Why July, Why Zurich

I picked July because I knew I wouldn’t be traveling. Too easy to nail a photo a day somewhere exotic — I’d have pulled that off without breaking a sweat. So: a full month planted in Zurich, minus one weekend back in my hometown in Italy, with the simple goal of shooting at least one frame every day. The point was never to fire off a picture at home just to check a box — it was supposed to push me out the door, into the street, toward people.

Time-wise, not exactly the best situation. The day job is demanding, more than most, and on weekdays — commute included, which to be fair is short — I’m tied up from about seven in the morning until eight at night. Whatever’s left comes early morning, late evening, or the weekend. That’s it, but I thought it was enough.

Day Two Already

It started badly. Failed already on day two — just forgot, plain and simple, and only remembered once I was home with a list of other things to do. There were things going for me, though: the weather was good, the days were long, and Switzerland, where I live, was still alive in the World Cup. None of that mattered in the end. What mattered was a shortage of commitment mixed with the kind of tired that sits on you before and after work. And staying put in the same place, day after day, doesn't exactly light a fire under your creativity. The two below were shot respectively after Switzerland's win and before Argentina's loss during the World Cup.

Failure, More or Less

Was It a Complete Failure? Yes, in the sense that the target was clearly missed. No, in the sense that I tested my own commitment, and even without a single banger, I came away with a few pictures I actually like. Especially from one evening photowalk with some folks from Zurich — a handful of shots I'm fond of, though here I'll only share my favorite, the one with the hands below. Other times I forced it, pushed too hard just to get something, anything, and ended up with abstract, not particularly pleasant pictures — like the second one below.

Lessons From Losing

With that little confession above, someone could reasonably ask why I'm handing out suggestions at all — and they'd have a point. The idea here isn't to lecture, just to lay out what worked and what didn't. Keeping the camera physically on me at all times worked, and so did nudging myself off the usual path — otherwise I'd never have crossed paths with the woman on the bike, or caught the reflection of the second one at the bus stop. Neither shot will ever hang in a gallery, but who knows, they might end up in a small zine, or something more deliberate down the line. What didn't work was everything else — mainly trying to wedge this project into an already time-starved life, and that sense that even with the camera loaded and ready, there was simply nothing worth shooting. Cold, looking back on it now, I don't think that was ever really true. It's just that every moment carries its own mood, and some don't hand over anything easily.

So, Which One Wins the Month?

This one taught me something about the reflexivity built into the whole exercise — sometimes things happen simply because people notice somebody with a camera. Those kids drifted toward the mirror because they'd caught me moving around it like an idiot, checking how the reflections fell. Somebody more experienced than me also asked why there were no faces in my pictures. I'd never noticed, but looking back, it's true. By then the project had already failed, but I started framing faces anyway. This picture has everything I like: framing, reflections, and layers. Beyond that, I like the light here, the color, and the way the subjects pull the eye across the whole frame instead of pinning it to one spot.

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I tried as well, and while I do get why it has a particular attractiveness, I think overall digital photography is superior and the vast majority of photographer should not focus on film only.

The Process

Strong opinion here: the process is a pain.

With some exception, cameras are old and breaks from time to time. It is cool to shoot with your grandpa camera from the URSS, and yes it feel like a solid piece of metal like it not done anymore nowadays, and the lens is for sure a good one. But it is not that cool once something stop working, or when you don’t understand why everything is over or underexposed and there are no clear instructions online.

Trying different rolls is a a nice game and I love it. But then chances that when something happens you have loaded the most appropriate one are not in your favour. Everything can be overcome with good preparation, but it is one more thing to do.

Developing means going to the shop, sacrificing your lunch break, or using a precious Saturday morning to go always in the same place. and then you also have to wait.

Skills

In most of the cases and the subjects, I think that up to a certain point, hard work and obsession beats talent. And in this field hard work means being out there and shooting. During a road trip from Istambul to Lesbos and back, I shoot over two thousand digital photos. Those would have resulted in around 55 rolls. How many people travel with 55 rolls, or you see at the shop leaving a big bag to develop? Apart from the economical point, it certainly requires more time and more preparation.

The Costs

Being in the expensive Zurich probably plays a role, but on average I pay 28.- Swiss Franc per roll, and 25.- for developing and digital scans. It means 53.- per roll or around 1.5.- franc per photo, around 2 US dollars. Taking the numbers above, are you willing to add an extra 2k per trip? It can also be a bit cheaper, but reality is that most people are more selective and intentional in what they shoot, it can be seen as a good thing, but the way I see it is that you will be way less willing to experiment and overall will slow down the learning process.

The Film Look

Here’s the catch, and it’s a real one. Sure, you can chase that film look on digital, get close enough to fool a casual scroll. But let’s be honest with ourselves: film looks different. That’s not an accident, and it’s exactly why half of Lightroom’s presets exist to fake it. You’ve seen the videos: someone shoots two frames, one digital, one analog, then spends twenty minutes cranking sliders until the digital shot is 95% there. Cute trick. Kind of misses the point, though, because you don’t actually know what that analog frame would have looked like until it comes back from the lab. That’s the whole gamble.

My roll of choice is Cinestill 800T, and it’s got a mind of its own. Some nights it swings green, other nights it’s drowning in blue, no real pattern, just the chemistry doing what it wants under tungsten light. You can approximate pieces of it: reduce the highlights, throw in an S-curve, add some grain. But the whole picture will not look the same.

Final Thoughts

My very personal, but firm, opinion is that shooting film is cool to some extent. Sure, you can get nice pictures with a cool look. But overall, your learning curve will dramatically slow down, and so will the growth of your bank account balance. You will likely take fewer and worse pictures, and get annoyed sooner. I will keep trying it from time to time, and I will not sell my film camera. But there's a reason firms that didn't adapt to digital mostly ended up defaulting, and the most used camera in the world is the one in the iPhone.

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And trips are usually shared affairs. Which means there’s always someone waiting around while you chase the light, the angle, the one stray passerby who’ll complete the frame. Meanwhile, the rest of the group is wondering why dinner, the hike, or the sunset is being held hostage for a photo.

So in this article, I’ll talk about how to come back with better images without turning the whole trip into a photo shoot, because at the end the real prize is still the place, the people, and the experience of being there.

Do Your Homework

Time is always short. And when it is, a little preparation goes a long way. More often than not, you’ll only pass through a place once. The light may be lousy. You may be busy doing something else. You may not get another shot.

That’s why it helps to know, at least roughly, what you’re walking into. I’m not talking about turning travel into a military operation. I still believe in showing up with no real plan whenever possible. But before I go somewhere, I like to know the few things that are actually worth my time: the districts you shouldn’t miss, the sights that matter, the events worth catching, and the local photographers worth following for a little direction. I make sure I’ve some time for those three or four essentials. After that, I let the rest unfold.

You Can’t Get It All

It’s easy to look at famous photos from a place and think a weekend will be enough to come home with something just as good. Then reality kicks in. The weather turns, the light dies, the streets are crowded, and the shot in your head never quite shows up.

But that’s the trick: those images are usually the exception, not the rule. People spend years, sometimes lifetimes, in a city. What you see online or in books is the best of the best, the lucky frames, the hard-won ones, probably the top 1 percent.

That doesn’t mean you need to live in Istanbul for 20 years to make a good picture. It just means you should keep your expectations in check. Good photos take time, patience, a bit of humility and some luck.

Carry Light Gear

There are times when carrying a camera feels almost impossible. And even when it isn’t, walking around with a backpack full of gear is often a pain. The lighter your setup, the more likely you are to actually have it with you when something worth shooting comes along.

Getting 90 percent of the shot in 80 percent of the situations beats getting 100 percent in 50 percent of them. That trade-off matters. Personally, I keep it simple: an X100VI, a filter, a strap, and sometimes a little film toy camera. It’s a bit extreme, sure. But limitations have a way of cutting through the noise and forcing you to focus on what actually matters.

Keep the Bigger Picture in Mind

This is by far the most important one. When you get to a place, it’s easy to get hit with too much at once: the smells, the sounds, the chaos, the light. That overload is part of the appeal, and it’s natural to start shooting whatever catches your eye.

The problem is that you can end up with a pile of beautiful fragments that don’t talk to each other. Street photos in Japan. Landscapes in Iceland. Food in Italy. Architecture in Berlin. Great images, maybe. But together, they can feel like souvenirs from four different lives.

If you want the work to become a zine, a book, or even a portfolio, it helps to think beyond single shots. Look for a thread. Photograph with some sense of continuity. It’s not just a way to build a stronger body of work, it’s also how you start figuring out what your eye actually likes.

For me, that usually means looking for a human element, and a certain loneliness in the frame. But that’s personal. The point is to find the thread that makes the pictures feel like they belong together.

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Rabat

After a long, cheap, and remarkably inefficient flight from Basel to London and then on to Morocco, we arrived in Rabat at around 8pm. Passport stamped. First taxi negotiation of the trip handled with moderate success. Then, the Medina. It doesn't hit you like other cities in Morocco do, it's quieter, and feels like a city with no particular interest in impressing you. We stayed one night, as planned.

Fes

Originally we were supposed to travel by train from Rabat to Fes in the morning, but the first available service wasn't until the evening. We discovered inDrive, essentially Uber but with open fare negotiation, and managed to arrive at a decent hour. Less than 24 hours in the city, some doors closed for religious observance, but enough time to feel what Fes is: loud and confusing in the best possible way, and disorienting in a manner that Google Maps simply cannot solve. For photography, the best strategy is also the simplest: get lost. The Tanneries are unavoidably touristy, but they remain one of those sights that earns its reputation regardless. The photograph below was taken from the terrace of a shop called N.10. A fascinating city, overall, though we didn't spend enough time there.

El Jadida

The real trip began when we picked up a car in Fes and headed south. From that point on, nothing was booked, and we ended up rather randomly in El Jadida, a coastal town that most Morocco road trips skip entirely in favour of the inland route. El Jadida doesn't appear in many itineraries, which means it hasn't yet learned to perform for outsiders. By evening, the streets become one enormous, gloriously anarchic market: everyone moving, selling, negotiating, existing at full volume. I've been to chaotic places. This was something else. And photographically, it delivered. Especially outside of the Cité Portugaise and near the beach. Unlike other cities in Morocco, people here were genuinely comfortable being part of the frame.

Essaouira

Day four: Essaouira. Three nights booked that felt like a luxury, surfing on the agenda and no particular rush. The coastline delivers. The Medina, though, is a different story. There are more tourists than locals, and for those who know it, it feels rather like the "Artigiano in Fiera" of Milan. The fish market, on the other hand, is the real thing. Loud, honest, and completely indifferent to aesthetics - which is precisely what makes it so photogenic. I could have stayed there for hours, and nearly did.

Imsouane

Days five and six belonged to the ocean. Imsouane was the highlight: a small, unhurried surf town built around one of the longest waves in Africa. Sidi Kaouki was also good and considerably less busy, at least in the water. On the beach, as ever, the usual cast of dogs, horses, camels, and donkeys went about their business. The camera stayed mostly in the bag.

Marrakech

Day seven: Marrakech. We drove in from the coast, stopped at an argan cooperative somewhere along the way, left the car at the airport and walked into the Medina. My second time here. The first impression holds: colourful, chaotic, yet elegant. But travel back to a place with fresh eyes and you notice what you missed before. Marrakech is crowded with tourists in a way that changes the texture of the whole thing. The selling is more insistent than elsewhere and the people considerably less willing to be photographed. I understand it, frankly, someone points a lens at you while you're just trying to get through your day. I wouldn't love it either. Still, for photography, the Medina gives you plenty of opportunities. For something closer to local life, I'd recommend the northern part of the city, the Bab El Khemis market in particular.

Summary

It is quite remarkable that just a few hours' flight from Central Europe can bring you somewhere so fundamentally different from the average European city. People are sometimes concerned about safety - both in the cities and on the road - but in our experience we never once felt unsafe, neither were seriously scammed, or encountered anything unpleasant. It is also, for the record, remarkably cheap. Twenty-five euros a head for a decent riad or apartment. Under ten for a proper meal. I shot the whole trip on a Fujifilm X100VI and a Lomo MC-A. If anything, I'd have wanted something slightly longer on occasion, but 35mm equivalent gets you further than you'd think. So take a camera, go, drive south. The rest will take care of itself.

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