Archive for the Category ◊ Africa ◊

09 Jun 2010 More From Morocco (2007)
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I visited Morocco towards the end of 2007, only about two and a half years ago, but it seems like such a long time ago. I’m clearly on an extended travel flashback mode, because even as I go about my day-to-day working life — a contrast of equal parts corporate activity and photography business — my nose is buried in a book of travel stories on the subway and I keep thinking about all the thousands of travel photos buried in my offline archives, waiting to go online.

Even as I fundraise for cancer research, I think about all the countries I haven’t been to yet and calculate how many years it would take to reach even just 100 of them, once.

I think about the prospective wedding meeting I have after work tomorrow, and client emails that need to be written and sent, and jumbled in these thoughts are memories of the friendly guy from Washington, DC who offered me his water on Montjuïc that hot day in Barcelona, the time when I pulled out Kermit from my bag in Morocco to calm a crying toddler at an outdoor restaurant in Fez, the day I had to get off the train in Sydney‘s western suburbs because I had to use the bathroom so badly. My Dutch friend thought this was hilarious, and wrote this in my travel book.

Time is passing and there’s no way to make it stop, only slow it down (in a way) by travelling. I’m not talking business travel, where your entire day is structured and you’re on company time and money. I’m talking about leisure travel. The kind of travel where you wake up in the morning and decide what you want to do and where you want to go without ever looking at a watch. I’m talking about freedom to explore and meet local people, who often invite you to stop and chat and/or partake in some food. When I’m not visiting friends that’s the kind of travel I aim for, every single time.

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Marrakech

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Marrakech

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Rabat

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Rabat

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Fez

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Fez

A couple of videos of what it’s like to navigate the incredible medina in Fez:

The Morocco photo set is here (but view it as a slideshow if you can, it looks better). Out of all my online travel albums, this is one of the sets that is mostly offline than online. Time to change that!

04 Jun 2009 Why You Should Tip Your Taxi Driver
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petits taxi interior, where many a prayer is sent up with white knuckles

Because when you drop your mobile phone in his car, he will (hopefully) make an extra special effort to get it back to you. True story, it happened to me today. He got it back to me in about half an hour!

I didn’t know if he’d find it because I had it on vibrate, so he wasn’t able to hear me phone it, anyway. My last dialled call was to Vancouver and that’s what he dialled, too, so when my cousin Tosca called and asked, “Did you get your phone back?” it took me a couple of seconds to figure out how on earth she knew it was missing in the first place!

Photo: Meknes, Morocco — a petits taxi interior, where many a prayer is sent up with white knuckles

09 Aug 2008 More Morocco
Author:  |  Category: Africa, Photography  | 2 Comments

prayers

Earlier this evening I was at Sicilian Sidewalk Cafe (yes, again — J.A. and I were both there just two nights ago) for a farewell to M.K., and I happened to be sitting beside a few francophones. I’ve been hearing so much French lately, it suddenly occurred to me that I’ve uploaded only a tiny fraction of my photos from Morocco! And by a tiny fraction, I mean out of a library of 1,427 images my photo set in Flickr only held a paltry 34 photos.

Browsing my image library for Morocco (Nov ’07), I see I shot only the last third or so (maybe even only the last quarter) in RAW format because I didn’t want to use up my SD cards too quickly and be forced to erase shots from the beginning. After processing a few of the photos now, I see how much of a difference RAW format makes to the end result — something I’d dismissed in the fairly recent past because I hadn’t really spotted the difference before — and now it’s persuading me to shoot RAW again. I’ll need to get another external drive quite soon, though, if I shoot RAW full-time (every RAW image file is 10MBs+ each, from my 6MP Pentax K100D).

My biggest complaint before was that the results versus shooting in JPEG weren’t enough of an improvement to warrant the increased processing time, but after reviewing these Morocco pictures edited from RAW files I’m going to have to take that all back. I’ll give some examples later, but for now just take my word for it! I would say the edited images from RAW are crisper and cleaner, but as with anything, Your Mileage May Vary.

See the photo above in a larger size: View On Black

A few more processed photos below. Click on any to view them in Flickr with tags, descriptions, etc.

{ continue reading… }

26 Jan 2008 The Test Of Time
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the test of time

Volubilis, Morocco
November 2007

View On Black

I’m adding to the Morocco set, which can be browsed using the Pictobrowser:

20 Jan 2008 Dreaming of Fez
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the view from the ceramics shop

It is bone-chilling COLD in Toronto right now, so I thought I’d post a photo from a warmer time — November 16. Fez is known for ceramics so my guide, Hassan, took me by petit taxi to a ceramics shop outside of the ancient quarters to give me a firsthand look at the processes. The view from this shop was spectacular, as you can see. It was well outside of the medina walls.

View Large On Black

27 Nov 2007 Merenid Tombs, Fez
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Merenid tombs, Fez

The light was unusual that afternoon, especially around sunset. View larger.

When I was a kid, I read a lot. (All three of us did.) It was because I couldn’t go anywhere — my parents didn’t have the money to travel, so reading was the closest I got to travel. But I always felt that reading wasn’t a substitute for the firsthand experience.

I still feel that to be true. Even photographs are no substitute, but if they encourage people to travel, I’m pleased to share them.

26 Nov 2007 Vegetarians, Look Away!
Author:  |  Category: Africa, Food + Drink  | 2 Comments

You may recall on Day 3 in Morocco I mentioned some Moroccan delicacies such as sheep’s brains being cooked up in the food markets — fresh! — right before your very eyes. Well, here are the visuals for any interested parties with a bit of a cast-iron stomach:

brains, anyone?

Marrakech: I wandered around some food stalls in Djemaa el-Fna, trying to decide on what to eat. I gave the brains a miss. Want a closer look?

in case you're wondering where the brains came from
Want a closer look?

um, I think I'll pass...
Want a closer look?

I found a little space between some Moroccan ladies for a clear shot of what could have been dinner, but immediately my reaction was, ‘um, I think I’ll pass…’

24 Nov 2007 A Week Ago I Was Trying Not To Get Stepped On By Donkeys
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overloaded
The hardest-working Moroccan has got to be the donkey, it’s always overloaded.

If you’re wondering where the Morocco photos are, I’ve been trying to rejig my entire photo library because I shot mostly in RAW format and my hard drive is nearly full. So I’m transferring my Iceland photos over to an external drive and moving folders here and there. What a job.

But I have to stop now because I’m going to a… drum roll… Moroccan restaurant for dinner! (No pigeon pie on the menu, I see. They use chicken! I’ll have to tell you about my pigeon pie experience later.)

Yesterday I walked into the office and blurted out the words, “It’s hard to believe only a week ago I was trying to avoid getting stepped on by donkeys.” I think those words will be following me around for a while; shortly after I said it someone peeked around the corner and brayed.

The most common form of transportation in Morocco is probably the moped/scooter/motorbike, which also gets overloaded but at least they don’t leave poop for pedestrians.

The Morocco photo album thus far: as thumbnails, or as a slideshow.

waiting

22 Nov 2007 Spicing Things Up
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sugar 'n' spice and everything nice
sugar ‘n’ spice and everything nice

Djemaa el-Fna, Marrakech, Day 2

Curiosity got the better of me at what looked like a dessert stand, so I ordered up something random off the menu. I thought it had chocolate in it, but it turned out to be a very spicy cake with cinnamon and cloves and — ?? — which I washed down with a hot spicy drink.

It was tasty, but was I ever spiced up! I had to eat it slowly….

the spice cake mountain
the spice cake mountain

The vendors carve out servings from the mountain with a scoop, the same way you would with ice cream.

spice cake balls

spice drink vat
spice drink vat

I was so curious to know what was inside this vat. At first I thought it was hot water for the ubiquitous Moroccan mint tea, but it turned out to be a hot and spicy drink to accompany the spice cake on the menu.

21 Nov 2007 Water Seller in Djemaa el-Fna
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water seller in Djemaa el-Fna

Marrakech

I’m amazed this photo turned out as well as it did, considering the light sources. View larger. It was the only portrait I paid for in Morocco (he stuck out his hand after I took the photo), which is a feat in of itself, so I’m happy that at least it worked out.

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