HOW I GOT THE SHOT: For years I have been
driving Route 90 along the shoreline of the Dead Sea and admiring the eroded
rock formations in the valley below Masada. When an American family hired me
last December to climb Masada with them and photograph their son’s bar mitzvah,
I decided to make a very early morning of it and arrived at the access road to
the popular site before sunrise. There are many benefits to photography beyond
capturing a beautiful image, and one of my favorites is stepping out of my car
after a long drive and inhaling the fresh air and silence of the pre-dawn.
I had about an hour to wander the soft, powdery soil of this
former seabed in the best light of the day, kicking up dust and searching for a
composition that blended both the light and form of this setting. This image
invokes the moonlike mood and stark emptiness that characterize this region.
Minimal rain and briny soil inhibit plant growth This composition resulted from
my effort to obscure the road and a pumping station and sign, which I hid
behind one of the rocks by slightly adjusting my position. The Dead Sea is
visible as a thin strip of light moving across the photo mid-frame. I used the
paths in the lower left of the image as leading lines, pointing the viewer to
the main area of interest in the center of the photo.
At 423 meters below sea level, my day began at a low point and
moved continuously upward, finishing with a unique portrait session in the
water at day’s end.
TECHNICAL
DATA: Camera: Nikon
D700, tripod-mounted, manual exposure, center-weighted metering mode, f14 at
1/500th sec., ISO 400. Raw file converted to Jpeg. Lens: Nikon
28-105mm macro zoom at 35mm. Date:
Dec. 22, 2011, 7:29 a.m. Location:
Judean Desert below Masada.
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