Fez Panorama at Dawn

Photo of the Day

The evening before I took this photo, I was in this same spot enjoying the calm perspective on the madness of Fez below. It’s a city that seems to be composed almost entirely of alleys and every corner, while magical, is usually inhabited by someone trying to make some tourist dollars. I was happy to have briefly escaped the onslaught of touts, guides, hawkers and salesmen and have a moment of peace.

There I was, observing a dun sunset and preparing myself to rise to this same spot for what would probably be a more interesting sunrise than that grey evening when a man approached me and started chatting to me about what a lovely view it was. I agreed and relished the chance to converse with someone who wasn’t aiming to sell me anything. No sooner did I have this thought when he pulled a sack seemingly from thin air and started showing me his wares.

I couldn’t believe it. I was one of the only people up here! How could this be a profitable location to set up shop? I politely declined his offers and got back to my camera, constantly hoping for more interesting light to break through and bathe the city. Fortunately he wasn’t too pushy and eventually started back down the hill towards the city.

As darkness fell, I was cautioned away from the area by local police who informed me this wasn’t the safest place to be hanging around at night. Thanking them for their concern, I made my own way down the hill only to return early the next morning to catch the sunrise you see below. I do have some shots from the evening which I might post later, but for now, I was partial to this sunrise.

Click for a larger image:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 9th, 2011 at 9:00 am. It is filed under Blog, Morocco, Photo of the Day, Photography and tagged with cityscape, fez, morocco, panorama, panoramic photography, travel photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.