Séjour au Maroc - Sojourn in Morocco

Tkot · Mar 15, 2013

Greetings!

Here are some photos from my recent stay in Morocco. I was there for most of January studying French, and boy, what a spectacular country! Right before I left I bought myself a D7000 and a Sigma 17-50 f/2.8 as an Xmas present, so I had the pleasure of learning to shoot with it in a stunning location. Here are some of the results. Feel free to comment and critique (in English or in French!), and keep an eye out, since I'll be posting more and more as I edit them.

Cheers! /Tkot

#1: Mosquée Hassan II, Casablanca - Hassan II Mosque, Casablanca
Here's the first one. Obviously a panorama, I made it in CS6 from 5 individual shots stitched together, and corrected the perspective with the Adaptive Wide Angle Tool. I'm new to CS6, panoramas, and the Adaptive Wide Angle Tool, so how did I do?

Tiller · Mar 15, 2013

Panorama looks good. I don't like the dark area over the building.

Tkot · Mar 26, 2013

Thanks! Yeah I couldn't figure out how to correct that without using spot healing or cloning. More pictures to come as soon as my computer gets fixed and I can access the files!

MiFleur · Mar 26, 2013

I apologize to other forum members, I will comment in french, since it was mentioned by OP.

La photo est fort intéressante, on voit bien la grandeur du bâtiment comparé aux personnes qui l'entourent. J'aime le contraste de l'ancien et du moderne.
Je trouve aussi que le bleu foncé du ciel en plein centre, semble irréel. Il y a un peu trop d'espace vide dans cette image, vous auriez pu cadrer un peu plus serré.
Une belle photo qui donne le goût de voir la suite.

Looking forward to see your other images.

Tkot · Apr 18, 2013

MiFleur said:
I apologize to other forum members, I will comment in french, since it was mentioned by OP.

La photo est fort intéressante, on voit bien la grandeur du bâtiment comparé aux personnes qui l'entourent. J'aime le contraste de l'ancien et du moderne.
Je trouve aussi que le bleu foncé du ciel en plein centre, semble irréel. Il y a un peu trop d'espace vide dans cette image, vous auriez pu cadrer un peu plus serré.
Une belle photo qui donne le goût de voir la suite.

Looking forward to see your other images.

Je suis d'accord avec vous à propos de l'espace dans la photo, et quand je l'ai soumise à un concours, je l'ai encadrée plus étroitement. Merci bien pour votre réponse!

Switching back to English, I'm finally in a position to add some more photos. Here they come!

#2: Mausolée Mohammed-V - The Mausoleum of Mohammed V
This is a detail of the plaster inlays on the external walls of the burial place of King Mohammed V of Morocco. The plaster calligraphy is a traditional architectural form in Morocco, and usually contains verses from the Qu'ran or the Hadith.

#3: La médina de Fès - The Medina of Fez
I took this photo (or rather, 20 photos) from the roof of my host family's house in the Medina, or old city, of Fez. A World Heritage site, it's the largest contiguous car-free urban area in the world, where the primary modes of transportation are donkeys and motorcycles. Also used CS6 to stitch this together.

#4: Café Clock
This is an awesome café in the Fez Medina, owned by a Brit and staffed by Moroccans who are eager to practice French or Arabic with you if you'll practice English with them. After class we would all descend on the place to do our homework over an almond shake, a plate of crepes, or perhaps a camel burger if we were feeling peckish. Mmmmm... (PS, they've published a cookbook available on amazon called "The Clockbook". Great recipes in there!)

#5: Singe de la neige - Snow Monkey
Near Ifrane, a ski town (who woulda thought?) in the Middle Atlas region, we came across a troop of these monkeys along the side of the road hanging out with a pack of wild dogs. We stopped to take a look, and pretty soon a Moroccan man drove up and also pulled over. When he got out of the car he pulled out a bag of candy bars and threw them all around. The monkeys went after them right away, unpeeling the wrappers like bananas. This guy was just chilling up on a rock keeping an eye on the rest of the troop. That or he was purposefully posing and hoping for special treatment!

#6: la Caravane - The Caravan
We did the touristy of touristy things and stayed overnight with a group of Berbers at Erg Chebbi, the northwestern corner of the Sahara desert. Early in the morning we rode these bad boys to the top of a dune to view the sunrise. This photo was taken as we were mounting up to head back down to the camp.

#7: L'aube du désert - The Desert-Dawn
Sand and sky.