Marrakech Bleu Photo

Photographer’s Note

Marrakech bleu

The special shade of cobalt blue used here on the former atelier of expatriate French painter and graphic designer Jacques Majorelle has become so famous that it's named after its creator – “Majorelle bleu”. It’s also used extensively in the famous garden in Marrakech (Jardin Majorelle) that belongs to this building.
This garden, the Jardin Majorelle (Arabic: حديقة ماجوريل‎ ), is botanical. It was designed in 1924, during the colonial period when Morocco was occupied by France. Majorelle's art is largely forgotten today. His oeuvre was made up of Orientalist watercolours and travel posters and the garden he created is considered to be his creative masterpiece. It has been open to the public since 1947. After a period of neglect the garden was bought in 1980 by Yves Saint-Laurent who had it renovated.
The former atelier houses the Islamic Art Museum of Marrakech, whose collection includes North African textiles from Saint-Laurent's personal collection as well as ceramics, jewellery, and paintings by Majorelle.
(This is a heavily edited version of the Wikipedia text.)

The garden is a wonderful and also tranquil place - when you’re successful in evading the tourist hordes that is. We went to the garden after a long walk through the busy Nouvelle Ville (called Gueliz) at the end of the afternoon and it was lovely as the crowd had thinned out considerably.

In the WS I present an alternative view.

The process: I knew I would be shooting lots of architecture in Marrakech so along with the Canon and the Fuji I took my old Olympus with me and again it didn’t let me down in the way it inspired while shooting and rendered light and textures. And yes I know, this is one of the most famous doors and façades on TE but this time I couldn’t resist posting it – not wanting to miss the oppertunity to have this great colour in my portfolio ;-)
The PCS3 work flow: I corrected for perspective distortion, altered the saturation, contrast, curves and levels for the whole pic and some elements separately, using different layers, merged the layers, ran the high pass filter with a gentle setting on a seperate 24% opacity layer, merged the layers, USM-ed, added a frame and resized and did a gentle USM (1,0px, 21%) again.

Camera Manufacturer : OLYMPUS CORPORATION
Camera Model : C8080 WZ
Exposure time [s] : 1/160
F-Number : 4.5
Exposure program : Aperture priority (3)
ISO speed ratings : 50
Date taken : 2008:03:06 16:57:07
Exposure bias value : -1/1
Metering mode : Multi-spot (4)
Focal length [mm] : 12.4000
Colour space : sRGB
Image width : 3264
Image length : 2448
Interoperability offset : 1268
Exposure mode : Manual (1)
White balance : Auto (0)
Contrast : Normal (0)
Saturation : High (2)
Sharpness : Hard (2)

carper, Pascale, KLB, jhm, lucasgalodoido, Floydian, Tue, Gerrit, syd1946, UlfE, alvaraalto, Porteplume, feather, pasternak, zmey, srgabreu, Cricri, Vames, andante has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

carper (60991) 2008-03-28 1:04

hele fraaie foto Bert.
mooi blauw is niet lelijk. echt schitterende samenstelling, dat een eenvoudig iets zo mooi kan zijn, prachtig fotowerk hier Bert. Prettige dag.
groet Jaap

kapt73 (442) 2008-03-28 1:09

hello bert
blue is my favorite colour and that's great comp lighting comes up and shadows i like it.
zeynep

Pascale (9860) 2008-03-28 1:14

Bonjour Bert
merveilleuse cette photo.J'aime beaucoup ces bleus et cette composition les met superbement en valeur avec ce jeu de lumière et ces touches de jaune
Excellent travail
Amitiés

KLB (14822) 2008-03-28 1:39

Hello Bert

This famous blue Majorelle is so marvelous...
Very effective shot, with the play between light and shadow which gives a beautiful pattern.
Yellow and blue are very eye-catching.
A strong image, with a perfect quality.
Very well done.

Regards,
Karine

MiguelP (14215) 2008-03-28 2:14

Both photos are very nice and special Bert. I went to Morrocco back in 1990, I have to go back some of these days, for sure. I love how you have composed the image with the light on the right of the frame. It is kind of calm photo, very relaxed. Thanks!

turansezer (929) 2008-03-28 2:31

Very nice colour and composition
Turan

holmertz (7708) 2008-03-28 3:01

Hello Bert,
An extremely attractive picture with a very interesting play of shapes, colours and light. A good observation.
Regards,
Gert

jhm (76918) 2008-03-28 3:10

Hallo beste vriend Bert,

Bijna niemand kan u dit nadoen, fel blauw kleur gekoppeld aan de afwissling met het licht inval recht, wat op dat moment de kleur verzacht en aantrekkelijk maakt.
Het kunst werk met het vester is een toemaatje bij deze interieur foto.
Mooi werk Bert.
Bedankt!

Prettig weekend gewenst uit een killig Vlaanderen met 6.4°
John.

macondo (11881) 2008-03-28 4:44

Hello Bert.
I have never seen this garden, but I am sure your camera's rendition of this fantastic blue is very faithful to the original. You composed the shot well, with marvellous silhouette shadows on the right and a balancing area of light in the bottom left corner. You also captured the nuances of shade on the blue wall very well too. Beautiful shot.
Regards,
Andrew

lucasgalodoido (14231) 2008-03-28 4:53

Hi Bert,
interesting this composition in blue and yellow, one simple photo, but a great work.
Congratulations and Hug!

Floydian (30970) 2008-03-28 6:44

Hallo Bert,
Heel artistiek, heel mooi gebracht en gepresenteerd. Dat diepe blauw heb je werkelijk schitterend weten vast te leggen. Die gele vaas, maar vooral dat bruin is absoluut meesterlijk gezien.
Een prachtige foto, niets op aan te merken, ik mag zoiets graag zien.
Groet, Henk

Tue (25367) 2008-03-28 9:40

Hi Bert,
Dit blauw is echt fantastisch mooi! Een hele aangename kleur en het contrasteert hier ook heel sterk met de warm-gele tinten van het raam en de deur. De lichtval door het rooster is ook leuk en zorgt voor een prachtig schaduweffect. Mooi werk, bedankt!
Groeten,
Lars

janneman (1072) 2008-03-28 11:55

Het huis en de tuin van Majorelle zijn niet alleen uniek, maar ook bijoznder mooi. Ik was er enkele jaren geleden ook. Helaas voordat ik digitaal ging.
Dit hoekje van het huis staat al meerdere malen op TE.
Jou foto is het mooitst! Dat komt omdat je een iets ander standpunt hebt ingenomen, waardoor er een evenwichtigere compositie ontstaat met de bloempotten en de verschillende muurvlakken.
Het "roostereffect" van het zonlicht op de muur rechts was natuurlijk helemaal boffen. Het maakt de plaat nog bijzonderder!!
TFS!

Gerrit (33056) 2008-03-28 14:13

Dag Bert,
Mooie foto en geweldig blauw.
Groeten Gerrit

syd1946 (17549) 2008-03-28 14:44

Hello Bert,
Once more you play very well with the form in a photo...And together with the splendid colors you give us this fine photographic result.I always admire how you composed so fine images file mou...

kalo Savvatokiriako,
Thomas

UlfE (7994) 2008-03-29 2:26

Hi Bert,

This is a marvelous picture. Very, very well-composed and I could not imagine a better perspective. The cobalt blue and all the other colours are superb. I love the pattern of the light from the windows. TFS and have a nice weekend!

Cheers,

Ulf

Morac (16872) 2008-03-29 4:37

Hello Bert,

When one passes to Marrakech it is impossible to resist the blue of the Majorelle garden.
This photo has all its place in the topic : Majorelle.
Regards
Marc

alvaraalto (4347) 2008-03-29 14:49

Hallo Bert,

Een schitterende blauwe compositie. Blauw is een kleur die zich prachtig in allerlei tinten laat combineren. Hier zorgt het invallende licht voor een extra dimensie.

groet Rob

PS Wat dacht je van een bezoekje aan John?

Stepan (27163) 2008-03-30 1:58

I have a great souvenir of the place... You composed it well, with the sunrays on the right. And you managed it ok to have a deep stunning blue color.
BIG visual impact. Excellent.
Stéphane

edifice (377) 2008-04-01 8:10

Hello Bert,
Fantastic colors and shadows. thanks for sharing
regards
Edifice

Porteplume (3239) 2008-04-01 11:10

"Bleu de Grèce" ou "Bleu du Maroc"... Ah! Le merveilleux "Bleu Bertolucci" de nouveau... Et j'adore! Je vais donc de nouveau te demander une copie pour mon utilisation personnelle! ;o))) - Pour mettre à côté de celle-ci.

Hallo Bert,
Genoeg Franse les voor nu... Het is een schitterend foto door het grafische spel van licht en schaduw en door de buitengewone "scherpheid". Heel mooi werkelijk!

Amical bonjour de Tholen - Viviane

Enidlareg (2309) 2008-04-01 13:41

Hello bert
The blue colour is superb : an unconvincing intensity, and the light is splendid.
The POV is superb because our eye follows the curve of the wall.
Finally, neatness is flawless.
Géraldine

corniste (3709) 2008-04-01 15:14

hello Bert,

This deep blue si stunning and the shadow effect on the wall is not bad either! All the forms and colors are just perfect.

have a great day!

feather (46273) 2008-04-02 7:46

Who could resist such a wonderful colour! I also like the spots of light as they come through the lattice work. The WS is wonderful too and would make an excellent main post.
Well done
Kath

pasternak (12671) 2008-04-04 3:44

Hi Bert, I believe I have already seen this window and pot on TE, but your picture is wonderful, with the shadows on the right adding lots of interest and character to the scene.

Cheers
Alexander

zmey (7257) 2008-04-04 14:52

hello bert

juicy and wonderful! the shadows bring out the true nature of the blue and add variety and depth to your composition. love the colors and lights in this one. sharpness and detail are impeccable too.

my compliments
kristaps

brevbrev14 (364) 2008-04-07 5:28

Hi Bert, beautiful graphisme here!
great title too..
the composition is superb!
have a great week! :))
ciao!
Valeria

Cricri (38422) 2008-05-20 11:45

Hi Bert,
Un bleu qui ne passe pas inaperçu et décoré avec soin, vraiment trés jolie ainsi que celle en WS,
j'espére voir ce jardin a mon séjour la bas en septembre
Have a nice evening
cricri

Vames (4356) 2008-10-18 8:14

ciao Bert,che bella colore azzuro e magnifico finestra e porta!

Hanssie (9131) 2008-10-30 6:54

W O W ! ! !
Superb !

andante (7092) 2009-02-23 6:11

Hi Bert,

Such a minimalistic approach to the architecture, yet with great results. Love the geometry of the design and, of course, that powerful blue. Great capture,
Cheers,
E