Photo of the Week: Sept. 27, 2011

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: It takes a tiny bit of chutzpah to walk into a small Judaica shop and start photographing items for sale. Nevertheless, I follow the rule that flattery will get you everywhere. By taking a sincere interest in my subject, in this case a table strewn with shofars of various sizes, colors and shapes, I opened the door to photo opportunity. This tactic works especially well when seeking permission to shoot a human subject whom you don't know. By first taking an interest in their activity and observing without photographing, you communicate that your intent is genuine and not merely exploitative.

I like this shot because it veers from the traditional image we see at this time of year. In fact, there isn’t a single shofar in this photograph which is clearly visible in its entirety. At the same time, there are plenty of visual clues which clarify the subject. I chose to focus on the midsection of the large shofar which cuts across the middle of the frame to accentuate its textured surface. This shot was taken indoors with minimal available light, forcing me to use a wide aperture and squashing the depth of field. Yet the soft focus in and around the photo's central horn does not hinder the viewer's ability to wander the frame and ponder the inner composition – Kind of like what we do on Rosh Hashanah upon hearing the blasts of the shofar.

Shana Tova Umetuka. Wishing all of Am Yisrael a year of peace, blessings and the ability to appreciate the bounty in our lives.

Technical Data: Nikon D300, 18-200 zoom at 95mm, f6.3 @ 1/100th sec., ISO 400.

Photo of the Week: Sept. 15, 2011

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Had I been wandering the desert with Moses and the Jewish people, I'd likely have stayed in the back of the pack, enjoying the new scenery in quiet contemplation. To me, the best route between two places is the one unexplored. And so I often find myself taking random turns onto dirt roads that lead in the general direction of my destination, frequently getting lost but often rewarded with new vistas to satisfy my creative thirst.

The road that climbs from Ein Boqeq and the Dead Sea to Arad is curvy and steep and one afternoon, stuck behind the ubiquitous, slow-moving Israeli truck, I spotted an intriguing sign pointing toward Masada and directed my car off road. I bumped along a rocky plateau for about 10 minutes when I came upon this majestic mountain stretched out before me with a perfect canopy of cumulous clouds. I found the high ground and grabbed my widest angle lens in order to capture the vastness of the setting. I would have preferred the whole rock formation to be sunlit, but the position of the sun that day caused a shadow to be formed by a nearby mountain. Sometimes, getting lost is the best path to a new discovery.

Technical Data: Nikon D70, 12-24 zoom at 12mm, f13 @ 1/80th sec., ISO 200.

Photos of the Week: Sept. 8, 2011

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: I often tell people that I practice photography, like meditation or Tai Chi, in order to elevate my awareness of subtleties in nature that often go unnoticed. As a professional who strives to continually create original and inspiring images, I frequently return to old subjects and attempt to shoot them anew. One technique I have used successfully involves building unconventional relationships between the subject and its immediate environment to give a fresh face to the familiar. The two photos I am sending this week are excellent illustrations of this concept.

The upper image features ripe sabra fruit which had toppled into a field of dry grass. Sabra fruit and flowers are normally seen as part of the larger, green and spiny cactus plant, so this image offers an alternative to the traditional view. The blurred blades of grass don't impede the viewer's eye as it searches for the photo's subject. Instead, I think they add a bit of realism to the photo as the fruit appears in a natural state, exactly as it was found on the day I walked past it.

The second image emerged while pursuing a shot of black grapes. In the end, the grapes take a back seat to the leaves and the beautifully textured vine, which comes to dominate the photo. I left just enough of the grape cluster visible to help the viewer identify the subject. Here, too, by altering the proportion or the position of the main subject, a new perspective is unveiled, and an old subject is reborn.

Technical Data:
Upper Photo: Nikon D300, 18-200 zoom at 75mm, f6.3 @ 1/640th sec., ISO 200.
Lower photo: Nikon D300, 28-105 zoom at 62mm, f9 @ 1/200th sec., ISO 400.

Photo of the Week: Aug. 31, 2011

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Nature in motion, not unlike poetry, reveals its beauty in evanescent bursts. You cannot photograph something without first seeing it. Yet some images don't really exist, except in our imagination, until the still camera freezes the rushing tide and uncovers a hidden pearl in a few scattered, battered seashells. Seconds later, grace and elegance are wiped clean by another wave.

On the shore of Nizzanim Beach, between Ashkelon and Ashdod, I noticed these shell fragments during a casual late-afternoon stroll. I stopped to study the wave action and marveled at how each shell left a kind of footprint in the receding tide. I like this shot for its minimalism. Just sand and a few shells, yet each one gains prominence and invites individual examination. The falling sun elongates the shadows. Another click and a moment unseen is captured for eternity.

Technical Data: Nikon D300, 28-105 macro zoom at 44mm, f8 @ 1/320th sec., ISO 400.

Photo of the Week: Aug. 4, 2011

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: As an Ashkenazic Jew, I have always admired the Torah scrolls used by our Sephardic brethren, simply because they are different and I encounter them less frequently. Sephardic Torahs are carried in a round case fashioned from either wood or metal and read in the upright position, as opposed to lying flat on a table in the Ashkenazic tradition. Although this makes photographing the reader more complicated, the scroll cases are often quite colorful and ornately adorned. In addition, they always have a piece of material hanging from the top to allow the oleh to mark the place where his reading begins and ends.

I photographed this Torah during a bar mitzvah reading at the Kotel. The case is crafted entirely from wood and was so large and heavy the bar mitzvah boy could barely lift it. A brightly colored tallit was clipped to the top and draped beautifully along one side. Normally, I might shy away from mixing the earth tones of the wood with the bright rainbow colors of the fabric, but here the two strong symbols of my heritage merged comfortably into visual harmony, helped along by the soft, diffuse light of early morning.

Technical Data: Nikon D300, 18-200 zoom at 105mm, f8 @ 1/125th sec., ISO 400

Photo of the Week: July 20, 2011

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: In my humble opinion, photographs can reveal deep truths or they can mislead, even deceive. And sometimes they can do both at the same time. Allow me to explain: A few years back, I visited Gan Yehoshua, the largest public park in Tel Aviv, during Passover, when it was teeming with visitors. My children were eager for a paddle around the small pond that is one of the park's main attractions, but the 90-minute wait scuttled that plan. As we stood amid a throng of hot and annoyed parents and children and plotted an alternative activity, I caught sight of these boats, rocking softly in the pond's gentle wave action.

It took me only a few seconds to corral these three boats within the frame. My eye was drawn to the bright colors and repetitive pattern formed by the portion of the side panels visible from where I stood. The reflections on the water add a nice touch and help fill the dead space in the lower right corner. But wait a minute, this calm and quiet photo says nothing about the undulating energy just a few meters away. It's an abstraction of peace from a scene of chaos and tension. And yet, in that moment, when the stress of the holiday crowd reached its peak in our disappointment, I could gaze upon this scene and inhale a breath of truth.

Technical Data: Nikon D70, 70-300 zoom at 702mm, f13 @ 1/640th sec., ISO 400.

Photo of the Week: July 13, 2011

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: When the mercury rises in the Middle East, our thoughts turn to water, a scarce commodity at any time of the year, but especially in summer. Fortunately, the myth of the desert oasis is not fiction at all. Spring-fed streams, like the one pictured here at Hidden Falls in the Ein Gedi Reserve, run cool and clear 12 months a year, rewarding parched hikers with refreshing relief before their return to the dusty trail.

The name is a bit of a misnomer, as on more than one occasion I've been joined at this site by several dozen students. Nevertheless, they generally move on quickly, leaving behind an even deeper quiet created by the absence of their chaos. This shot downplays the falls, which are about five meters in height, but still follows basic rules of composition by using a strong foreground element as a jumping off point to finding the main subject. I chose camera settings that allow for a long exposure to give the water a milk-like color as it makes its way to the Dead Sea. Israel indeed flows with milk and honey. You just have to know how to look.

Technical Data: Nikon D70, 28-105 zoom at 32mm, f16 @ 1.6 sec., ISO 200.