Ros Marvin is a palliative care physician from Cambridge, and a part-time wedding, portrait and macro photographer. These are her images from a photography holiday to Morocco. We love her beautiful saturated colours. Visit her website here.
What Ros said about her trip
Last November I found myself constrained by a rota with fixed annual leave and abandoned by a boyfriend embroiled in the final stages of his PhD. From the gloom of rainy Glasgow, I escaped for an exotic adventure to indulge in my love of photography with Frui – a company specialising in creative holidays all over the world.
After a 3 1/2 hour budget flight from London, our group assembled at Marrakech airport. We were warmly greeted by our guide and whisked off to the rooftop terrace of our riadh in the heart of the city. We spanned the generations and came from all walks of life, joined by our common desire to get more out of our cameras. Some were taking their first intriguing steps into the world of the SLR, others were seasoned photographers who learnt their craft in the pre-digital era.
That rooftop terrace was to be the site of several relaxed but deeply informative sessions taking us through the fascinating world of shutter speeds and apertures, but best of all demonstrating how to capture our unique vision of Morocco, using the work of famous photographers to teach us about the rules of composition and when to break them.
Our tutors were both art school graduates and professional photographers, passionate about what they taught and especially keen to instill creativity into our photos. They set us challenges and encouraged us to share our work each evening, whilst relaxing amidst the cushions, G&T in hand.
Constructive criticism pushed us to our limits, but the vast majority of what we learned was absorbed during our whirlwind tour of the sights, sounds and smells of Morocco: the bustle of the souks where we practiced our street photography skills on wizened crones and surly silk dyers; the jewel of the Yves Saint Laurent gardens, an oasis of calm and colour; and the crumbling ruins of an ancient Kasbah where we wondered at sunset, overlooked by the Atlas mountains.
All this was interspersed with Morocco’s gastronomic delights – juicy olives, slow-cooked lamb tagines, honey-sodden pastries, washed down by copious quantities of fine wine followed by traditionally-served mint tea.
One particularly memorable evening was spent staying in a Berber village, dancing round the fire with shisha-smoking tribesmen, their voices mingling with those of the women and children long into the night.
I returned to the Scottish chill, laden with memory cards filled to the brim with a rainbow of images, but it is the warmth of the Moroccan people and the enthusiasm of the tutors which burn brightest in my memory.
Ros had four nights with Frui in October 2012 costing £899 including transfers, entry fees, en-suite accommodation (no single supplement) and local guide.
