Pillar 02 · Things to See & Do

Żejtun for Photographers: Golden Hour Spots and Hidden Alleys

Honey limestone, narrow alleys, an unfussy baroque dome and a parish square that goes amber at six in the evening — Żejtun is a quietly excellent town to photograph. This is the local short list of where to point the camera.

This article is a stub. We’ll add a map and example frames as we build it out.

The light, the surfaces, the time

Maltese globigerina limestone — the cream-coloured local stone almost every old building here is built from — has a particular relationship with low light. In the last hour before sunset the facades go amber rather than yellow, and the shadows in the carved details deepen without going black. This is the time for the parish square. Triq San Girgor, the main approach to St Catherine’s, is the classic shot — a long perspective ending in the parish dome — but the better frames are usually in the alleys nobody points to.

Mornings have their own logic. Early morning is for the Roman villa (low sun raking the press-room walls) and for the run of glazed Maltese balconies on the streets near St Gregory’s, when the colours are still saturated and the streets aren’t full yet. [LOCAL FACT — Mattew to point at three specific streets where the balcony run is best, and any wash-day routines to plan around.]

Festa-week photography

Festa week is the most photographically rich week in Żejtun’s year, and the most ethically demanding. The procession is a religious event for the parishioners, and visiting photographers should default to the side of the route, never in front of it. Long lenses are your friend. Tripods in the procession route are not welcome. The decorations — the apostle statues, the damask along the church facade, the lit arches — repay early-evening shooting; the procession itself starts in late afternoon and runs into the dark, which gives you a long working window. Avoid flash entirely on the procession route.

What this article will cover

  • The golden-hour spots: where to be at what time
  • The dovecote alleys and other quieter frames
  • How to photograph St Catherine’s interior respectfully
  • Festa-week photography: where to stand for the procession
  • Where to find the wider landscape views from the edge of town
  • Drone rules and where they apply in Żejtun

Read more on this pillar

Part of our Things to See & Do pillar. Pair with our quick photography-tips piece, the one-day itinerary, and the festa pillar.

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.