Pillar 02 · Things to See & Do

Photographing Żejtun: A Quick Guide for Visitors

A short, practical companion to our photographer’s spots guide: when to shoot, how to handle the church interiors, and the etiquette around photographing strangers in a small parish town.

This article is a stub. We’ll keep adding tips as readers ask questions.

Light, hours, manners

The Żejtun limestone is best in the last hour before sunset and the first hour after sunrise — sometimes called golden hour, but in Malta it’s more amber than gold. Midday flattens everything and the contrast is brutal; if you can avoid shooting between roughly 11am and 3pm in summer, you’ll be glad you did. Inside St Catherine’s, photography is generally tolerated outside services but never during one; turn the flash off, lower your shutter, and step quietly. Tripods are not welcomed without prior permission.

Photographing people: ask. The older men sitting outside the corner bars are the obvious subjects, and most will agree if asked politely with a smile. Photographing the procession during the festa is welcome from the side of the route, not from in front of it. Drone use in the historic core requires a permit and is restricted around the parish church. [LOCAL FACT — Mattew to confirm current Maltese drone-permit procedure for tourists.]

What to ask before you shoot

The single most useful question to ask before pointing a lens at a person is whether you can. Nista’ nieħu ritratt? in Maltese, or simply ‘may I take a photo?’ in English, almost always works. The older men in the corner bars are used to being photographed and most are gracious about it; offering to send the photo afterward is a small courtesy that costs nothing. Inside the church, the rule is no photography during services and discreet, no-flash photography between them. Drone work in the historic core requires a permit and is not casual.

What this article will cover

  • Time-of-day suggestions across the year
  • Indoor settings for parish-church photography
  • How to ask, in basic Maltese or English, to photograph someone
  • The festa procession: where to stand and where not to
  • Drone rules and where they apply
  • A short kit-list for a Żejtun day

Read more on this pillar

Part of our Things to See & Do pillar. Pair with the photographer’s spots guide, festa etiquette, and the one-day itinerary.

Mattew Cassar

Resident · Writer

Mattew writes zejtun.com from a flat above his grandfather’s old workshop on Triq San Girgor. He has lived in Żejtun for twenty-three of his thirty-one years.