What's the best time of day to photograph the medinas?

The medina is a creature of light and crowds, and both favour the early morning. Between sunrise and about 8 or 9am the narrow lanes of Fes and Marrakech are calm, the air is cool, shopkeepers are sweeping their thresholds and raising shutters, deliveries arrive by handcart and mule, and the low sun slants warm light into the alleys and across the carved doorways. You get atmosphere, you get colour, and crucially you get space to compose without a stream of people behind every shot. This is my non-negotiable window for serious medina work.

The narrow, high-walled lanes create a specific problem at midday that early shooting solves. When the sun is directly overhead, it either misses the deep alleys entirely, leaving them flat and gloomy, or it cuts a harsh band of blown-out light against pitch shadow that no camera handles gracefully. Late morning to mid-afternoon is the weakest medina light. If you must shoot then, look for the open squares, the bright souk awnings, and the shafts of light breaking through the slatted reed roofs over the covered markets — those beams of light cutting through dust and smoke are a classic Marrakech and Fes image.

The second great window is the late afternoon into golden hour, when the light warms again and rakes low across the buildings. The medinas are busier then than at dawn, but the energy — the crowds, the food stalls firing up, the call to prayer — is part of the story and the warm light flatters it. Marrakech's Jemaa el-Fnaa is at its photographic best as the sun sets and the food stalls light up, then on into the blue hour when the sky turns deep indigo behind the lamplit chaos.

A few practical habits: a fast lens and a willingness to push ISO help in the genuinely dark covered sections; a small, unobtrusive camera or your phone draws far less attention and lets you work the tight spaces; and always remember the people rule — ask before close portraits of shopkeepers and artisans. Shoot the structure and atmosphere at dawn, the energy and lamplight at dusk, and treat the harsh middle of the day as your time to scout, eat and rest.