Photo of the Week: Aug. 19, 2010

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: At the height of summer, I continue to seek out color and form in nature, even though Israel's two-season landscape is often listless and parched in July and August. One reliable subject is the sabra plant, known in English as the prickly pear cactus or Indian fig, which thrives in a wide range of climates, including some of the hottest, driest regions of the Middle East. I've captured these plants in more photogenic form when they blossom with an array of colored flowers in spring and early summer.
The flowers give way to the oval-shaped, thorn-covered fruit which resembles a pear.

This detail of one plant caught my attention because it is somewhat unusual to see so many fruits growing so orderly from a single pad, as the flat, fleshy part of the sabra is called. I was also drawn to the bright reds and greens, one of my favorite complementary color groupings in nature. The two smaller pads growing from the same "trunk" give a nice balance to the composition by dividing it into thirds.

Sabra fruit is grown commercially and the plants have been used as natural borders to keep out intruders, not unlike the modern usage of barbed wire. I mounted a zoom lens on my camera and went to work, shooting and admiring the plant from a respectful distance.

TECHNICAL DATA: Nikon D-300, 18-200 zoom at 31mm, f16 at 1/200 sec., ISO 400.

Photo of the Week: Aug. 10, 2010

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Summer sunsets on the Israeli side of the Mediterranean Sea are fairly predictable. On most days, an afternoon cloud bank hovers offshore and moments before the sun disappears below the horizon, rays of golden light pour through holes in the clouds.I had seen this performance often enough to know it was coming, but I needed a little bit of luck to get one of the boats into alignment with the sun at the critical moment. I was able to control this somewhat by changing my position along the shore.

I've been asked many times to provide outtakes from my photo shoots, to bolster the written explanation to my process. For reasons of simplicity, I've avoided doing it until this week. Here are three shots from the series. The shot under the main photo, taken first, is a general shot upon arrival at the beach, when I began to pre-visualize the final image I wanted to capture: a silhouette of the boat with strong light in the sky and on the water. The lower shot taken closer to sunset shows how I was studying the main elements of the photo and waiting for them to come together at the right moment. The selected image combines the best light of the series in both the sky and on the water in the foreground, as well as a full profile of the boat as it bumps along the choppy water.

TECHNICAL DATA: Nikon D300, 70-200 mm zoom @ 105 mm, f16 at 1/400 sec.

Photo of the Week: July 20, 2010

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: I've been asked many times how I manage to travel far and wide each week to capture a new photo from somewhere in Israel. The answer is obvious, isn't it? It takes only eight hours to drive from Eilat to Metulla! In truth, I have very little time to devote to landscape photography, so I often combine a shoot with other assignments, which do take me to some of Israel's far flung locales.

This week's photo was shot early one Spring morning while driving from Jerusalem to an assignment near the Gaza Strip. Just before I reached Rehovot, a gap opened in the dark clouds and an eerie, other-worldly light spread out across the horizon. I wasn't drawn to the beauty of the moment, but I sensed something unusual and fleeting. Experience has taught me that these are the best opportunities to create photographs whose power derives from recording something in a way we rarely see it.

I didn't have much time to scout the location, so I pulled off the road into a small Eucalyptus grove and drove to where the trees opened up to reveal the view seen in this shot. The dramatic sky sets the mood of the photo, so I allotted a full third of the image to the sky alone. The wheat stalks bending in the wind also give a hint of the inclement weather. And I like the way the blue-gray of the sky complements the new green growth of spring. Much of Israel looks just like this shot, but rarely is it clothed in such flattering dress. TECHNICAL DATA: Nikon D200, 18-70 mm zoom @ 18 mm, f18 at 1/8 sec.

Photo of the Week: June 14, 2010

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Driving through vast, empty stretches of Israel's deserts, I am always amazed to suddenly spy on the horizon a thriving grove of date palms amid the endless rock and sand. A brief stroll in the cooling shade of a palm forest is a welcome stop on any desert journey, and, of course, an opportunity to photograph.

With the sun high in the sky, I left the Arava Highway in southern Israel near Kibbutz Ketura and parked alongside the grove. I wandered among the towering trees for a few minutes, studying the light and looking for a good place to capture the feeling of standing among giants. I chose my ultra wide, 12-24 mm zoom lens to include as many of the frond fans as possible, in order to make the subject clearly recognizable and emphasize the feeling of standing in a forest. I pointed my camera up to the sky and adjusted my position so the sun moved behind one of the thick tree trunks, thus enabling me to shoot directly toward a very bright light source.

Date palms have been a source of food and shelter for millennia in this region of the world. The Hebrew word for date palm is Tamar, also a popular girl's name which has come to symbolize grace and elegance, and, one might add, a bit of chutzpah to grow so well in such a harsh environment.

TECHNICAL DATA: Nikon D300, 12-24 zoom at 12mm, f16 @1/160 sec.

Photo of the Week: June 8, 2010

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: I doubt whether the developers of the Ein Boqeq Dead Sea Resort considered the aesthetic impact of plopping more than a dozen sprawling hotels along this tranquil, desert seashore. Nevertheless, the virtues of man and nature do sometimes merge to display a beauty that transcends the environmental impact, if only momentarily. Like many of my photographs, this shot resulted from my observation over many visits to the area that early in the morning, the wind often subsides and the sea becomes a reflecting pool. When such conditions prevail, a photographer needs only to find a good vantage point, which on this outing required abandoning the hotel grounds and venturing onto a salty spit that appeared to stretch all the way to Jordan.

I composed the image with perfect vertical symmetry, allowing the tip of the arrowhead formed by the mountain reflection to determine the left edge of the photo. The right side was more problematic. I could have cropped out the half hotel that falls on the right edge, but it acts as a barrier to the eye's habit of wandering off the image. It also preserves the position of the highest peak roughly along one of the vertical thirds, thus strengthening the overall composition.

As I settled my tripod in the selected location, I realized two significant things about this brief excursion to satisfy my creative thirst. First, I was the only witness to this beautiful site. Most tourists sleep later than I do and few, if any, would detour onto a barren, dangerous looking, and certainly uninviting piece of land. My second insight was one I've had many times: the photo allows me to share a familiar site from a new and different perspective. A fraction of a second to record the sight, sandwiched between two hours of peace of mind watching the day come alive.

TECHNICAL DATA: Nikon D200, 18-70 zoom at 18mm, f11 @1/125 sec.

Photo of the Week: June 1, 2010

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: I try not to delve too deeply into meaning in my photographs. Why a particular image speaks to me may have no relation to how other viewers see it. This is even more important when a photo contains a bit of mystery, such as this shot of a stone stairway along a trail in the Banias Nature Reserve on the Golan Heights. Words redirect our thoughts and our imagination should really be left alone to wander where it will.

The intrigue of this shot has two sources. First, there are the old stones, worn smooth by time, and which recall another era, a different world altogether. They are unlike most stairs we encounter on a daily basis, oddly crooked and meandering. Secondly, the stairs go up, disappearing on their way to some unseen destination. They are a visual metaphor for passage to something new, better, and higher.

As longtime readers of this blog know by now, no image fully succeeds without interesting light. Here the sun just brushes the tops of the stairs while leaving the risers in shadow, a perfect combination to give form and texture to each individual stone. Sometimes the sun is in just the right position to accent the landscape and reveal the beauty in something so simple and mundane that otherwise we might just tread on it unaware.

Technical Data: Nikon D200, ISO 200, 18-70 zoom at 55mm, f5.6 at 1/125 sec.

Photo of the Week: May 27, 2010

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Anyone who observes me shooting at a simcha will often see me holding my camera hip high or resting it on a tabletop or on the floor, all while continuing to shoot the action. With automatic focus, I need only worry that my zoom is wide enough to encompass the entire subject area. A little practice makes perfect, but what I like about this technique is that the bugs-eye-view camera angle injects novelty and energy into subjects normally only seen from six feet above the ground.

To get this shot of poppies growing in the Jordan Valley, I lay down on my belly and positioned the camera on a rock about five inches off the ground. Years ago I would have ripped out the foreground grass, preferring an unblemished view to my subject. Nowadays, I prefer to leave nature alone and record everything that the camera sees. The blurred foreground – which resulted from the blades of grass rocking in the wind – adds depth to the photo and creates the painterly effect I find so pleasing in many landscapes. It really did look that way, but you can only find it by "lowering" yourself to a new standard of shooting.

Technical Data: Nikon D300, 28-105 zoom at 48 mm, f6.3 at 1/800 sec.