Old town — Lions Square to the market lanes

Heraklion is a working city rather than a postcard, and that is its photographic point. Its centre gathers around the Morosini fountain — four Venetian lions that have poured water since 1628 — with the rebuilt Venetian loggia, the basilica of St Titus and the arcaded length of 25th of August street all within three minutes' walk, and the market lanes off 1866 street adding awnings, produce and noise.

Early morning is the only serious answer here. From about seven the light rakes down 25th of August street's neoclassical facades, the square belongs to delivery bikes and the first coffee drinkers, and the fountain can be shot clean. By ten the café terraces around the lions are full and stay full until midnight — after that, the crowd is the subject or nothing is.

Use the contrast deliberately: formal frames against the loggia arcade and the fountain, then loose documentary frames in the market — a couple choosing oranges photographs better than a couple posing. It pairs naturally with the harbour: lanes at seven, mole by half past eight, done before the heat.