get up as close as this during the actual shot. That’s Street Photography, though. Moments happen in the blink of an eye and you have to be in the right place at the right time.

Look up marrakech-1-2

Stats:

  • Camera: Fujifilm Xpro1
  • Lens: Fujinon XF 18mm 
  • Focal Length: 18mm (27mm full frame equivalent)
  • Aperture: f/5.6
  • Shutter Speed: 1/500
  • ISO: 1600

Street Shot Sundays
Photo of the Week:
“Setting Up”

61 Photos-45

Street Shot Sundays Story & Stats

Story:

This Sunday’s Street Shot of the Week was taken at Jaama el Fna in Marrakech, Morocco. Jaama el Fna is the main square in Marrakech and it’s really like no other square in the world. It is truly gigantic and can be overwhelmingly chaotic with so much going on. It fills with juice and food stands, street performers and hustlers, tourists and locals, monkeys and snakes, and everything else you can imagine. 

Just before sunset, the square’s outside restaurants start setting up for dinner. They put up the poles and temporary rooftops, set up the tables and get everything ready for the night, which is when the square gets especially packed. 

I was walking around the corner of one line of restaurants when I ran into the scene in the photo. The light, shadow and layers of all that was going on immediately caught my eye, but when the boy’s hand pointed up, I quickly reacted by taking the photo, without time to think. Fortunately, instincts composed well enough on their own.

For anyone visiting Marrakech, I’d really recommend visiting the square around an hour or two before sunset. Not only is the light the best, but you get plenty of activity and life without it being too crowded yet. The square’s so big, you can easily spend hours exploring and photographing the area.

Stats:

  • Camera: Fujifilm Xpro1
  • Lens: Fujinon XF 18mm 
  • Focal Length: 18mm (27mm full frame equivalent)
  • Aperture: f/8
  • Shutter Speed: 1/500
  • ISO: 800

61 Photos-45