Casablanca Hassan II Mosque

Marty CohenArchitecture, Morocco4 Comments

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Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca

The Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca is the 3rd largest mosque in the world.

Many of the greatest sights in Morocco are in the Moroccan architecture. As a Muslim country, there are many Mosques which can easily be located by their Minaret, a tall slender tower from which the call to prayer originates five times daily.

This minaret is more than 650 feet high. The mosque was constructed between 1987 and 1993 by a team of 35,000 and its foundation sits partly on land and partly in the sea.

The Hassan II Mosque is one of the largest in the world and covers almost a million square feet. Its very large main prayer hall can hold 25,000 worshipers. It’s an exceptional representation of Moroccon artistry for its details. It was located in Casablanca primarily so that the largest city in the kingdom would have a monument worthy of its size.

The main prayer hall in the Mosque (image below) has a retractable roof so that it can be converted into a courtyard.

Main Hall - Hassan II Mosque Casablanca

Main Hall – Hassan II Mosque, Casablanca

The beauty of the carved stucco, mosaic tile work and marble details is breathtaking.

Interior, Hasan II Mosque

Interior, Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca

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Welcome to the Sahara Desert in Morocco

Marty CohenLandscape, Morocco6 Comments

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Welcome to the Sahara Desert

Sunrise in the Sahara Desert – Morocco

We just returned from an amazing two-week trip to Morocco in North Africa. It was a wonderful experience and one from which I learned a great deal about a culture and religion different from my own. I’ll have more to share about that in future photo postings here, but I wanted the first photo I posted to be one of the Sahara Desert. I loved being there and it was magical to be able to photograph the sand dunes at sunrise.

A very special part of taking this photograph was that Cathleen had climbed the lower dunes on the left side and is actually in this image, sitting on the sand meditating. You’ll need to click on the image to enlarge it to see her in the lower left section.

This photo was taken with a Canon EOS 6D, EF24-105mm f/4L IS lens, 1/800 sec at f/16 -1 1/2 EV, ISO 2500 captured on a Lexar 400x SDXC UHS-1 memory card.

Pebble Beach Clouds

Marty CohenBeach + Ocean, Pebble Beach9 Comments

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Pebble Beach Clouds

Great clouds at the water in Pebble Beach 9-2-13

For my birthday yesterday, we took our dog Lulu for walk along the walking trail in Pebble Beach. While the ocean was pretty calm, the clouds were really interesting. It was as if someone had taken a paint roller and run it across the sky in a wide path. This part of the Central Coast of California is so beautiful, and great clouds add that extra touch.

This photo was taken with a Canon EOS 6D, EF24-105mm f/4L IS lens, 1/250 sec at f/13, ISO 250 captured on a Lexar 400x SDXC UHS-1 memory card

Catherine’s Thread

Marty CohenColorado, Miscellaneous6 Comments

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Catherine's Thread

Thread organized on the wall in Catherine’s sewing room.

Catherine is the wife of Cathleen’s cousin Bob. In their home in Colorado she has a sewing room where she makes clothing. On the wall is a simple wood organizer she uses to hold and organize her spools of thread. I loved the mix of colors and how this very functional spool holder was also a work of art on the wall.

ADDENDUM: Catherine’s son Matt left a comment that the wooden frame and partitions in which the spools of thread are organized is actually an old “type drawer” used by printers.

This photo was taken with a Canon EOS 6D, EF24-105mm f/4L IS lens, 1/13 sec at f/5.6, ISO 4,000 captured on a Lexar 400x SDXC UHS-1 memory card

Maroon Creek

Marty CohenColorado4 Comments

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Maroon Creek

Water in Maroon Creek runs under a wooden walking bridge from the Maroon bells into Maroon Lake, about 12 miles south of Aspen, Colorado.

Last week I posted an image of the Maroon Bells Mountains and Maroon Lake. There is a nice trail from the lake that loops up towards the peaks and  back called the Maroon-Snowmass Trail. It’s surrounded by beautiful wildflowers. Along the trail is a narrow wooden walking bridge that passes over a section of rapids of one fork of the West Maroon Creek that then flows into the lake. Because there were nice rapids there, I wanted to take some long exposure shots that would blur and smooth out the flowing water. There was also iridescent green moss growing on some of the boulders in the creek.

To be able to get a long enough exposure to blur the water movement, I had to reduce the amount of light entering the camera lens. I did this by placing a 10-stop neutral density filter over the lens. In that way, to get enough light to see the creek, I had to take an exposure of 1 second. Of course, I used my new travel tripod (I love this tripod).

If you want to see the other Colorado trip images, just CLICK HERE.

This photo was taken with a Canon EOS 6D, EF24-105mm f/4L IS lens, 10-stop ND filter, 1 second at f/22, ISO 200 captured on a Lexar 400x SDXC UHS-1 memory card