Photo of the Week: Aug. 14, 2013

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Sometimes you have to get your feet wet. That’s okay, of course, as long as you remove your shoes and don’t slip on a rock or drop your camera into the salty sea foam. If you can brave the ankle-deep, more likely than not you’ll discover a vantage point other photographers will overlook, giving you an edge in capturing that unique shot.

This photo was taken last month at the public beach in Ashkelon, where a jetty was built to quiet the tidal action. But the rocks create their own crashing drama about 50 meters offshore, and if you stand patiently on the wet sand, you are rewarded with some authoritative splashes. The difficulty in this shot was not being able to see to the other side of the breakwater. I had no way of knowing when a wave was about to impact and whether or not it was even worth waiting for, focus engaged, arms raised (and beginning to ache after four minutes in the same posture), and shutter speed jacked to capture the water in crisp sharpness. It's also impossible to time the peak action, so I fired up my motor drive and burned up 5 frames per wave. I also had some help from the sun, which was doing its predictable late afternoon cloud dance, adding to the spectacle in both the sky and on the water.

Pack a little patience in your beach bag this summer and reap the reward.

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TECHNICAL DATA: Camera: Nikon D300, handheld, manual exposure, center-weighted metering mode, f9 at 1/1250th sec., ISO 400. Raw file converted to Jpeg. Lens: Nikon 28-105 zoom at 78 mm. Date: July 24, 2013, 7:07 p.m. Location: Mediterraean Sea at Ashkelon.

 

Photo of the Week: Aug. 7, 2013

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: I am often asked to work early in the morning in the Old City of Jerusalem. I enjoy these assignments because I arrive as the day is just awakening and take an opportunity to pray by the Kotel before my clients show up. Parking near the old city is limited so I usually walk from Mount Zion down to the Kotel, taking a different route each time in the hope of discovering something new.

I have written many times how the Old City never lacks for charm and beauty and good photographic subjects abound all year long. On this particular July morning, as soon as I drew near to Zion Gate, a powerful burst of color grabbed my attention. This shot works well because all three of the main color tones work very well together. There is just a tad of early morning light kissing the tops of the olive trees and skimming across the foreground to set the red flowers alight. It’s impossible to tell from this composition, but this section of wall stood between a messy archaeological dig and the parking lot, but with some clear thinking and creative cropping, I was able to unearth my own relic while en route to document another family’s memorable moments.

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TECHNICAL DATA: Camera: Nikon D300, handheld, manual exposure, center-weighted metering mode, f9 at 1/200th sec., ISO 400. Raw file converted to Jpeg. Lens: Nikon 28-105 zoom at 28 mm. Date: July 23, 2009, 6:45 a.m. Location: Mt. Zion, Jerusalem.

Photos of the Week: July 31, 2013

 

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Sometimes the camera captures what our eyes cannot see. This occurs both when we move in very close, as in macrophotography, and when we slow down the shutter speed to trap movement the eye cannot perceive. When the latter happens, with a little luck, you can snare some magic in a bottle.

In the upper photo, I encountered a family of Ibex out for a late-afternoon stroll in the sandy hills above Ein Avdat. This proud male stood undaunted between my camera and the setting sun, which spilled some flare onto my lens. In this case, what I might normally try to avoid actually enhances the mood of the image. The big buck is nearly in silhouette and the bright background helps outline his form and strength as I portray him mid-stride, accented with some unforeseen sparkle.

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In the lower photo, this friendly egret, while eyeing me cautiously, allowed me to very slowly encroach upon his afternoon feeding along the shoreline at Herzliya Beach. Birds are extremely skittish, so having an extended period to observe and then capture a close-up of a wild bird in its habitat was reason enough to celebrate. Add to that the way the setting sun turned the splashing water into flying sparks and I had the making of a unique image. By slowing the shutter just a bit (to 1/100th sec.), I was able to keep my subject in sharp focus yet also elongate the water droplets, adding some enchantment to the shot. Just another afternoon at the office along the Mediterranean coast.

TECHNICAL DATA: Upper photo - Camera: Nikon D700, handheld, manual exposure, center-weighted metering mode, f20 at 1/500th sec., ISO 400. Raw file converted to Jpeg. Lens: Nikon 70-200 zoom at 80 mm. Date: Oct. 28, 2012, 4:05 p.m. Location: On the road from Sde Boker to Ein Avdat, Negev Desert.

Lower photo: Camera: Nikon D300, handheld, manual exposure, center-weighted metering mode, f9 at 1/100th sec., ISO 400. Raw file converted to Jpeg. Lens: Nikon 18-200 zoom at 130mm. Date: July 4, 2011, 6:28 p.m. Location: Herzliya Beach.

Photo of the Week: July 24, 2013

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Every now and then I get a little bit whimsical. It’s important to lighten up because my work would be insufferable plodding along on the same serious emotional tenor. And letting loose has the added benefit of opening new passageways for creativity to emerge by tilting my vision ever so slightly that I begin to see anew.

So as the sweat beads rolled down my cheeks on an uncomfortably warm summer afternoon near Kibbutz Gezer, I traipsed through a sunflower field hoping to find something less serious, less typical and heretofore unseen. Sunflowers are heliotropic – they turn toward the sun, making them nearly impossible to photograph from the front with the golden illumination of back lighting I so prefer. Deep in the field of head-high plants, I found this young specimen, still a day or two from flowering. At the time I photographed, it still had its back to the sun, which plays its role perfectly, casting that cherished glow on the leaflets around the flower head as well as on some of the mature yellow petals seen in the background. We know well what a mature, yellow sunflower looks like. But here’s something new, planted with a bit of whimsy on a hot summer day.

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TECHNICAL DATA: Camera: Nikon D700, tripod mounted, manual exposure, center-weighted metering mode, f6.3 at 1/250th sec., ISO 200. Raw file converted to Jpeg. Lens: Nikon 28-105 zoom at 78mm. Date: June 2, 2011, 4:37 p.m. Location: Opposite Kfar Bin Nun, Central Israel.

Photo of the Week: July 17, 2013

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Normally I keep my selections in season, but after a particularly warm and sweaty visit to the Eilat Mountains this month, I felt the need for a visual cool down. Some years ago I visited Sa’ar Falls in the Hermon Nature Reserve on the Golan Heights, but the falls weren’t falling at all; the stream was bone dry. Last March, however, the falls were gushing with spring runoff and snow melt from the Hermon.

I guess I had bypassed the danger since no signs warned me not to continue along my route to this vista. OK, so I did crawl in the mud under a barbed-wire fence and gingerly navigate a wet, rocky slope that plummeted to the river below. I even endured the curious gaze of a furry hyrax who crawled out from under a rock to investigate the intruder. But I was determined.

Nowhere along the paved walkway provided for the throngs of tourists who come here, however, could one spy all three sections of the falls, which I wanted to capture in one frame. The sun had already climbed high, so I set two of my exposure controls – the aperture and ISO – to their minimum settings to allow the least amount of light to enter the camera. In this way, I could hold the shutter open long enough (in this shot 1/5 sec.) to create the silky, milky effect I love to see in moving water. All in a morning’s enjoyable adventure.

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TECHNICAL DATA: Camera: Nikon D300, tripod mounted, manual exposure, center-weighted metering mode, f20 at 1/5th sec., ISO 100. Raw file converted to Jpeg. Lens: Nikon 28-105 zoom at 28mm. Date: Mar 1, 2013, 8:54 a.m. Location: Hermon Nature Reserve, Golan Heights.

Photo of the Week: July 10, 2013

Welcome Back! After a prolonged break to recharge my creative energies, I am pleased to resume my Photo of the Week blog. As in the past, I invite you to join me for a weekly foray into the natural beauty of the land of Israel and the photographic process. Feel free to share this email with all the photography buffs in your life.

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: I have to confess I have been holding this photo for several years in a folder entitled “Blog Candidates,” not sure if I liked it enough to write about it. The image was taken on a lovely January morning while hiking Wadi Arugot in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve. For reasons I will try to explain, it has finally matured in my eyes.

Walking the canyons of Israel’s deserts, a hiker can crane his neck and spy a view like this at almost any time. So the image needed something to distinguish it from the typical scenes frequently encountered in the desert. The wispy clouds are just the ticket, adding energy and motion that offset the static mountain, which I minimized in the composition to maintain emphasis on the alluring sky. Like many images, it took repeated viewings to appreciate the nuances of the beauty of this morning. I also realized I hadn’t hiked this canyon for some time, so perhaps seeing this photo made me want to return, at least virtually, via the magic of photography.

TECHNICAL DATA: Camera: Nikon D70, tripod mounted, manual exposure, center-weighted metering mode, f14 at 1/400th sec., ISO 200. Raw file converted to Jpeg. Lens: Nikon 18-70 zoom at 25mm. Date: Jan. 23, 2007, 11:03 a.m. Location: Arugot Canyon, Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, Judean Desert.