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.

Photo of the Week: Dec. 11, 2012

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: I think I am not alone in admitting I can sit and stare for hours at a warm fire, simultaneously delighted and calmed by the artful flickering of flames. The firelight of the menorah adds a deeper dimension to that reverie, as the Chanukah candles serve to remind us – since we so often need to be reminded – of the miracles bestowed by God upon the Jewish people. Our sages argued over whether to increase or decrease the number of candles as the commemoration progressed. The debate was won by those who favored adding light. And that may be the greatest miracle of all: to know that no matter how dark the world may appear, it can always grow brighter.

I seem also never to tire of photographing the candles of the menorah. After exhausting my ideas for shooting the nine lights of the final night, I moved on to more abstract views, such as the one I chose for this week’s photo. Taken on the fourth night of the festival, the candles are nearly fully consumed, yet the mix of colors, sizes, and the position and direction of the flames all merge into a pleasing interpretation of an enjoyable subject. There is a “rule” in portraiture that suggests placing heads at different heights to avoid monotony and build a relationship among the group. That concept is illustrated here by the four flames. Additionally, a number of subtle details, such as the highlights on the top of the blue and red candles fall on the inside, serving to further weave the composition into a visual whole.

Finally, because the menorah is set in front of a window to fulfill the mitzvah of publicizing the miracle, the photo has the mysterious element of the flame reflections in the background, including that of the shammash. I don’t know how I got the air currents to blow in two directions at the same time, but hey, this is the season of miracles, so I’m not going to question it. Happy Chanukah.

See a gallery of Chanukah photos on the JPost online.

TECHNICAL DATA: Camera: Nikon D700, handheld, manual exposure, center-weighted metering mode, f5 at 1/250th sec., ISO 800. Raw file converted to Jpeg. Lens: Nikon 28-105 macro zoom at 80 mm. Date: Dec. 7, 2010, 5:43 p.m. Location: Efrat, Gush Etzion.

Photo of the Week: Dec. 5, 2012

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: I had wanted to send out a fall photo two weeks ago, during Israel’s thankfully brief faceoff with Hamas. The anxiety of conflict has a way of paralyzing the creative process, and I found it too difficult to think and write about the beauty of Israel while we were fighting a war. Despite the spectacle of fall unfolding before our eyes, nothing else seemed relevant except the wellbeing of country and countryman.

Being outdoors has a way of clearing the mind, even when it must grapple with complex technical problems like those posed by this week’s image. The very conditions which make it extraordinary – the backlit leaves and heavy cloud cover – require contradictory settings on the camera (both more and less exposure at the same time). There has long been a rule in digital photography to expose first for the highlights, because if you accidentally overexpose the white areas of the image, there will be no detail to recover later via computer editing. In this photo, reducing the exposure to accommodate the bright sky made the blazing vine, which has almost no light falling on it from the direction of the camera, far too dark to appreciate. Nevertheless, the image retained enough detail for me to “bring it up” by dodging it in Photoshop.

Finally, I set out this afternoon under this heavy sky which built to a powerful rain storm the following day. Although the light was not promising as I embarked on my hike, I did the work of finding a good subject and then waiting. I was rewarded with a three-minute surge of sunlight, nearly falling over backwards as I got down underneath my tripod to frame the shot. Patience, perseverance, and protexia from on high.

More fall images in my new Jerusalem Post Online column

TECHNICAL DATA: Camera: Nikon D700, tripod mounted, manual exposure, center-weighted metering mode, f16 at 1/125th sec., ISO 200. Raw file converted to Jpeg. Lens: Nikon 20mm manual focus. Date: Dec. 3, 2012, 3:24 p.m. Location: Gush Etzion, Judean Mountains.

Photo of the Week: Nov. 14, 2012

HOW I GOT THE SHOT:Of course, it goes without saying, that Israel’s preeminent beauty is found in the faces of Am Yisrael. Over the past 25 years, many new faces have arrived in Israel as the country absorbed two large waves of immigration from the Former Soviet Union and Ethiopia. This week, 237 new Ethiopian immigrants arrived in Tel Aviv from Addis Ababa during operation Wings of the Dove, in perhaps the final evacuation of Ethiopian Jews to Israel. Their arrival was timed perfectly to coincide with the celebration of Sigd, one of the holiest days of the year for the Ethiopian Jewish community.

Sigd, an Amharic word meaning “worship” or “prostration,” marks the date God first revealed himself to Moses, according to Ethiopian tradition. It is celebrated annually on the 29th of Cheshvan, exactly 50 days after Yom Kippur, which also happens to be today. During the celebration, members of the community fast, recite Psalms, and gather in Jerusalem for readings from the Orit, the Ethiopian Torah. It is an official holiday in Israel, given recognition by the Knesset in 2008. The celebration itself is a photographer’s paradise, with lots of color, ritual, and hundreds of friendly and willing subjects. I’ve posted a gallery of some of my favorite shots here.

I have had the opportunity to photograph the Ethiopian Jewish community on numerous assignments for the Jewish Agency. What is always striking is the stark difference between the generations. Older immigrants hold on to much of their traditional customs and style of dress while the younger generation quickly adopts a more western appearance. This image was taken during a Sigd festival in Jerusalem several years ago. In addition to dealing with large crowds and dozens of hungry photographers, this shot required a little sechel (wisdom) to understand how to balance the bright background with the skin tones of the subject. I used a fill-flash to bump up the exposure after closing down the aperture to accommodate the background light.

Living in a religious community, I have learned that photographing people while they are praying requires an ample dose of both respect and distance. Both serve the photographer well by allowing the subject to remain candid and composed.

TECHNICAL DATA: Camera: Nikon D300, handheld, manual exposure, center-weighted metering mode, f18 at 1/200th sec., ISO 200. Raw file converted to Jpeg. Lens: Nikon 70-200mm zoom at 90. Date: Nov. 27, 2008, 11:05 a.m. Location: Haas Promenade, Talpiot, Jerusalem.