I continued with the topic Essaouira Fishing Port since I just finished working on my photos from the harbour and fish market in Essaouira 🙂 Here are some of my favourites:
Here are a few tips for taking pictures at a coastal fishing port:
Lenses
A zoom lens is really useful for taking pictures at harbours. It allows you to change your focal length without changing your distance from the subject. For example, I couldn’t get any closer to the fishing boats in the harbour without a boat of my own or swimming! I also wanted wide angle shots of the harbour. My Nikkor 24-70 mm lens was perfect for this. The 70mm end of my 24-70 mm lens (a longer focal length) allowed me to get a few close up shots of some of the fishermen. Conversely, the 24 mm end (a shorter focal length) allowed me to get wider angle shots of the harbour, including many of the boats and coastal scenery.
This lens also came in handy at the fish market since it allowed me to zoom into a particular subject from further away, which meant that I could be less obvious about my subject. The locals didn’t mind the wide angle shots of the market so I made it appear that I was taking wide angle shots rather than a close up shot of a particular person. If I had been using my 50 mm prime lens, I would have had to get close up to various subjects for the photo and it would have been obvious who I was photographing.
Interacting with the Locals in Essaouira
One of the things I really loved about Essaouira was that most of the locals were easy going and didn’t mind having close up photos taken of their wares. Most of the fishermen didn’t mind being photographed either as long as you stayed out of their way while they were carrying in their catch. Many of the market vendors allowed me to take pictures of their products and/or their hands as long as I didn’t take pictures of their faces. I found that a genuine greeting in Arabic followed by a request to photograph their wares was all that was needed for most of the vendors to allow me to photograph their fishing products up close.
Additional Street Photography Tips
For more tips on street photography, including composition ideas, check out my blog post on street photography in Amsterdam.
Happy Shooting!
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