There was a great group of kids that was running all around the streets of Morocco and chasing me. They all spoke French, so I busted out and started singing La Cigale et la Fourmi! They of course knew all the words and we had a great time. They kept following me around while I was taking photos. At the end of the night, there was just this one little girl remaining.

Little Girl in Moroccan Mountain Town

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-17 08:41:18
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/60
• Aperture
• ISO6400
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Here is that mountain town in Morocco where everything is painted blue. One of my favorite things to do in these places is just watching regular people go about their daily business. It’s kind of nice to see that people all over the world do the same kind of things – little kids run off to school in uniform, shopkeepers brush off the sidewalk in front of their businesses, and moms walk through the streets carrying their children. I think it’s so awesome how everyone there dresses so full of color and life. It kind of reminds me of how so many tones in the west often kind of “blend in” and don’t stand out, which doesn’t totally jibe with our supposedly more individualistic natures.

A Mom Walking Home in Chefchaouen

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-17 06:26:25
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/1000
• Aperture
• ISO100
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Every door in this little town is different. I took photos of about 50 different doors and I was thinking about making some kind of mosaic. But that’s one of those “little” projects that sounds like it would take quite a bit of time, eh? Well, I should just buckle down and do it… I wish there were two of me! Anyway, this photo is a pretty good example of the kind of variety and uniqueness that comes around every corner in Chefchaouen.

Blue Door Number 6

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-05 06:23:48
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time0.3
• Aperture11
• ISO125
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+2

While walking around this wonderful little town of Chefchaouen, I ended up down in the village square where all the restaurants were open and music and wine was flowing. I skirted around the edge and found a little quiet corner. Just after I turned it, I saw these two older men sitting and talking. I nodded a hello, squatted down to one knee, and snapped a quick photo.

Two Men in Jilabas in Morocco

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-06 02:12:38
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/3000
• Aperture
• ISO100
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

While I was walking around this wonderfully blue city, I saw many kids out hanging around the outdoors. They all had on cute outfits that seemed to go so well with the powder blue paint of the city. Here is one of the little girls I saw. No one seemed to mind me taking photos, and that was nice because there were so many cute kids!

Little Girl in the Streets of Morocco

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-05 06:33:00
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/250
• Aperture
• ISO100
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias-0.3

I spent most of my time in Chefchaouen in the night, walking around like crazy man taking photos. The colors and shadows came out looking so mysterious and cool. The blue paint looked so different in the night lights. I was happy they mostly used white lights around the town. Wherever the yellow lights were, the colors came off a bit green and sickly.

I took this photo with a 50mm prime all the way wide open. I like how the foreground is a bit out of focus…

In the Blue Streets at Night

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-17 08:00:26
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/60
• Aperture
• ISO5000
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Now, here is a place where the military police shut us down with our quadcopter! I came into town with Anton and Ana from SmugMug to work on this cool new promo piece. We had been already using Anton’s quadcopter all over Morocco, but when we got here, the taxi driver alerted the local military police that we had some sort of a “plane”! This caused a lot of worry and consternation (and, I should add, a Significant amount of confusion). After we were there for half an hour, the military police descended on our hotel with a rather sour attitude. I’ve never had any success negotiating with the Moroccan military, and I had no success here either. I did put up a good intellectual fight, but I eventually acquiesced, mostly because of the size of their guns. Well, there was no gunplay… but I did see a lot of guns… which always helps one side win an argument.

Chefchaouen from Above

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-05 06:59:23
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/30
• Aperture16
• ISO160
• Focal Length15.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

I spent many great hours with this gentleman. He was very nice and spoke perfect English. You may remember another photo I published a month ago when he was wearing Google Glass! 🙂 I took this photo outside in the streets of Chefchaouen, and I used a Leica 50mm prime at f/1.4 on the Sony A7r.

Berber Man in Morocco

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-17 05:49:31
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/1500
• Aperture
• ISO100
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Just recently, I met this gentleman in the wilds beyond the desert. He was so curious and interested in Glass. Absolutely transfixed, he asked me everything about it, then tried it on and played and played and played! He loved it!

First I had him go through the same demo I give everyone. I have them say, “Okay Glass, Take a picture” — it understands pretty much every accent around the world as far as I can tell. This always makes people freak out with excitement when they see the photo they just took floating as a hologram in front of their eyes.

Then he started using it more and more, going through all my emails, watching videos, seeing my text messages, asking Google questions, checking weather… I mean it just went on and on and on… and then he started showing all his friends and telling them about it — he was so excited. Naturally, he was happy for me to take his photo while he was playing!

We ended up talking about a bunch of different things. I even bought an old used knife from him, and he showed me how to stick the curved end of it into a camel’s hump to get water in an emergency. There’s another part of the knife you use to seal up the little puncture wound. Then we talked about meditation, the sealing of the four cardinal spiritual doors in the night before entering the tent, different cultures around the world, and well, about a dozen other things. Anyway, it was great…

Exploring the World with Google Glass

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-17 08:50:53
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/60
• Aperture
• ISO800
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

This is a truly beautiful place right in the middle of Chefchaouen, Morocco. I also had a hamam in here, and it was a rough one. Do you know what a hamam is? I didn’t! But I had two of them in Morocco. I didn’t know beforehand if it was some kind of drug or hallucinogenic thing or whatever, but I decided to go for it! It turned out not to be either of them, unfortunately. Instead, it turned out to be more of an hour-long skin-based torture session.

Have you have been exfoliated by another human for an hour, rubbed with mud, then re-exfoliated when no skin remains? Well, that’s a hamam. My first one was in Marrakesh by a small, hairless Moroccan man. He was nice, and I was nude except for a smallish g-string bathing suit that was absolutely shredded by the end of the session. But I was as smooth as him, I’ll tell you that for sure. The second one was by a woman in a habib. She was very nice, but she was as rough as a German meat butcher with a nervous tick. I was bleeding like a royal inbred by the end of the session… but a few days later, I was healed and smooth as an android… oh yeah.

An awesome place in Morocco

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-05 12:05:58
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time4
• Aperture8
• ISO200
• Focal Length13.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias