Koutoubia Mosque: Chasing the light in Marrakech

Rising 70 metres above the rooftops of Marrakech, the minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque is one of the most recognisable silhouettes in all of North Africa. Whether you're shooting at the blue hour before dawn or watching it blush in the warm amber of a desert sunset, this extraordinary structure rewards photographers who are willing to plan, wait, and return again and again.

A Brief History

The Koutoubia was built during the Almohad dynasty in the 12th century, with its construction completed around 1158 under the reign of Sultan Abd al-Mu'min. Its name derives from the Arabic word for booksellers — kutubiyyin — a nod to the manuscript market that once thrived at its base. The mosque actually sits on the remains of an earlier, slightly misaligned mosque, sections of which are still visible beside the current structure. The minaret itself served as the architectural template for two other great towers: the Giralda in Seville and the Hassan Tower in Rabat, making it one of the most influential pieces of Islamic architecture ever constructed.

Where to Find It

The mosque sits at the south-western edge of the Djemaa el-Fna square, making it the natural anchor of Marrakech's medina. It is surrounded by a large garden of rose bushes and palm trees, which provides a generous amount of space to compose your shots — a rarity in the tightly packed streets of the old city. Non-Muslims are not permitted to enter the mosque itself, but the gardens and surrounding paths are freely accessible throughout the day.

Photography Tips

The Koutoubia is at its most dramatic during the golden and blue hours, which is precisely why I've structured this series around those transitional moments of light. At sunrise, the eastern light grazes the ornate stonework of the minaret and picks out the decorative sebka lattice in extraordinary detail — a long lens in the 200–300mm range will isolate these upper sections beautifully. By contrast, sunset throws the minaret into warm silhouette against a deepening sky, ideal for wide compositions that include the palms below.

For night shots, the mosque is tastefully floodlit, giving you a clean, evenly lit subject to work with. A sturdy tripod is essential here. Shoot from the northern end of the gardens to include the reflecting pool in your foreground for a natural mirror effect when conditions are still.

Suggested settings to experiment with:

At golden hour, try ISO 100–200, f/8 for sharpness across the full height of the minaret, and adjust your shutter speed to expose for the sky. In low light and at night, drop to ISO 400–800 and lengthen your exposure — anywhere from 2 to 15 seconds depending on your desired sky effect. A remote shutter release will keep things crisp.

Come prepared to stay a while. The Koutoubia is not a single-shot subject — it is a study in patience, and the light will always surprise you.

Lighthouses of Nova Scotia: A photographer’s journey along Canada’s Atlantic coast

I recently booked myself a trip to Nova Scotia, Canada, bringing along all my camera gear. As with my earlier island-sojourn in Malta, there’s something irresistible about being near the sea when you live in landlocked Switzerland. Nova Scotia isn’t quite an island, but with its thousands of kilometres of rugged coastline, it evokes that same sense of escape and horizon.

From a photography perspective, one of the joys of the coastline is witnessing a proper sunset. In Switzerland I’m lucky to see golden-hour skies from my living room, but I rarely watch the sun drop behind the horizon over open water. On Nova Scotia’s shores, I waited through golden hour, watching the fiery red ball descend, while the sky shifted through orange, purple, and red—always looking for a lighthouse to frame in the foreground.

Below are some highlights and lessons from photographing Nova Scotia lighthouses on my trip.

Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse (Peggy’s Point)

Peggy’s Cove is iconic—the lighthouse is one of the most photographed in Nova Scotia and indeed in Canada.

On my second evening, I arrived well before sunset to scout for a reflection in a tidal pool. I then paused for dinner at the Sou’Wester (which sits on the car park), hoping timing would align. It did—but in classic travel fashion, I forgot exactly where the pool was. I found a spot near another photographer and captured a sliver of the lighthouse’s reflection.

Tourists milled about, strolling in front of my vantage point and asking me to snap photos of them. (Always an amusing reminder: yes, my expensive gear is for lighthouses, not human portraiture!). As light faded, I leaned on modern post-processing to remove distractions. The sky turned from orange to deep violet and red, and I nearly missed the stunning sky behind me until someone kindly pointed it out.

Peggy’s Cove lighthouse

Shot at dusk during September with the lighthouse reflected in a tidal pool

Baccaro Point Lighthouse

A couple of hours’ drive from Halifax lies Baccaro Point Lighthouse, near the southernmost tip of mainland Nova Scotia (in Cape Sable). I stayed in Barrington Passage at the charming Salty Shores Inn & Café (only two rooms—quaint but comfortable). After a lobster dinner at Kat’s Lobster Shack, I drove ~20 minutes to Baccaro Point.

The site is relatively uncluttered: apart from a radar station and occasional cars, there isn’t too much to distract. I composed with care and waited as the sun first appeared behind the tower, then later sank into the sea behind it. I captured two distinct moods in the same location.

Gilbert’s Cove Lighthouse

I photographed Gilbert’s Cove during daylight. This lighthouse is lower and squat in stature, which presents compositional challenges. Shooting from the car park gives little variety, and in the morning, the sun’s angle (behind and to my right) was not ideal—even with a polarizer. I tried shooting from the beach with seaweed piles in the foreground, but none of the shots resonated with me. Sometimes, a location simply doesn’t yield the magic you hope for.

Gilbert’s Cove lighthouse, Nova Scotia

Kidston Island Lighthouse (Baddeck)

In Baddeck, I aimed for Kidston Island Lighthouse, which lies on an island in the Bras d’Or Lakes. Wikipedia The lighthouse is only accessible by boat (a ferry operates in summer). I found a land vantage point (via the Location Scout app) across the lake. One complication: the boardwalk was damaged and fenced off, so I set up along the roadside path.

I tried multiple compositions. Fortunately, light hit one side of the lighthouse beautifully, so I focused on that. The golden hour itself was somewhat subdued, but I was glad to have explored alternate angles earlier.

The lighthouse at Kidston Island, in the Bras d’Or Lake just across from Baddeck, in Nova Scotia

Louisbourg Lighthouse

While visiting the Louisbourg Fortress Museum, I also photographed the nearby lighthouse. This is a fairly busy site: it's within day-trip range of Sydney (and cruise ships), so coach loads of tourists arrive early. But many tours leave on schedule, giving you windows of relative solitude.

I used Location Scout again to identify a spot that was a little off the beaten path—one that many visitors won’t notice. There are also a pair of red wooden chairs there that can serve as compositional anchors.

Louisbourg lighthouse

Low Point Lighthouse

Low Point is more remote and harder to locate (you park at the end of a road and hike). But that also means fewer crowds at sunset—although I still saw local and Canadian tourists and some ATV riders. Composing was a bit tricky: wide angles revealed undesired trails and vegetation. Still, I captured a shot where the last rays of sun reflected off the terrain as the sun dipped below the horizon.

Low Point lighthouse at sunset

Nova Scotia lighthouse photography tips

1. Tripod

   Yes, it's a no-brainer for landscape photography but it can be a pain if you're travelling - especially long haul. I have a quite big and heavy (despite the carbon) Rollei C6 model that has stood me well over time. Remember, however, that you are going to be shooting on the coast and it can get very windy. In these situations, even a tripod is not much use. Unless you are looking to capture shots like the last two above, where the shutter speed is not too slow, a tripod in the wind is not going to help you get a sharp shot (unless you carry around separate sandbags to weigh it down with). In these cases you are better of cranking up the ISO and going for a faster shot. Forget about long exposures to flatten choppy waters!

2. Filters

   I always carry a selection of filters with me and my filter adapter attaches to a screw-on circular polariser. I have mixed feelings about the polariser: sometimes it's great for adding saturation, other times it just gets in the way by darkening only a portion of the sky. You really need to have the sun hitting the lens at just the right angle for it to work. I have a lot more success with my graduated ND filter for the kind of shots shown above. Even at sunset and during golden hour, the sky will still be lighter than your foreground, so it is great to be able to compensate for that. Addtional ND filters (ND8, ND 64 and ND1000 in my case) allow you to cut out the light and smooth water.C 

3. Cleaning gear

   I am my own worst enemy out in the field. I switch lenses without paying attention to wind or dust (the Nikon is a pain here as, unlike the Canon, the sensor is exposed when you change lenses unless you follow the cumbersome procedure of removing the battery while the camera is on, in which case the curtain covers the sensor) and when I open up the aperture beyond F11 I often see the results of my carelessness in the form of dust spots on my shots. Look after your lenses and your camera's sensor and pay extra attention when switching lenses in the field, particularly when you are in windy, salty or dusty environments.

4. Planning

   This is the most time-consuming but the most crucial aspect. I had a schedule and a rough idea of what I wanted to shoot but was subject to the weather. So if the weather is good you need to be ready to go, set up and shoot without worrying about anything else. I use the Location Scout application to find spots. The contributors sometimes give you useful tips for shooting a particular location and there is always a map showing where the sun rises and sets. As a avid Photopiller, this app is my go to for a number of things: sunrise and sunset planning, moon phases, night AR view for the Milky Way and exposure calculations when shooting long exposures with filters.     

This is a map showing the location of all the lighthouses shown above. I travelled a total of 2668km over 10 days on my trip to Nova Scotia.

Photos of the Combat des Reines in the Turtmanntal

Nestled high in the Swiss Alps, the Turtmanntal valley is one of Switzerland’s best‑kept secrets—closed off to traffic in winter, home only to a single family‑run hotel, and connected by a humble minibus linking Oberems to Senntum. Here, each spring brings an age‑old spectacle: the combat des reines, or “queen fights,” where cows from the Val d’Hérens breed test strength and hierarchy.

What Is the Combat des Reines?

Originating in the Valais region centuries ago, the combat des reines pits cows against one another in friendly yet fiercely contested bouts. Rather than mere entertainment, these contests determine the natural pecking order of the herd—ensuring that only the strongest queens lead each pasture. Unlike conventional bullfights, there is no human involvement; the animals lock horns and gently but firmly push until one yields.

A History Rooted in Alpine Tradition

First documented in the 15th century, these contests were used by herders to manage breeding stock and preserve the hardiest traits of the Valais breed. By the 19th century, neighboring hamlets turned these informal skirmishes into seasonal celebrations. Today, the combative gatherings remain tightly woven into regional identity, attracting photographers, agritourists and locals.

Cultural Significance in the Turtmanntal

The Turtmanntal combats stand apart for their intimate scale. With no grandstands or commercial fanfare, spectators perch on alpine meadows under open skies. The surrounding pines and granite ridges form a natural amphitheater—an authentic reminder that nature still reigns supreme here. For local families, these fights reaffirm communal bonds and herald the end of winter’s isolation. As with almost any event in the Valais, even in this relatively remote area there is no shortage of wine and cheese to sustain the crowds during a relatively long day.

Why Black and White Photography?

After reviewing my shots, I felt the combat des reines was portrayed best in monochrome. Here’s why I chose black and white photography for this story:

1. Timeless Atmosphere: Stripping away color returns us to the valley’s storied past—where medieval herders first watched their queens duke it out.

2. Textural Emphasis: The deep black hide of the cows is emphasised in black and white and the green of the fields and surrounding forests tended to distract from the scene. Switching to black and white draws the attention more towards the subjects in the frame: the cows and their herders, who are always standing nearby ready to intervene if a third cow decides it wants a piece of the action while two others are duelling.

Personal Reflections on the Turtmanntal

I try to visit the Turtmanntal at least once a year, but even that is not easy. The road into the valley usually opens only in late May, then closes again some time in October. I’ve hiked up to the Turtmannhütte, circled back to the Hollenstein chapel with its fantastic views back down the valley, done an early-morning hike up to the Meidsee, visited the sheep protection dogs with a breeder and now seen a natural “combat des reines”, where locals parked all along the side of the narrow road, even though there is a grass car park only a few hundred metres away (a nice quiet spot for motorhomes and, with clear skies and a new moon, a fantastic spot for stargazing).

Tips for Photographing the Combat des Reines

• Arrive Early for Light: My advice for any shoot. Getting there early gets you the best light but also the best parking spots and a chance to scout the location.

• Use a Fast Prime Lens or a telephoto: I shot with a 24-70 but a 70-200 or a fixed telephoto would let you get in close (the arena is closed off) and give you amazing shots. The cows dig out holes in the field, which throws up clouds of soil on a dry day, adding an extra touch of drama to your shot.

• Capture the Details: From mud‑caked horns to dust rising with each shove, get low or zoom tight to spotlight the grit of the ritual. Try to include the colourful characters of the herders and spectators.

• Tripod not necessary: I always have my tripod with me but on this occasion it was more of a hindrance than a help. I even shot handheld on my Mamiya RB67.

Embrace the Monochrome Moment

Beyond mere documentation, my black and white portfolio of the combat des reines invites viewers to witness an alpine tradition in its purest form. No color can replicate the elemental power, the textural richness, or the fleeting sparks of dust and muscle that define these bovine duels.

Whether you’re a culture seeker, an agritourist, or a fellow black and white photography enthusiast, the Turtmanntal’s queen fights offer an unforgettable blend of history, community, and raw natural beauty. Plan to visit between late spring and early summer, pack a sturdy tripod, and prepare to be transported—back in time and deep into the soul of Switzerland’s hidden valleys.

Useful tips

• Check the Alpe Rötigen Facebook Page to find out when it’s happening.

• Take public transport if you can - it will save you a lot of time compared with driving all the way up from Turtmann to Oberems

• Don’t forget to stop by the farm shop to take home some cheese!

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Dust flies as two cows engage in a fight to determine dominance in the herd at the combat des reines at Alpe Rötigen in the Turtmanntal, Valais, Switzerland.

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Two cows fighting as part of their natural instinct in the Alpaufzugarena at the Alpe Rötien in the Turtmanntal, Valais, Switzerland.

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A herder affectionately pats the head of his cow during the combat des reines at Alpe Rötigen in the Turtmanntal, Valais, Switzerland.

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A herder, wearing an edelweiss patterned shirt beloved of Swiss farmers, looks on with his cow during the combat des reines at the Alpe Rötigen in the Turtmanntal, Valais, Switzerland.

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An inquisitive cow comes to check out the spectators after losing a battle at the combat des reines at Alpe Rötigen in the Turtmanntal, Valais, Switzerland.

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A menacing looking cow parades around the perimeter of the arena at the combat des reines at Alpe Rötigen in the Turtmanntal, Valais, Switzerland.

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Two cows prepare to fight for dominance of the herd at the combat des reines at the Alpe Rötigen in the Turtmanntal, Valais, Switzerland.

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The Alpaufzug arena at Alpe Rötigen in the Turtmanntal, Switzerland, where the cows and their herders gather in late spring for the cows to fight for the natural pecking order within the herd before moving up to the alpine grazing pastures.

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A cows looks up affectionately as its herder pats its head at the combat des reines at Alpe Rötigen in the Turtmanntal, Valais, Switzerland.

Street Photography in Valletta, Malta: Early Starts & Hidden Gems

Street photography in Valletta, Malta, is a dream for any photographer seeking authenticity, history, and striking light. With its narrow limestone alleyways, colourful balconies, and baroque architecture, Valletta offers a rich canvas for storytelling. But to capture the city’s true essence, timing and location are everything.

Avoiding the crowds is crucial for powerful street photography in Valletta. Cruise ships and day-trippers can fill the main streets by mid-morning, so getting there early is essential. Aim to arrive just after sunrise, when the golden light hits the stone facades and the city begins to stir. You'll find locals opening shops, street sweepers finishing their rounds, and a calm, cinematic atmosphere perfect for candid shots.

To elevate your street photography, get off the beaten track. While Republic Street and Merchant Street are iconic, they’re often saturated with tourists. Instead, wander into the quieter side alleys and residential quarters like the lower parts of St. Ursula Street or the back lanes near Hastings Gardens. Here, you'll encounter everyday Maltese life—residents chatting on doorsteps, kids heading to school, or fishermen repairing nets.

For truly original results in your street photography, look beyond the obvious. Focus on shadows, textures, and fleeting expressions. Valletta’s layered history and changing light offer endless compositions for creative street photographers willing to explore.

Remember, patience and presence are key. The best street photography in Valletta isn’t found in guidebooks—it’s captured in those unscripted, quiet moments when the city reveals itself.

So grab your camera, get there early, avoid the crowds, and let Valletta’s hidden corners inspire your next photographic story.

Check out the results of my early morning trip in May below. There are shots of the colonial heritage (obligatory for me as a Brit) with the postbox and phone box. I saw examples of the post box on the web and thought that some AI had been used because the reflection on the left of the box looks weird. But this is indeed what you get early morning when the light is bouncing off the wall on the left back on to the left-hand side of the box. The shot of the balconies was an attempt to capture the architecture without any of the hustle and bustle below, so look up! The model photoshoot was sheer luck. I spotted her approaching, then saw the photographer so just held back and took some discreet shots. The final shot is a door that is so unused that dust has gathered on it an people have started writing messages in it. The square of light shining off it shows just how much variation in light you can get throughout the day. It’s probably no coincidence that the shots are all vertical. I shot horizontal photos as well in Valletta but the narrow streets mean that vertical shots naturally work better.

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Five must-see photo locations in Malta and Gozo for 2025: Hidden gems and iconic views

I visited Malta and Gozo in early May. For someone who lives in a landlocked country, the opportunity to explore an island that measures less than 30km long and 15km wide, plus the smaller island of Gozo, offers numerous opportunities to combine coastal landscape photography with historical architecture and some unusual urban photography. Despite iconic photo locations such as the Azure Window collapsing in recent years due to natural erosion, Malta and Gozo continue to captivate photographers with their natural beauty. If you're planning your 2025 photo journey through these Mediterranean gems, here are five must-visit photo locations based on my own experience on-location.

1. Il-Karraba Ridge, Għajn Tuffieħa – Sunset Spectacle by the Sea

Il-Karraba ridge at sunset. Nikon Z7ii, 14-30mm f4. Shot at @20mm, f8, ISO 100, 25 seconds.

Nestled between Għajn Tuffieħa Bay and Ġnejna Bay, Il-Karraba Ridge offers one of Malta's most breathtaking coastal landscapes. This clay cliff formation is a dream for sunset photography. The unique terrain, combined with the golden Mediterranean light, provides endless compositional opportunities—from minimalist silhouettes to sweeping wide-angle shots. The cracked soil in particular offers endless opportunities to create leading lines. I faced the usual challenge of an underexposed foreground and an overexposed background, adding my own layer of complexity by shooting long exposures. A tripod and filters are essential here, and my trusted graduated neutral density filter helped to take out some of the highlights. In my final edit I deliberately kept some of the blown highlights for a pretty aggressive look. As this spot faces west, it attracts a lot of people for the sunset. Get there early, take some time to scout for a good spot and then wait. I stayed in the same spot for around an hour.

2. Parliament Building, Valletta – Architectural Geometry

Designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano, Valletta's Parliament Building is a masterpiece of contemporary architecture harmonizing with Malta’s traditional limestone aesthetic. Its bold geometric façade creates compelling patterns, perfect for architectural and abstract photography. The stairs on the right-hand side of the building offer great potential for some candid street photography if you can catch people at the right time as the sun casts a diagonal shadow across the stairs. Unfortunately, the hordes of tourists groups and cruise ship visitors seem to head straight down the main street and miss this architectural marvel. I did all my Valletta shots relatively early in the morning and the light was great. I deliberately take only my 50mm prime lens for street photography because it forces me to consider my composition. In this case I honed in on the façade to highlight the intriguing shapes and geometric patterns.

A close-up of the façade of the Parliament Building in Valletta. Nikon Z7ii, 50mm f1.8. Shot at f8, ISO 160, 1/640 seconds.

3. Marsalforn Salt Pans, Gozo – Ancient Grids at Golden Hour

The salt pans at Marsalform shot at sunrise. Nikon Z7ii, 14-30mm. Shot at 30mm, f8, ISO 64, 1/250 seconds.

Located on Gozo’s northern coast, the Marsalforn Salt Pans are not only culturally significant but also visually mesmerizing. Carved into the coastal rock and still in use today, these salt pans offer a striking checkerboard pattern that reflects the changing sky. The coast here runs east to west and I got there in time for sunrise. There was not much in the way of a golden hour but if you have a polarising filter you can catch the early-morning sun reflecting off the pools. This is a protected site so you cannot simply wander around the salt pans looking for the best composition. There is a concrete pathway half-way along the coast where you can set up to look east for the sunrise. But as always with sunrises, don’t forget to look behind you as the sun lights up the coast looking westwards.

4. Typical Maltese architecture

You cannot fail to notice the typical style of Maltese appartment blocks with their distinctive coloured protrusions. Taking a street photography approach and armed only with my 50mm prime lens, I wanted to capture only this essential element of the Maltese style, without any extraneous details. If you wander around Valletta early in the morning and frame your shot looking upwards, even if you are surrounded by tourists and traffic, you can capture a moment in time that features none of them.

No self-respecting building in Malta is complete without a brightly painted wooden extension pinned to its façade. Look up, find the colours and shoot. Nikon Z7ii, 50mm f1.8. Shot at 50mm, f8, ISO 160, 1/640 seconds.

5. The red tower and sunset by an old NATO radar station

If you plan well and scout your locations in advance, you can get two good golden hour and sunset shots here. The first is the striking St. Agatha’s Tower, whose dark red adobe-style finish comes alive in the orange glow of golden hour. Head further down the road to the very end and, if you wander around a bit, you can find several composition to catch the setting sun.

An evening shot of the Red Tower in Malta, Nikon Z7ii, 50mm f1.8. Shot at 50mm, f8, ISO 64, 1/250 seconds.

Sunset with a ramshackle hut in the foreground. Nikon Z7ii, 50mm f1.8. Shot at f8, ISO 64, 1/250 seconds.

Malta has a great bus network but if you’re planning sunrise and sunet shots it probably won’t help you much. I hired a car from the airport, where there is a good selection of companies with reasonable rates. The weather while I was there was not great and included a day of torrential rain and as the population is neither used to that or equipped for it I found myself behind a car whose tyres did not have enough profile to drive up a gentle hill in the rain! Driving in the centre of Valletta is not easy, even with your choice of Apple Car Play or Google Maps, so be warned. The ferry to Gozo runs 24 hours, however, so you can get a very early morning crossing to catch the sunrise locations.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve been or if you plan to go and what you thought/think.

Canonet QL 17 review and sample images

Can you “rediscover” film photography if you never really discovered it in the first place? My experience of photography in my childhood amounted to nothing more than using a 110 cartridge film camera with precisely no functions or controls other than not letting you wind more than one frame at a time (a basic function that the Holga 120N lacks, but which also gives you more freedom for creative expression.

I still have many of the prints from these cameras in albums that date back to the late 1990s and early 2000s. The “unique” look of film that is so often touted by fans of “analogue” photography is certainly there, but so are the clear results of an inability to take any control of the camera, such as unwanted blur and over or under exposure.

After gaining all my knowledge and experience on digital cameras, I thought it was about time to see whether the new-found interest in analogue cameras was worth looking into. My experiments with the Holga 120N, which started from a simple desire to try out “Holgaramas” left me disappointed. You get what you pay for, which in the case of the Holga is not very much. At least as far as the camera is concerned. Buying and developing 120 film is an entirely different matter when you may only get two or three frames from a 16 shot roll that might be usable. So my attention wandered to an affordable 35mm camera with a full manual mode and I inevitably stumbled across the Canonet QL17, also known as the “Texas Leica”.

Finding a Canonet QL17

I scoured my annual second-hand photo fair in Vevey, Switzerland and found precisely zero Canonets. The best place to look if you are serious is on Ebay, where second-hand cameras are big in Japan. All the listings are by professional companies that deal solely in second-hand camera gear and have their own temperature controlled warehouses. They have a clear grading scale so that you know the condition of what you are bidding on before you start looking at the photos. I would recommend taking a good look at the product shots, however, as there may be a tiny defect visible on the camera or the lens (although this is usually indicated).

You’ll find a choice of the original steel housing with exposed brushed steel or an all-black version. I opted for the latter in a near-mint version, which cost me around 200 Swiss francs plus delivery and a further 20-30 francs of import duty for which I received a separate invoice from Fedex a few weeks after buying the camera. It came well-sealed in a protective packaging and is in pretty good condition.

Using the canonet QL17

After watching some Youtube videos and given that the QL in the Canonet QL17 stands for “quick load”, I thought that using the camera would be easy. Perhaps it is for someone who has a bit more patience and common sense than me but I ended up ruining the first two rolls of film I shot; the first by not pressing the button on the underside of the body before rewinding the roll and then wondering what that horrible tearing sound was; the second by somehow not even managing to load the film correctly.

Once you’ve got the hand of loading and unloading film, there is not much more you need to know. Set the film speed using the finnicky switch on the lens and you’re good to go. You can get an expensive adapter so that you can use pen cell batteries for the auto exposure mode, but where’s the fun in that? I tried to stick to the “Sunny 16” rule for my first few rolls, using the reciprocal of the film speed at f16 in sunny conditions, then stepping down according to the light. The big challenge here is determining what is actually sunny and what isn’t (see the sample photos below). I’m used to shooting digital on a tripod, so long exposures are my thing, which meant it took some getting used to the more limited range of shutter speeds.

The rangefinder focussing was also something new for me but it’s pretty intuitive: move the focus ring to line up the centre image with the surrounding image and bingo! Or, unless you are shooting something quite close up and with a large depth of field, just leave it on infinity.

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Sample images from the canonet ql17

The good

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Futamigaura couples stones

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Futamigaura

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Nagasaki tram

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Kumamoto castle (vertical)

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Kumamoto castle (horizontal)

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Lake Ikeda golden torii

The mixed

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Toyota MR2

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Beppu hot springs

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Flowers at hot spring

The bad

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Forest

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Nagasaki restaurant

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Nagasaki street view

The story behind the shot - Hotel Belvedere at night

The Hotel Belvedere is a must-see photo opportunity for any trip on Switzerland’s Grand Tour, but it can be difficult to photograph due to the proximity of the road, the traffic and - depending on the time of year - the tourists stopping to photograph the hotel and visit the nearby ice grotto inside the Rhone glacier.

Yes it’s an Instagram magnet and yes it’s probably been shot thousands of times from every angle. But that was a great reason to head up there just to see if I could do something different. So, on a cold late autumn night, I headed down from the Grimselpass after the golden hour failed to materialise and then up the Furkapass road to the unmistakable hairpin bend that is dominated by the long-abandoned Belvedere Hotel.

A cold autumn night is actually one of the best times to photograph this hotel. Night falls early and nobody is around (there was just a German-registered motorhome on the car park when I arrived). If you’re using a wide-angle lens, you can stand right by the side of the road opposite the Hotel Belvedere and frame your shot low. But there is a risk that the lights from the car park behind you might cast a shadow in front and spoil your composition.

The shot I had in mind was a straight on shot with the camera low to the ground (something like this) but the light from the car park was indeed a problem, casting a shadow of me right in the middle of the shot. Nevertheless, with some tripod adjustment and some careful cropping, I managed to get a decent shot of the Hotel Belvedere against the backdrop of a cloudless starry sky.

Attempt no. 1: Straight on, low down, nice starry sky in the background.

Having just posted the photo in here and looked at it again, it doesn’t look too bad. The noise reduction in Lightroom might be a bit much and you can see the reflection of the light from the carpark on the front door and the first floor boarded-up windows (although this does make it look a bit like there is a light on in a bedroom).

By this time I had had a few chances to work on settings to get the light trails right. I could see and hear the cars coming from a long way away, which gave me plenty of time to prepare. After a few attempts where either the ISO or shutter speed were too high, blowing out the highlights, I got it more or less right.

Then I changed my position to the left-hand side of the hotel. I knew I wouldn’t get any leading lines, as the road moves up and away from the hotel, but the 14mm lens could get all of the side of the hotel in and all of the road sweeping around. Unfortunately, I had a lot less warning about traffic coming down the hill, so an unexpected late-night postbus caught me by surprise.

Attempt no. 2: The postbus passing. Blown out highlights on the left, impossible to vertically align and a halo above the Hotel Belvedere (corrected here slightly).

It’s not the first time I’ve tried to get light trails from a bus on a hairpin bend, but it’s not an easy shot. The two layers of light trails can be nice, but the bus is travelling slower than other traffic and its bigger headlights can blow out the higlights. My tripod was quite low to the ground so that accentuates this and the framing of the shot at this point meant that it’s impossible to correct the vertical alignment without losing the light trails on the left.

But, after some tweaking and the time to prepare for a car coming up the hill, I managed to get something at least a little less formulaic. This more unusual shot of the Hotel Belvedere allowed me to capture the full length of the hotel and the full hairpin bend of the road, meaning that the light trails transition nicely from the headlights to the tail lights.

Attempt no. 3: The full hotel and the full hairpin bend visible (cropped as a square shot).

I find that nightscapes work well on aluminium dibond. This photograph of the Hotel Belvedere at night with light trails is available in a range of sizes in my shop.