This proven to be one of the most testing days that I have ever had whilst travelling.

We started with a morning free of lessons, most people decided to do a bit of shopping. Juliette was propositioned by quite a few men in the street. The bluntness of their Approaches was quite unsettling for her and caused a little unrest. We saw her back at the hotel have g embarked on a little retail therapy and arriving back with a huge tajin!

My own shopping consisted of a crystal that is used as a deodorant and a small porcelain drum. I fear I may have got a small boy in trouble as he may have sold it too cheaply. I paid a little over ���1 and his opening habit would have been Around ���10. With haggling I'd have expected to pay around ���5. We made the deal and a man came out of the store asked me how much I pAid, shook my hand and then started berating the poor boy.

In the afternoon we headed to the port to try out documentary blank and White shots. I really enjoyed this style of photography and I'm very pleased with the images I produce. I think this could be my niche.

Unfortunately, the afternoon was somewhat soured. At the port I met a man named Hassan who would act as a guide for me. We went around the port between boats , etc. The guy seemed genuine enough and we bumped into Kirsten who was shooting as well. She had met Hassan previously and had no problems with him.

When it was time to leave he asked me for 'a little something for his family'. I was quite happy to give him a little money for acting as a guide. I put my hand in my pocket to get a 20Dr note. But when I did this Hassan grabbed my wrist and grabbed all the notes from my pocket. I had been to the bank earlier to get money for the night, so this was about ���50. He shoved the notes into his pocket and started to wAlk away. I grabbed his shoulders and pushed him against a wall. I put my hand into his pocket and grabbed all the cash I could feel. Unfortunately, this turned out to be about 400Dr (���40), meaning that he got away with ���10. In the long term that is nothing, but I was so annoyed. Amazingly he started to walk after me demanding money. I basically told him to fuck off. I can't imagine what his thought process was. I'm twice his size and a good foot and a half taller then him. How had he expected me to react? To laugh it off?

Jon and Mike said that I handled it well and at least I got most of the money back. They were apologetic and quite taken aback for the bad experience and it was the first time on one of their trips that something like this had happened. It was of course not their fault in any way at all. I think they've been brilliant with the organisation of the trip. There is no way that they could predict that this would be the day that someone decided to be an idiot. The fact is that there are always dangers whilst travelling, and sometimes bad things happen. In the short term I'm down a few quid, in the long term I have a story for the pub.

In the evening we had a Moroccan cooking lesson from a woman named Zora. We were taken into the Market to buy the ingredients for a chicken tajine. Veg was bought fresh and we also bought apricots and prunes.

We then went to get the chicken.

The more squeamish of the group stayed in the street as a few of us went into the small square where the animals are kept and slaughtered. We went to a small stand with hundreds of live chickens. Zora selected a couple and the butcher pulled them out.

First he broke the wings of each chicken to prevent it from struggling. Then he weighed them. Once satisfied he held the chicken upside down and slit their throats with a long knife. The chickens were then placed into funnels with collected to blood. Only the chickens legs were visible sticking out of the funnels. The legs and feet thrashed about for a surprisingly long time before they finally succumbed.

The butcher then removed the chickens from the funnels and placed them into what appeared to be a giant sander. This removed the feathers from the birds. He then took his knife and slit the birds lengthways removing their innards. Finally he chopped the birds into quarters, wrapped them and handed the now prepared birds to Zora.

The above may sound gruesome, but it was over in a matter of minutes. The killing of the birds took seconds. As a consumer of meat, I think that it is important to remember that they were once living creatures. Chicken, beef etc does not magically arrive in the cellophane wrApped packages we see in supermarkets. This was an ideal reminder.

We then went to Zora's school. We grated the veg and cooked them. The Prunes and apricots were prepared and stuffed with chopped almonds, peanuts , cinnamon And a little orange water. The chicken was placed int the huge earthenware tajin and put on a cooking fire inside the room. After a while the fruit was added. We also made samosa like triangles of Filofax pastry stuffed with veg, cheese and mashed potato.

After what seemed an eternity the food was ready and it was very good. Best tajine that I’ve had yet. Claudia was not feeling at all well by this point and had to head back to the hotel, whichwas a real shame as she and Juliette had made loads of the little samosas, but she never go to eat any! Afterwards those of us that weren’t after an early night headed to Taros for a few drinks before retiring at midnight.

I’m in the middle of a three hour drive to Marrakech, and writing this on my iPhone (hence the occasional crazy spelling). Marrakech is supposedly even more manic then Essenoria. God knows how I’ll react to the crowds when I arrive, but right now I just want to get out of this boiling hot van and have some cold water before I completely dehydrate!

I woke this morning feeling very dehydrated. It is amazing just how much having a two beers with a meal instead of just the one can dehydrate you. A litre of water and one breakfast later and I was beginning to feel human again. We then sat down to review the book covers that we had shot the previous day. It was during this that I realised that my taste in photos seems to differ quite significantly from everyone else’s. Of the images selected as favourites, I had written in my notes that I thought they were very pretty, but not doing much for me. This wasn’t to say they weren’t good images, but that I did not feel they fitted the extract of the book that I had read. When it comes down to it, whether we like something or not is purely down to personal taste. My taste seems to differ from the group.

I will say this on the subject of personal preference: Jon showed us the covers of the previously released editions of the novel and I vastly preferred any single image that was taken yesterday to any of the previous ‘official’ shots.

We then sat down to talk about composition and genres. For me this is going to be the real meat of the course. I want to improve my composition whilst on site and not be relying on cropping in post production so much. I also what to find which genre suits me best, so that I can begin to develop my skills in that area. Jon then talked though the rules of composition, explaining how something as simple as the way a face is turned can have a major impact on the emotional feel of a shot. This is a new concept to me and it is something else that I will have to start considering when shooting.

For lunch we made or way to the main square for a seafood lunch. Despite being an island boy and having plenty of fishermen in family and having been a fishmonger myself, I have to confess that I am not a seafood person. Plates of sardines, whitefish and prawns were brought out. Then they moved onto the ugly stuff. Sea anemones which were to be scooped out and eaten. Then something resembling my worst childhood nightmares was brought out. It had the look of a lobster with its front claws and tail removed. Completely armour plated, I expect to see it in a sci-fi movie attacking Arnold Schwarzenegger, not here on my dinner plate. Despite my eyes telling my stomach to dive for cover, I tucked in with everyone else. After all when in Rome..... I can’t say it was my favourite meal, and I won’t be rushing back for seconds, but as a one time thing I was interesting.

Afterward we went into the main square to start learning about how we can influence the light around it. Using rudimentary reflectors made from gold and silver wrapping paper, and a couple of Mikes t-shirts, we looked how we can bounce light to fill in shadows, or add colour depending on the colour of the reflector. At one point Jon was stood against a wall, shades on and this sliver reflector throwing this great dappled light on him. It had kind of a rock star vibe. Combined with all the cameras pointing at him this must have been the impression that we gave because one of the locals came to ask if Jon was famous.

We split into groups and each took turns at shooting, posing and holding the reflectors. I had a lot of fun shooting and doing portraits. I’ve a feeling that shooting people is going to be the road I end up going down. This makes it even more important that I break through that confidence barrier and start approaching and talking to strangers, and getting them to allow me to photograph them. I think this is going to prove more difficult for me then anything technical that we have done so far.

In the evening a group of us went to a bar named Taros to watch the sunset. This is where a couple of us had gone on the first night. After a beautiful sunset we went for a meal at a restaurant called after 5. I spent the night chattering away to Christ and Claudia about art and the course. It was good fun and I wish I could do this more back home.

Tomorrow is a free morning, then we will go out to shoot black and white images - something I’m really looking forward to. Then later in the afternoon, we apparently have a surprise.

Lessons this morning consisted of critiquing our shots from the previous days exercise. The shots were quite varied broaching quite an array of subject. My shots were not savaged quite as much as I expected. I submitted three shots. One of some carved animals in a shop window.

A man passing through one of the gates to the medina.

A ‘safe’ shot of boats in the fishing harbour with a keep in the background. This shot I was not particularly happy with, but though it suited the brief more then some of the shots that I do like.

We were then handed the next brief - to shoot a cover of a book set in Morocco named the Spider’s House. We were given an extract of the book to read and then to think of an angle and the kind of shots that we wanted to get. My immediate impression was that the subject of the book was isolated and feeling quite desperate. He wanted to run away and I wanted to reflect that. I had two concepts in mind - one to have a person walking through through light - momentarily leaving his dark life and into the light. The second was to take shots from an elevated position, with the intention of trying to isolated a person in a crowd. Jon suggested that I try and find someone standing on their own and using a slower shutter speed to create some motion blur around the subject further deepening that sense of isolation.

I went out in to the Mediana with Laura, just walking around trying to find location to shoot our ideas. I eventually found an arch that came close to what I was envisioning. I placed some rose petals on the floor and waited for the right person to come along. This took far longer then expected. People walked in groups, or were French tourists or simply did not come down the street at all. Eventually a man came down that was perfect - he had the exact dress and look that I wanted. But he spotted the camera and deliberately walked out of the shot. Gutted. I did get a shot similar to that which I planned, and was pretty pleased with it. I was to have my first 1-on-1 session later with Jon so I headed back to the hotel for that. We talked about my style of shooting, and what style he saw me shooting in. What he suggested came as a bit of a surprise as its not a genre that I’ve done much of.

The biggest obstacle that I have is simply approaching people in the street. I don’t yet have the confidence to just approach someone, talk to them and then take pictures. I have resolved that I will do this at least once before the end of the week.

After my session with Jon, I went to the roof of the hotel to try and shoot my second idea. This was not so successful. I could not get a decent angle into the street. It was an interesting excerise from a technical point of view, but not suited to the brief. I’d like to try and get the shot again, if I can find the right location. The problem is finding somewhere that I can get the elevation.

We ended the day heading off to a restaurant called Scirocco. I and a few other ordered couscous. When the portions came they were laughably large. Bigger then most of the portions that I had in America and they were huge! No one even came close to eating a quarter of the food available - let alone a plate. We could easily have ordered just two dishes and fed all of us. I felt sorry for Claudia. Jon had told us that the restaurant served an excellent chocolate cake. She skipped a starter so that she could have one, but after the main just couldn’t face it. Jon ordered a single slice and eleven spoons. The plate being passed amongst us so that we each got a bite.

After a breakfast of croissants & pancakes, we settled down for the mornings lesson. First call of order was a discussion about the different types of lenses and their uses. We performed an exercise of shooting passport style shots with three different types lenses. The purpose was to show that different lenses are suited to different jobs. A point well illustrated by some comically distorted images taken with the wide angle lenses.

We were then given our first assignment. We have been commissioned to produce three images for Conde Nast Traveller magazine. We were to go out and photograph still life images and present these to be critiqued the next day. Jon & Mike would be looking for islamic architecture and recurring motifs and the results also judged on uniqueness and how well they fitted the brief.

I wasn’t really sure what sort of images would appear in Conde Nast as it not a magazine that I am familiar with. There fore my focus was in images of textiles and patterns appearing in walls. Essaouira has a seemingly limitless number of doors with character. All weather beaten, cracked and featuring rusting door handles. I decided that I would try and capture a few of these. I started off by heading down some of the back alleys and immediately felt uncomfortable. Every time that I tried to take a picture a shopkeeper would appear and block the image. Often I would be shouted at and verbally chased away. In other allies I distinguish the occasional word in French and determine that I was being insulted. Not the greatest encouragement for someone that already has fears of crowds and public places.

Getting nowhere I headed out of the alleys and into more familiar ground. Here I met much of the same problems. Part of this was due to my own difficulties with the camera. I have effectively had to relearn how to expose an image. Previously I would shoot images on aperture priority mode. I would set the aperture depending on the depth of field that I wanted to achieve. The camera would then decide the shutter speed. If I disagreed with it, then I would dial in exposure compensation until it was wanted. Having done this for years, I could do this quickly and easily. Now, I (and the rest of the group) are shooting in completely manual mode. I don’t have a problem in doing this technically, but I am just nowhere near the speed that I was previously. In some ways this is good as it slows down the entire process, thus forcing me to think more about the shot in hand. However, as I’ve been shooting all kinds of subjects the camera has not often been anywhere near the settings that I need it to be locked into. By the time that I have dialled in, the subject has either noticed me or a shopkeeper has come to chase me away. Speaking to Mike about the issue, he told me that with experience I will gain a good idea of what I will need before I meter the subject. This will allow me to hang back from my real subject and have the camera in a good base position by the time I come to compose. Then I can quickly adjust as needs be.

To be honest I was having a pretty miserable time of it and starting to wish that I was anywhere but here. I bumped into Claudia, another of the group members. She told me that she was feeling pretty miserable as well as she had been having many of the same difficulties with the shopkeepers. We decided to team up for the rest of the day. Just having someone with me felt instantly better. We headed away from the main streets and into the alleys to the West of the medina. We generally concentrated on door and and reliefs carved into the wall. Just walking around and stopping occasionally as one of had seen something to shoot. On the occasions Claudia stopped, I tried to see what she was photographing. Sometimes this was easy, a door handle for example. Other times I could not tell at all. One of the most interesting things I’ve noticed is how we all see things so differently. Something that jumped out for her, is something that I would have walked past, and vies-versa.

I was in one of these alleys that we met Mohad. We were photographing a particularly rustic door when a young man approached us and asked what we were taking pictures of. Mohad spoke a little English and a lot of French. Claudia is Swiss and the two of them engaged in conversation which I could very occasionally follow as I picked up the odd word here and there. Claudia would stop and translate anything on which I was looking particularly lost. My french has never been great and I haven’t been recently I am hopelessly out of touch. I can discern words and then place into some sort of context, but find myself unable to reply as I cannot remember the phasing quickly enough. Mohad invited us into his home which was the one that we had been bracing ourselves against hen he arrived.

Entering the building the air cooled considerably. The house was cool, but not too cold - for me at least. Ushering us through to his living room / bedroom he cleared a space for us on his couch. The décor reminded me of every bachelor pad I’ve ever seen. A few cans sprinkled around, a couple of unwashed cups and a little litter. He cleaned quickly and in that embarrassed fashion that I have performed myself many times when an unexpected guest arrived. The room itself was fairly small, with only a single window to let in the light. This was covered with a carpet so very little light arrived in the room. Mohad put on some music. A kind of trance with Moroccan undertones. He then told us that he had made it himself and that he was a musician. He mixes and creates tracks on his computer, also playing bass and drums on his tracks. He occasionally sells CD’s at a store in the medina called the Africa Shop. He would sell more but the CD’s are expensive to produce. The album was called Dream House and I’m going to find the store and see if they have any copies.

Mohad offered us mint tea. I’ve not drank tea or coffee in about 8 years, but I thought that it would be very rude to decline so happily accepted it. It was very sweet and sugary, not at all how I remembered tea being. It was not unpleasant though, and I had a second glass when offered. We stayed for quite a while, just talking about where we came from and Mohads music. After all the annoyance and rudeness that we had felt all day, it was if Essaouira had conjured up Mohad to let us know that this can be a very friendly and welcoming place. We took some photos of Mohad and made our way down to the port to catch the sunset.

As far as the assignment went, don’t feel that I really captured what it called for. I played safe with my interpretation, but did get a few shots that I like that fall out the remit of the assignment. But getting to know someone else from the group better, meeting Mohad and finally shaking off that ring rust meant that it was a sucessful day in my eyes. In the eyes of the critics though....?

In the evening we went to a very nice restaurant called Patio and had a very nice meal. Then nearly everyone went for a drink at a very posh hotel near our. Everyone was so releaxed and I had a great time laughing and joking with them all. I certainly feel a lot more connected with everyone then when I began the day.

Morocco Day one.

I’m currently sitting in one of the more beautiful places that I have stayed. Soft music is playing, candles are lit everywhere and the entire place is toned to Arabian Nights perfection. This is my base for the next few days in Essaouira.

Just a few feet away is a bustling street. Vendors and stalls pack both sides. The air is alive with the sounds of traders and patrons going about their business. If you did not know where to look, you would it entirely. Right now being here is completely relaxing and exactly what is needed after a hectic day.

I did not need to worry about sleeping through my alarm as I simply could not sleep. The pillows that the Yotel provided looked to be fluffy and thick. Yet this proved to be mealy an illusion. The second that I lay my head down, they immediately went flat as a pancake. The only use that I could find for them were to keep my ears warm as they wrapped themselves around my head. Eventually, after various folding, shaping and squeezing of the stuffing I managed to get comfortable. Then I moved slightly and my head was flat against the mattress. In desperation I folded my wafer thin duvet into something approximating a pillow and tried to sleep on that. I think I managed to slip into sleep a couple of times, but for no more then a half or or so. All too soon the time ticked around to 5am and it was time to head to the terminal; sleep deprived and with a stomach doing flips due to the nervousness that now seems customary when I travel.

Checking in and getting through security was a breeze. Even though the lines were packed even at this god forsaken hour of the morning. The plane ride was pleasant and uneventful. Occasionally the cloud cover broke long enough to get a glimpse at the land beneath. One of these occasions was when we were passing over the Pyrenees and I was treated to a magnificent view of the snow capped peaks. Although I would have been unable to recognise it from the air; I knew that one of those peaks would be the Col du Tormelet - which I visited the last time that I was in France. I looked just as spectacular from the air as I remember it from the ground.

Landing at Marrakech, I met up with the rest of the party that are here for the retreat. My initial apprehension seems to have been assuaged as everyone seems very nice, friendly and chatty. The impression is that everyone is looking forward to the experience to come.

We jumped into a minibus to begin our three hour journey to Essaouira. We will be returning to Marrakech later in the week, but before that we will have plenty to do and explore.

The roads here reminded me of Turkey, in fact the similarity is striking. The major difference being that driver do not appear to have deathwishes. In just a few short miles, I had seen enough oddities to satisfy a million e-mail forwards. Small mopeds with multiple passengers and overloaded with luggage. Tractors with huge bags of grain tied to any available surface and a another tucked under the drivers arm! On the geeky yet slightly non-PC side of things I keep seeing Star Wars everywhere. I know that it was filmed here, and that must of influenced George Lucas to some extent, but I did not realise in what way until now. I keep seeing Jawas everywhere. More precisely, I keep seeing their costume. Shepherds and other workers lining the roads wear it. I must be some sort of national dress, I will have to find out more.

We stopped for lunch, eating in a marquee with a colour scheme that reminded me of a circus. The food was good, even if we were besieged by cats begging for our scraps. Animals are everywhere here. Horses and donkeys pull carts. All manner of grazing animals can be seen alongside the road. In the towns and villages cats and dogs roam free. I even saw a camel being ridden though one town.

Our final destination is a fortified town next to the sea. My initial reaction was that it reminded me strongly of St Marlo. Having wondered for a while, I like it immediately. I can’t wait for tomorrow so that I can see it properly and begin our photography lessons. I’m hoping to get a lot out of this and to rekindle a creative spark that has gone out in the last few months, plus I’ll get to see the town in more detail.

The hotel is amazing, French colonial, thick granite walls and an internal square open to the elements where we will eat communally. Carpets and silks hang from the walls. Rose petals are scattered with abandon. My riad is a tasteful lime green affair. A large brass bed is complemented by sofas and more then enough pillows to keep even me happy. It is a big change from my usual travel accommodation. I could get used to such luxury!

I only took a couple of photos today. The Real work in that department begins tomorrow.