Photo of the Week: Sept. 30, 2008

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Following morning prayers at sunrise on a cliff above the Dead Sea, my hiking partner raised a shofar and delivered a few short blasts, as is the custom during the month of Elul, the month that precedes Rosh Hashanah. I knew that I wanted to shoot a silhouette to highlight the unique, twisted form of the long shofar made from the Kudu antelope horn. To my delight, the sun was still low on the horizon, and it was an easy matter of shifting my position until I placed it directly behind the hands and mouth, which were just large enough to block most of the direct light and prevent any lens flare. When we look at photographs, our eyes find their way to the brightest parts of the image. Here, the few visible sections of sun draw the eyes right into the heart of the image where they can pause and let the mind contemplate the image as a whole.

Photo of the Week: Sept. 23, 2008

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Ein Gedi (Spring of the Goat) Nature Reserve is one of the most popular hiking spots in the Judean Desert and a park I've explored many times. Because of my familiarity with the area, I've tried on recent visits to find a new way to convey the unique beauty found in this true desert oasis. Of the two main trails through the park, Nahal Arugot, where this shot was taken, is the longer and more difficult canyon, but rich in the wet rewards so comforting to the desert hiker. I spotted this pool on my way up the canyon, but passed by without shooting because the sun was high and the light unimpressive. Several hours later, after cooling down at Hidden Falls, I passed this spot again on my way out of the park. I was immediately drawn to the late afternoon sunlight reflecting off the high cliffs and flooding the lower canyon with beautiful, golden light. The success of this photo rests entirely on the creation of the arcing foreground, which both frames the main subject and creates an additional rounded form – in negative space - which balances with the two giant, circular boulders. The foreground is actually flat, although it appears to rise almost vertically in the photo, a distortion in perspective caused by the camera's position above the rock and tilted down at a 45-degree angle. To create the silky effect in the small waterfall, I set my camera on a tripod, programmed the self-timer, lowered the ISO to 200, dialed the aperture to its smallest opening and slowed the shutter to 1/3-second.

Photo of the Week: Sept. 16, 2008

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Can't you just taste 'em? If you can, you may be experiencing a form of synesthesia, the ability of one sensory input to stimulate another. A good photograph of a familiar subject, such as food, will often trigger the taste sense of the person looking at it, just as a photo with strong textural detail can be experienced as tactile. In this photograph of ripe grapes - a ubiquitous image of late summer in Israel - two things add dimension to an ordinary picture. First, by moving in close to the subject, I was able to isolate this bunch from the surrounding vineyard and capture the subtle color variations among the different grapes. One of my colleagues is fond of saying that a photographer's best zoom lens is his legs. If you're looking for instant improvement to your photography with one easy tip, it would be to move closer to your subject whenever possible.

Secondly, the soft back lighting helps bring out the color and detail of the grapes so that they attain a mouth-watering appeal. I also like this shot better than several others where there is a clear view of the entire cluster. The leaves in the foreground help direct the eye toward the most important part of the image and they add a bit of mystery to the photo as well.

Photo of the Week: Sept. 9, 2008

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Wander around Jerusalem long enough and you'll likely hear someone say that the stones are alive with history. The rock tiles that line the plaza around the Western Wall could tell of countless souls who trod on them while en route to pray at Judaism's holiest site. In this photo, the stones serve a dual purpose in transforming a difficult shooting situation into a distinct and powerful image. First, they provide an interesting yet simple background to offset the subject. Noticing the background of a photograph is a vital step toward eliminating distracting details that often ruin good photos. Secondly, the tiles act like a giant reflector, catching the sharp rays of early morning sunlight and bouncing them toward the camera.
Time after time I find the most dramatic photos emerge when I point the camera directly into the sun or another bright light source. The clincher in this image is the shadow fragment in the upper left corner. Without it, the silhouette would have to stand on its own, alone and moving aimlessly through the photo's empty spaces. The shadow gives definition to the space while providing a nice complement to the silhouetted figure's shadow because the two fit together to form an asymmetrical but balanced composition.

Photo of the Week: Sept. 2, 2008

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Until I began to study and use natural light more seriously, I was not able to see a photo like this. I say "see," because the photo looks very different from how my eyes saw this scene while I photographed it. I've noted in the past how much better our eyes are than our cameras at seeing detail in high contrast settings, when there are both very bright and dark areas in an image. This is one of the most common and difficult problems photographers must contend with. There is simply no way to expose both ends of the brightness spectrum properly, which forces the photographer to choose one end or the other. Whichever part of the image you choose to expose properly, the other end either goes very white or very dark. In order to make the proper choice, you have to be able to visualize both possibilities before shooting.
Here, it was an easy choice, as I knew letting the trees go dark by metering the sunlit area would add drama to the image. The Yemin Moshe quarter and adjacent park is one of Jerusalem's most beautiful neighborhoods, although from this angle it could be anywhere in the world. The feeling of peace and solitude – one of the area's main characteristics – is emphasized by the empty paths and vacant benches. Like other modern cities, Jerusalem has its share of traffic, noise and pollution, so it's comforting to know there is an oasis of quiet one can escape to, whether for real or via an image hanging on the wall.

Photo of the Week: Aug. 26, 2008

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Sabra is the Hebrew name given to a native-born Israeli Jew and also the prickly pear cactus, which grows abundantly throughout Israel, although, ironically, it is not a native species. The dual meaning of the term is meant to imply that Israelis, like their flowering namesake, feature a thorny and abrasive exterior that conceals a sweeter, gentler interior. Whether true or not about our native population, this photograph reveals the contrasting personality traits of the Sabra plant by juxtaposing the "softer" flowering side against the "harder" thorny spines. It would be impossible, I think, to depict in a photograph the plant's inner sweetness, so portraying it as it flowers is the best approximation. Over the years, I have become addicted to using back light – light which shines from the rear of the subject toward the camera – because of how beautifully it enhances the color and texture of flower petals. I brought this image home following a mid-August hike last summer near Beit Shemesh. I was very surprised to find anything flowering in the parched, brown hills amid the summer heat, but cactus thrives in the desert as well as the country's greener areas under some very difficult conditions. Not unlike Israelis, whether born on native soil or not.

Photo of the Week: Aug. 19, 2008

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: The world is flat, or so it would certainly appear looking through my 12-24 wide-angle, digital zoom along Israel's central coast at HaBonim Nature Reserve. And because it really is flat, or at least the part of the earth that the camera is concerned with, it takes a bit of effort to compose an image that does justice to the beauty of this stretch of rocky shoreline. The best landscapes, especially those which lack dimension, are shot from high ground to increase image depth. In this location, however, my lateral movement was restricted in order to include the many pools spread out across the foreground. The best I could do was step up onto a rock about one foot off the ground. That helped raise the horizon line a little higher above the line where the rocks meet the water, but that thin strip of sea adds substantial depth to the image. I brought home my share of crashing wave shots, but none but this shot evoked the feeling of warm summer evening, relaxing in the sand, nothing to do but watch the sun go down.