Photo of the Week: April 8, 2008

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Prior to his first aliya to the Torah as a bar mitzvah, a boy studies the section of the Torah he is about to read. Every time I photograph a boy reading from the Torah, I compose a shot that leaves only the hand and text in the image. I like this image because it differs from what I usually shoot and because of how his hand is gently grasping the yad, the silver pointer he will use to guide his reading from the Torah scroll. While the hand appears calm, there is a frenzy of black lines running in several directions that offers an interesting counterpoint to the relaxed energy of the hand. Faceless photographs often lose a great deal of the depth and interest that is generated by looking at a person's facial expression and eyes. Cropping body parts is also a risky business. It's difficult to isolate parts of the body yet still maintain a feeling of comfort when looking at the photo. One general rule to follow is never lop off limbs in midsection so that part of the arm or leg leaves the frame and then returns, unattached, in another section of the photo. Here, I was careful not to crop tighter than the elbows on either side so that the curve of the arms is continuous from shoulder to hand. Another common mistake by young photographers is the dreaded ankle chop, in which a group photo shows everything but the ankles and feet. Better to crop at the waist if not going for a full-body portrait. Increasing viewfinder awareness will enable you to see these mistakes before you press the shutter release.

Photo of the Week: Mar. 30, 2008

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Stately old trees are a rare sight in Israel. Most of what would be considered old-growth forests were uprooted long ago by the Ottomans. Although the Jewish National Fund has done remarkable work in reforesting much of the country, even decades-old groves don't have the personality of aged, wild trees. This photo is another gem from my sojourn on the Golan Heights earlier this month. Exploring near the Jordanian border, I spied these old oaks on the wrong side of a barb-wire and chain-link fence that made photographing impossible. So alluring were these venerable giants I would have climbed on the roof of my car to get a shot, but they were still too far from the road to allow a good composition. Luck, however, was lingering. On the point of abandoning my pursuit, I found a local cutting off the lock to the lone gate in a two-mile stretch of the fence. After a quick introduction and a brief struggle to remove the lock, he offered me a tour of his property, used mainly for grazing cattle, and blessed me to wander to my heart's content. I like this trio because the trees are varied in size and shape and far enough apart to allow a full profile of each one. I also like the way their darkened trunks and branches accentuate their strength and mystery. I kept the image true to the slope of the land, which falls off abruptly into a huge chasm separating Israel from Jordan and Syria, which is visible in the distance along the right hand edge of the photo. Finally, the smattering of color provided by the various wildflowers adds a finishing touch to the painterly quality of this pastoral image.

Photo of the Week: Mar. 23, 2008

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Asked to describe a classic image of Israel, few people would answer, "lakes and snow-capped mountains." Yet one can find both these natural wonders in Northern Israel. From almost any point on the Golan Heights, Mt. Hermon looms on the horizon like a giant sentry, which in many ways it really is. While in pursuit of another idea, I spotted a sign marking my arrival at the Orvim Reservoir, but a hill obscured any view of the water from my car. Not knowing what to expect, I walked an easy 50 meters from the parking lot to the top of the bank and a perfect perspective to shoot across the water at the mountain. It was a very windy afternoon, as evidenced by the ripples on the water, and I suffered through visions of the mountain's perfectly symmetrical reflection on still water. I settled for this image, which is greatly helped by my elevation above the water and by walking a short distance along the bank to position the few trees as guideposts to drawing viewers' eyes toward the main subject. I cropped the image to be very long and narrow, almost panoramic. Though now offered as a shooting option on many digital cameras, panoramic photos are still unusual enough to generate interest by their shape alone. Throw in an interesting subject, and the two combine to produce a powerful visual statement.

Photo of the Week: Mar. 16, 2008

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: I often try to recreate in a photograph how I felt at the moment I was shooting it. This may seem self-evident, but think for a moment about all the sensual stimuli that can't be captured in a photograph. In this shot of a field of wild mustard, taken last week just below the Peace Lookout in the lower Golan Heights, I had to leave out the warmth of the sunshine, the cool breeze, chirping birds and the intoxicating floral aroma. As I waded through the field, hip-high in flowers, I truly felt as if I were in an ocean of wildflowers. To convey that feeling, I used a wide-angle lens and searched for a viewpoint that stretches the yellow across the frame and far into the depth of the photo. The olive trees appear to be islands, floating in this sea. If you look carefully, you can spot one of Israel's real "seas," the Kinneret, in a few pieces just behind these trees. I arrived here around 9 a.m., and although the sun was already high, the cloud layer helped soften the brightness. My built-in exposure meter is extremely accurate, but I chose to underexpose the image by about 1/3 of a stop, which slightly darkened the sky and boosted the color intensity or saturation of the yellow mustard flowers. To see a full gallery of Israel's spring wildflowers, please visit: A Passion for Poppies.

Photo of the Week: Mar. 9, 2008

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: The Anemone Coronaria – the poppy anemone or "kalanit" in Hebrew, is one of the most widespread and beloved flowers in Israel. For a few weeks each spring, they provide ultra-dramatic coloring to hillsides and valleys that are brown and dry for most of the year. Red is the most common color, but pink, purple and white kalaniyot are also found in smaller numbers across central and northern Israel. This shot was taken in Emek HaEla, across from the well-known Bezeq satellite station. From the main road, the red fields certainly catch your eye, but as usual the prize lay in taking a few extra minutes to follow a dirt road to the heart of the field. Landscapes, like portraits, are not flattered when the camera is aimed uphill, but a wide angle lens combined with the contours of this scene, especially the slight dip in the land at the bottom of the photo, allowed the full visual effect of the flowers to come across. The rest of the composition was determined by the sweeping line of trees, with two clumps of larger trees set at either side of the image. The dark green of the tree line also provides a nice contrast to the blue sky and red flowers. This shot was taken at mid-morning, because the flowers remain closed during the early morning and late afternoon hours, when the sun is lower in sky.

Photo of the Week: Mar. 2, 2008

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: One of my favorite spring haunts is Har Socho, also known as Givat Haturmusim or, in English, Lupines Hill, off route 375 in the Ela Valley near Beit Shemesh. A popular hiking spot for families, the hill is an easy 10-minute ascent to one of the richest concentrations of wildflowers I have discovered in Israel. Although there are at least two dozen varieties growing there, the dominant flower is the purple lupine, seen here, which grows primarily on the top and southern slope. This photo is another example of how I try to merge land and sky into a unified composition. I love dramatic cloud formations as complements to the main subject. The position and length of the clouds in this image forced the vertical composition, and I chose a low camera angle which follows the slope of the hill down to the left, thereby creating a sweeping, almost circular motion from the stems and flowers up through the clouds. The low angle of view, as opposed to the angle most often used by photographers - shooting down from a standing position - offers a more detailed and engaging look at the flowers. By crouching down and shooting up, I was able to extend the tops of the uppermost flowers above the horizon line and into the sky, which brings together the two main elements of the photo.

Photo of the Week: Feb. 24, 2008

HOW I GOT THE SHOT – Environmental portrait photography is a process that takes time for the subject and location to gel into a unified whole. Although I had been envisioning this genre of photo for weeks before arriving on the mountain, I had less than five minutes to complete the shot and I struggled to find the proper perspective while standing on a steep, rocky slope at 14,600 feet. I tried a few shots with a wide angle lens, but the subject was too small, so I backed up the hill and switched to a 135mm telephoto and asked the subject to climb onto the rock. Zoom and telephoto lenses have the effect of compressing depth, which in this photo makes the clouds appear closer to the subject. I shot about a dozen frames from start to finish, each time moving up or down until I finally found a foothold at an angle that put the subject and the rock he was on above the lower bank of clouds in order to accentuate the feeling of standing astride the edge of the world. Finally, I placed the subject along the left third to give balance to the mass of clouds in the upper right of the frame.