Photographing Gozo - before the fall of the Azure Window

High above the crashing waves and golden sands of Ir-Ramla il-Hamra, or Ramla Bay, on the edge of an overhanging cliff, I peered into a small, hidden cave.

"This is where Calypso held Ulysses prisoner for seven years as her toyboy," said Pete, our guide.

Admittedly, the cave itself was rather small and unremarkable. But we were there for the views in the opposite direction. Ramla Bay, with its golden sands encompassed by green, fertile land, is the largest and one of only two sandy beaches on Gozo. I looked down at the waves crashing against the limestone rock, imagining a time when mighty gods held sway over this tiny island.

Just eight miles long and four miles wide, Gozo is the still the second biggest island in the Maltese archipelago and the only other, apart from Malta, to be inhabited. It is believed that Sicilians discovered it in 5000 BC and since then the island has been ruled by Normans, the Knights of St John, the French and the British. More recently, in 2014, those silver screen gods Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie came here to shoot By The Sea. Gozo was chosen as a filming location because of its photogenic seascapes. This week, sadly, the most famous of them, the Azure Window, fell victim to erosion, collapsing into the sea. 

I was there for the same reason as the Hollywood filmmakers. To capture historical and scenic landscapes on camera, with the help of Pete, a professional photographer, as part of a three-day tour organised by Artisan Travel. 

I had much to learn - and that was before we'd even studied my photographs. "We are meant to be here to take pictures and I can’t see either of you reaching for your cameras," chided Pete.

My mother, after a declaration that she must learn to take better photographs of the family, was my eager companion - and ready to share the embarrassment. We are both complete novices with a camera in hand.

We finished admiring the view and headed down to the beach, where Pete encouraged us to start thinking outside the box. 

So I started pointing my camera haphazardly at everything that looked vaguely photogenic.

"You must try to look through the viewfinder," said Pete, patiently. 

He had already instructed us to switch the camera settings into "raw mode", and of course, auto-setting was "out of the question", so we began playing with the knobs and zooms (soon to be known as "aperture" and "shutter speed") to see the altered effects. My pictures certainly looked "experimental" but I was gaining confidence as we began to familiarise ourselves with our apparatus.

After Ramla Bay we jumped into Pete's Mitsubishi truck to explore the island further. There's no prescribed itinerary for the trip, instead Pete adapts the tour to individual requests, interests and mood. As we rumbled along the uneven Gozian roads, Pete morphed from photographer into island guide. He knows the place intimately, and he reeled off facts, tales and anecdotes in each new location. The more exciting the stories, the more photographs we took. I liked the spontaneity; every new excursion felt like our own mini adventure.

We stopped off, naturally, at the Azure Window. The island's most famous natural landmark, having appeared in Game of Thrones and countless holiday brochures, its an obvious photo spot. I took dozens of images with no idea that I'd be one of the last to see the rock formation.    

Gozo is very religious, with approximately 60 per cent of the population attending church services every Sunday, and some many times a day, and the dense concentration of churches on the island reflects this. They vary enormously in size and style, but most notably for us, they make fascinating photography subjects, with their intricate domes and contrasting baroque and neoclassical architecture. An afternoon spent capturing our favourites was a highlight.

At Ta Pinu Church, perhaps the most famous on the island, I peered through the viewfinder and tweaked the settings to accentuate the finer details of the church’s clock spire. 

We returned to our hotel exhausted but enriched, and meandered up to the town square to watch locals spilling out of the village church. Subconsciously I used the tree lined streets and yellow shuttered houses to frame the outpouring silhouettes. I'm getting the hang of this, I thought.

The following morning was dry but cloudy. Not ideal conditions for photography.

“This is good,” said Pete, ever the optimist.

“It means that I can teach you more skills.”

The sun doesn’t shine again for two days. The beach bums might've minded, but not us. Pete used the time to broaden our skills. We experimented with different lighting and lenses, long exposure, tripods, macro photography - and even had a go at editing.

Burdoned with his advice, and a heavy memory card, by the end of the third day I was genuinely impressed at how much our images had improved. More than just a photography lesson, this was an introduction to some of Gozo’s lesser-known locations, and a chance to learn how best to capture the essence of these secret spots on camera. I’m a long way from being a professional photographer, but will be taking lots more pictures - and not on auto-setting.

Essentials

A three-day Delights of Gozo photography short break from Artisan Travel (01670785085; artisantravel.co.uk) costs from £995, including flights, transfers, accommodation and some meals.