Morocco Blue 2011 Calendar

While the rain was endlessly pouring yesterday, I was transported back to the bright clear African skies and blues of Morocco as I worked on the layout of my Morocco Blues 2011 Calendar.  After much tweaking of the numbers as I found that many of them were very hard to read on the sometimes busy backgrounds I was done.  Then I noticed that two of my months were wrong!  I had started May on the wrong day and somehow lost two days from November so I had to ungroup all the groupings in InDesign, make my adjustments and remake the PDFs.  Done.  Not done actually, as I luckily had my brain engaged and remembered that the layout for this current calendar had been made over the top of the Floral calender which I have listed in my shop.  So I had to delve into the layouts for those two (the one in the case and the loose leaf version), make the edits, remake the PDFs again, chuck out the wrong pages from my two fully made up versions, and for once be very grateful that I hadn't sold something.  It would have been extremely embarrassing to sell someone a calender where the dates were wrong.  Phew.

When I'd sorted out my errors I printed a test version and was very happy.  The next stage was to photograph the finished item but it was as dark as dusk at about 3pm as the rain bucketed and the thunder crashed and boomed.  So I gave up that plan for the day!  This morning although not exactly a blazing August day at least looked like daylight and I managed to take a few product shots when I returned home after my (hard) yoga class.

And after all that work here it is!

Morocco Blues 2011 Desk Calendar in a Clear Case by Eyeshoot Photography

Morocco - as found on Etsy.

I've had a bit of an obsession with Morocco for about ten years or so and I've been lucky enough to visit twice. The first time was a week spent in the fishing port/seaside town of Essaouira followed by a three day blast of luxury at La Mamounia in Marrakech.  After that visit I was desperate to return and would finaly do so in 2007 when we went on a photography holiday led by Lee Frost which would take us to Tangier, Casablanca, Fes, Rabat, Chefchaouen, Moulay Idris and Meknes in a very intense two weeks.  It was a brilliant experience and I would still love to return and to stay for a much longer time to really get the feel of the place.....

Here is a selection of items I've found on Etsy which scream Morocco to me:

 At the Market in Morocco by Joseph Aprile

This painting is so true to the exotic markets, the colours and shapes are spot on for me.  When I saw bags like the ones here hanging up on hooks in Tangier, they were full of snails!  I really like the minimalism of the image, you're not overwhelmed by detail, but it's all there if you know what to look for.

Patchwork - by Still Memory

When you look at this photograph and compare it to the painting above, you can see how the colours are so true, if two people from different places, practising different disciplines can get exactly the same colour palate I think that shows the power of the colour in this vibrant country.  I have come across this photograph on Etsy previously and I'm sure that it would be a scene which would have caught my eye too had I been in the same location with my camera.  It's such a typically Moroccan blast of colour and texture, the pebble-dashing, the smooth plaster, tiles, the detailed plasterwork around the door, the rough patch of exposed under-layer and the wood.  It's a sight you see over and over again in every town, but I confess to never seeing such an outrageously colourful painted floor!  I'd love to know where it was!

Ethnic Berber Style Necklace - by 3 Fun

It's those colours again!  The jewellery in Morocco is simply out of this world and when I went for the first time in 2002 I could barely believe my eyes when I saw what was available.  I came home with quite an impressive haul of goodies which were far too good to resist!  We drank mint tea in little shops while we haggled over a rug full of delights, some we had to abandon, but we were still very well rewarded for our patience!  This piece is really interesting as it's a contemporary interpretation of all that is beautiful and typical of Moroccan jeweller - the amber beads, the silver spirals (I bought a massive silver spiral, it's about 12cm in diameter and seriously dramatic!) the overall look is so convincing that when I first saw it I was sure that it was a 'real' piece of Moroccan jewellery.

Marrakesh Lights 3 - by L Jane6

The metalwork souks are full to bursting with men hand crafting the flamboyantly patterned metal lanterns, they come all all shapes and colours with glass and without.  They hang everywhere from the small café of the narrow streets as well as the extravagantly decorated palace restaurants.  This delicate painting sums up the variety and detail of the lanterns perfectly - I love the way that they are all jumbled together with little flashes of colours amidst the metal filigree.

Cool Stone - a brand new print from Eyeshoot Photography.

Cool Stone - by Eyeshoot at Etsy

Here's another rediscovered shot from my archives.  I've given it a subtle treatment with texture layers which accentuate the feel of the stone.

Two Treasuries, Three Photos from Morocco

I've not posted any Treasury screenshots for a while, mainly because I've not been in many! But I couldn't resist sharing this one of my favourite place in the world!

Morocco
by Scraps of Paper

There are two of my pictures in it and rather oddly, the lovely Polaroid in the centre top row is a shot which I've captured myself in Tangier. My treatment is very different, but isn't it coincidence that two Etsy people can be in a big and confusing medina and spot exactly the same sign - the pink wall caught my eye, I'll bet that Opart was drawn in by the baskets! My version of it is below.

Restaurant Kasbah

Then there's this lovely eclectic collection with another of my Moroccan photos, it's obviously the place to be at the moment!

Season Ticket
by A Good Vintage

Two new Moroccan prints.

I've been revisiting my old photos from Morocco (again!), there are so many there that I've never really done much with that each time I look at them again I find little gems I've missed out on.

Here are today's finds!

Busy Window

Through the Blue Door

Which Photo is Better, Before or After?

I've been revisiting my old Morocco pictures and started to re-edit and re-tweak some of them as my skills have improved since I went through them for the first time and I've learnt some new tricks and have got some new plugins for Photoshop which I'm enjoying but am not quite sure about. Here's an example of a before and after of one of my favourite pictures from Chefchaouen:

Before


After

The After one looks a little softer on some of the edges despite all of the additional detail which has appeared but I like that where lots of extra colours have appeared in the floor and the extra texture on the wall and floor. I can't decide if the whole look is just too processed.
Any comments welcome!

Snow torture, Morocco, Street Music

It's snowing again this morning and for the second time this week the BBC have been gleefully reporting the downfall of the nation's education and transport systems as millions of school kids are thrilled with the prospect of another day off. Mind you, when I was at school and it snowed there was no staying in bed as it was a boarding school and although lessons may have been off we were duly shoved out into the snow. For hours and hours. I recall on one occasion they actually locked the doors and we could sense the teachers closeted in their cosy staff rooms drinking tea from those odd green teacups and stuffing them selves with biscuits round the fire. It was always fun for a bit but as we wore archaic uniforms with cloaks rather than fleecy anoraks we were always half frozen and draped in sodden wool after a couple of hours. We used to get a small revenge by constructing massive snowballs and snow men in the middle of the lacrosse pitch, firmly compacted so that they would last for weeks after the Big Thaw and really pissed off the rather fierce games mistress. I think that's why I like the snow so much now. I only have to go out into it if I so desire and I can be as wrapped up as I wish.

Anyway, back to the creative arts and as far away from half arsed English snow as we can get with this lovely blue and exotic Treasury which greeted me this morning:

World Travelers
by South American Traveler

South American Traveler has a shop full of very nice travel photos and for some reason hasn't sold any.....anyway, here's my favourite one:

Fisherman's Canoe 5x7

There are some real gems in the selection with a few distinctly Moroccan photos and as you may have noticed, I do have a mild obsession with Morocco and it's always great to see how others see a place you love. I also really like the musicians in the bottom left by Sol Design, it's a lovely real depiction of street music although I'd say that at $3 is sorely underpriced.

Music in San Telmo

Morocco revisited

I'm still having fun revisiting my old Morocco photos (well not that old, just from 2007, but it does seem like a million years ago) and here's today's offering:

Waiting White Cat