JANUARY STREETS PHOTOGRAPHY 2024
Monaco Street Photography - walk with me
This was the very first photo i took on this day…. as you may see from the clock on the Casino Building…it was just a little before 5.30am… on a January crisp quiet morning in Monte Carlo. Why may you ask were you there so early?… well, i wanted to be in Monaco for the sunrise (i knew at this time of year that would be around 7am). But i also wanted to photograph the ‘Casino’ area whilst it was still dark to take advantage of the buildings’ and street lights and the ambience they can create in a photo.
Therefore, i was dropped off in this part of Monte Carlo knowing i had enough time to meander about here and take my time to photograph the surrounding area and slowly make my way to the opposite side of Monaco to the Old Monaco Ville up on the rock (by the Palace) to photograph the sunrise from there. It worked perfectly and i also appreciated being able to photograph this casino area with minimal human appearance at this time of day…. except for the odd community worker or hotel and restaurant cleaners avidly working away… each of us equally minding our own business. Normally this part of Monaco is thriving with tourists throughout the day and evening… and i felt very privileged in an odd way to have this place practically all to myself.
I do have a penchant for Classic cars and when i spotted this black beauty above quietly residing next to the Casino back buildings i almost ran to her to relish in a little photo session moment hopefully capturing her elegance and refined classical allurement.
The equally graceful lamp post behind the car offered perfect back lighting and the addition of the palm tree pleased me greatly… a clear black sky spotted delicately with a few stars and again not a soul around to disturb me allowed me to capture what i was hoping for…. i at first, took a few shots from a standard upright position but felt it missed something… therefore i squatted down and lowered my camera close to ground level to alter the angle totally. THIS was what i was after…. i wanted the emphasis on the car and not so much of the surroundings.
As you move away from the Casino and Hotel de Paris zone you enter this high end commercial and residential area… Once more the colours the ambient lighting gave this sector drew me in and the additional lines of the architecture was almost crying out my name to be photographed. Again … not a soul in sight to disturb me.
A classic landscape view of Monaco port… You see that purple-ish building at the top middle of the photo? that’s were i was heading to photograph the sunrise later… as you can imagine from this point to that point i ended up taking a myriad of photos of which i won’t post here -far to many - but you can see a lot of them on my portfolio page here
Once i reached the Old Ville up on the rocks, i still had time to wander about the old cobbled streets and take a few pictures of the palace and the wonderful characteristic back streets.…. if only these streets could talk.
And here she is…. the sun rise at approximately 7am (after a well needed coffee and croissant break with the husband in a small café in the old town just round the corner from this spot.) If you look carefully, on the horizon to the right of this turret, you can in fact see Corsica. Some days it is clearer than this to see but i was happily surprised to see it this morning too.
This day will always remain in my memory as much for the photo opportunities it provided as for the sheer therapeutic experience as a whole. It was calm, peaceful and i remained ‘in the moment’ for almost 4 hours of walking and shooting photos and taking in mother nature’s glory in every way as the dawn broke and the day time filled the skies and the humans spilled into the streets.
Thank you Monaco!
