Photography Highlights

Photography memories to bring home on your Moroccan adventure

Morocco is a diverse and extremely photogenic country. Whether you enjoy spectacular landscapes, evocative architecture, colorful markets, exotic cuisine, or fascinating people, Morocco has something for everyone. Thanks to your camera or GoPro, you’ll be able to share and remember all of your most magical moments in Morocco. Here are some ideas and tips to help you make the most of your visit and return home with shots you can’t wait to show off.

Maze-like medinas and bustling bazaars

The medinas in Morocco are an explosion of color, smells, and people. With their picturesque blend of French colonial and Arabic architecture and their frenetic activity, Morocco’s city streets offer a neverending procession of photographic opportunities. From the Djemaa El Fna, the busy main square in the center of Marrakesh, to the rustic and charming little alleyways of Fez, you are sure to find something to catch your eye and inspire your imagination.

Pro Photo Tip: Patience can be the key for successful street photography. A good idea is to find yourself a pavement seat at café on the edge of a busy square, where you can watch and wait for an interesting scene. This will give you a good opportunity to capture some candid shots while you enjoy some of the local mint tea.

Culture Tip: Many Moroccans don’t like to have their photo taken. Respect this, and don’t try to take pictures without permission. Even if the person you are photographing doesn’t notice, someone else will. Your local guide can help you with this. They will be able to talk to locals in their own language, and they may know which people are photographer-friendly. Often, people in tourist areas will ask to be paid a small amount for their portrait, so be sure to keep a pocketful of change handy.

Dune-walking camels and tree-climbing goats

On this journey, you’ll have a chance to experience traveling through the Sahara the way it was meant to be — on top of a camel! Not only is the experience of camel-riding completely unique, but these simultaneously comical and graceful creatures make great subjects for photography. Look out for opportunities for close-ups of their distinctive faces, details and textures of their saddlery and, of course, use their distant silhouettes to bring a sense of scale and majesty to the great dunes they traverse.

And, on the optional extension to Essaouiria, you’ll have the opportunity to photograph some uniquely Moroccan animals: tree climbing goats! The goats only climb one kind of tree: the Argan tree. The goats love the fruit of the tree, and Moroccan farmers encourage the goats to eat them, as their digestive system softens the nuts, which are used to make Argan oil. Your family and friends won’t believe you until they see your photos of herds of goats happily perched in the branches of trees.

Pro Photo Tip: Be careful to protect your camera gear from sand and dust in the desert. Keeping it in wrapped in a plastic bag is a simple but effective solution.

Sand dunes and starlight

At the Merzouga Luxury Desert Camp, you’ll enjoy the incredibly beautiful landscape vistas of the Sahara Desert and skies studded with thousands and thousands of stars. Luckily, you can take your time as a photographer with landscapes, since they aren’t going anywhere! Try using a small aperture to increase the depth of field and get more of the scene in focus, and look out for a plant, person or other object to place in the foreground or distance, to add detail and make the dunes more interesting.

Pro Photo Tip: Early mornings and evenings offer the most evocative lighting for desert photography, but temperatures can be very cold in the desert. Pack warm clothes and gloves and take along extra camera batteries, as they will run out of power faster in the cold.

Spectacular UNESCO Sites

You’ll visit an astounding six World Heritage Sites on this journey, and all of them make for exciting photographic excursions, even aside from their fascinating histories. At Volubilis, you can find and photograph incredible mosaics scattered among the historic ruins. At Meknes, there’s a wealth of lavishly ornamented Imperial architecture to delight in. And, the exotic fortified village of Ait-Ben-Haddou is so extraordinary that it has been featured in several movies and TV shows, including Lawrence of Arabia and Game of Thrones.

Pro Photo Tip: Look for different points of view by climbing to higher or lower vantage points, or try picking out landmarks and famous buildings from a distance, showing how they relate to their surroundings.

Colorful cuisine

Taking photos of local food and drinks can be a wonderful way to help you recall to the evocative tastes and smells of Morocco when you’re back home. One of the must-try meals in Morocco is tagine, which is slow-cooked for hours, then eaten straight from the clay cooking bowl. Outside the restaurant, look out for other food-related subjects, such as the gorgeous colors and textures of heaped bags of spices, or the steam from a street vendor’s food stall caught spiraling in the sunlight.

Pro Photo Tip: Try shooting food from directly above, using the circular shape of the dishes and a colorful table mat to create a powerful composition that keeps the focus on the food.