Shooter Files by f.d. walker

Street Photography Tips, Interaction, Travel, Guides

Shooter Files Series

33 Street Photography Photos from 2 Days in Casablanca, Morocco

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I finished off my visit to Morocco flying out of Casablanca. While Casablanca is the biggest city in Morocco, not many stay longer than it takes to fly in and out. Most visitors come here for all the other cities in Morocco, but you don’t hear anybody recommend visiting Casablanca. Since it is a large, well-known city, I wanted to see how deserving this was so I decided to leave a couple of days to explore the city before I left Morocco.

While it was easy to see why it’s not high on the list for travelers to Morocco, I did find it worth exploring for street photographers. At first impression, it’s a somewhat ugly, charmless sprawl of an urban city. Deteriorating and dirty without many attractions. There isn’t much info online so I really had to discover the city on my own, by foot. I found underneath this uninspiring exterior, there was plenty of life and interest to capture. I enjoyed the urban city side of Morocco and while it’s not pretty, there’s still some character there for street photography. 

I only had 2 days here so it didn’t give me much opportunity to capture as many photos as usual, but I still wanted to keep with 33 photos series theme, anyway. So here’s 33 street photography photos from 2 days in Casablanca, Morocco…

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7 First Impressions of Casablanca, Morocco
(From a Street Photography Perspective)

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While Casablanca is the largest city in Morocco, it doesn’t get much love. People might fly in and out of the city, but it’s hard to find anyone recommending staying here longer than that. I wanted to find out if there was a good reason for this so I made sure to spend a few days here before flying out at the end of my visit to Morocco. 

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The truth is, after exploring the city, I can understand why people don’t love it compared to Morocco’s other attractions, but for street photography, I found many reasons that made me happy I gave it a chance. 

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So here are my first impressions of Casablanca, from my personal Street Photographer perspective…

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Behind the Book w/ Kaushal Parikh:
Fragments of a Spinning Rock

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Kaushal Parikh is a street, travel and documentary photographer from Mumbai, India. In 2011 he founded the Indian street photography collective, That’s Life, and has become one of the most well-known names in contemporary street photography in India.

Kaushal recently took almost a decade’s work across India to create his first book, titled Fragments of a Spinning Rock. Fragments is not your typical photo book, though, as Kaushal created a full, artistic and personal experience for viewers to enjoy. Poetry is used throughout the book to help take you along the photographic journey and India’s streets and natural life are blended with his own personal life. This creative approach really helps showcase Kaushal’s beautiful black and white images of gritty and striking contrast.

From the book’s layout to how it juxtaposes the streets and nature, while including a strong touch of Kaushal’s personal relationship with his family and son, everything about Fragments of a Spinning Rock is unique. Since Fragments was released at the end of March, it has only been met with high praise and glowing reviews. So in honor of his new book, I got together with Kaushal to talk about Fragments in a new series here at Shooter Files, Behind the Book. 

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Fragments of a Spinning Rock

Street Shot Sundays
Photo of the Week:
“Sidewalk Shadow”

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Street Shot Sundays Story & Stats

Story:

This Sunday’s Street Shot of the Week was taken in Casablanca, Morocco. I was exploring Casablanca’s medina, which is a much more urban medina than other Moroccan cities. There’s an interesting mix of medina life and big city life here and it was one of my favorite spots in the city for street photography. 

It was later in the day, about an hour before sunset, so the light was great and the streets were full of children playing after school. Outlined in shadow, I noticed a mattress and colorful textiles stood up on the sidewalk where people’s shadows hit perfectly as they walked by.

I was waiting to see if I could capture anything interesting when this little boy walked up and leaned against the mattress. At the same time, I noticed another little boy the same size walking towards him. So I waited to capture his shadow facing the opposite direction on the textiles. Since the sun was low, I was able to catch his shadow just as he walked out of the photo and create a slight illusion of the two boys on the sidewalk.  

Stats:

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

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City Street Guides by f.d. walker:
A Street Photography Guide to
Bratislava, Slovakia

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*A series of guides on shooting Street Photography in cities around the world. Find the best spots to shoot, things to capture, safety concerns, street tips, and more for cities around the world.  I have personally researched, explored and shot Street Photography in every city that I create a guide for. So you can be ready to capture the streets as soon as you step outside with your camera!

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Street Shot Sundays
Photo of the Week:
“Family Blues”

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Street Shot Sundays Story & Stats

Story:

This Sunday’s Street Shot of the Week was taken in Chefchaouen, Morocco. One of the many attractions to this small city in the Rif Mountains is how everything is painted blue. It’s not my first “Blue City,” but it is the bluest one I’ve been to yet. Everything is painted a vivid blue, including the ground and steps you walk on.

I had just stepped outside in the morning to get some breakfast and start a day of street photography. As I was walking up the steps, thinking more about Moroccan breakfast than photography, I immediately saw this scene unfolding above. The man had just left his home and the children ran out behind calling to him, but he didn’t seem in the mood for responding.

So before the scene disappeared, I walked up the steps a little quicker so I could include them all in the frame. I tried to time and frame the shot so his head would be in the middle of the flower pots before the older woman closed the door above. The children kept waiting for him to turn around and respond, but he just gave me a look and continued on down the stairs without a care. 

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

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33 Street Photography Photos from 3 Days in Chefchaouen, Morocco

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After Fes, I took a long bus ride up through the Rif mountains to spend a few days in Chefchaouen, Morocco.  The small mountain town of Chefchaouen is famous for its rich history, architecture, beautiful surroundings and most of all, the blue rinse covering everything in sight.

While many of Morocco’s well-known cities are filled with chaos, Chefchaouen is a relaxing escape. It’s also one of the more unique and picturesque cities I’ve been to. So here’s 33 photos that I was able to capture during my time in Chefchaouen…

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Master Profiles: Robert Capa

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Gerda Taro’s ‘Robert Capa, Segovia Front, Spain’ (1937) | © ICP, MAGNUM PHOTOS/ COLLECTION OF ICP

* “Master Profiles” is a series profiling all the great photographers of uncontrolled life. Unlike the rest of the blog, I’m doing these in a straight profile format to make it easy for quick access to facts, quotes and knowledge on all the masters. I’ll also group them together here every time I add a new one.

Profile:

Robert Capa (1913-1954)

Hungarian war photographer famous for his images covering five wars, including World War II.

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7 First Impressions of Chefchaouen, Morocco
(From a Street Photography Perspective)

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Chefchaouen is a small town up in the Rif Mountains of Morocco. It used to be controlled by Spain so it has more of a spanish influence than french, like much of Morocco. But this isn’t why people make the long trip up through the mountains to visit Chefchaouen today.

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I’ll go into some of the reasons this small city has become a popular destination recently, but one is obvious once you see any photos. Much of Chechaouen’s buildings, houses, walls, stairs and even ground are painted blue. This helps give it a unique atmosphere for photography, but there’s plenty more that makes Chefchaouen a city to visit for some Street Photography, and relaxation.

So here are my first impressions of Chefchaouen, from my personal Street Photographer perspective…

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