Photographing architecture in Essaouira is a rewarding pastime and it’s something the courses cover, usually at the beginning of the photography holiday. Abby’s shot left is a recent addition to the galleries produced by course participants in Morocco. It offers both a fresh perspective in revealing the Medina here and points to some clues as to what works in the approach to photographing buildings. If we exclude the abstract approach then essentially what distinguishes architectural photography is a capturing sense of the whole building. professional photographers of architecture will use a shift lens or tilt-shift lenses which controls perspective and stops the convergence of parallel lines especially apparent when shooting upwards at a building. So in this instance Abby’s positioning is nestled in a narrow street and she is focused on the curve of the street and the narrow gap between the buildings. The midday light in Essaouira helps to bring out some of the texture in the foreground wall. Normally midday light is too harsh for most photography but partly sheltered in the Medina, light brings some drama to scenes. An effective shot of Essaouira and the message is… look for the curves.
Andrew’s photo on the right shows the benefits from rising early at any location before the hordes gather to spoil a solitary scene. He makes use of the morning light to produce wonderful shadows which bring drama to what otherwise would have been an empty area devoid of interest for the viewer. keeping the column lines vertical should also be a factor in composition when going for a classical look as the architecture in this case readily dictates. Excluding extraneous information at the frame edges is something we cover on the photography courses in Morocco and Spain and in this shot it pays dividends. Modern life encroaching on historical scenes is interesting by that’s very much another idea. Here the focus is on heritage and dynamic composition. With regard to cropping distractions around frame edges, it goes without saying that time is better spent getting it right on location at the time rather than afterwards. It’s true that computers and software can allow all sorts of cropping and manipulation but do we really want to spend so much time doing this when our modern lives are already very desk based.