"There is nothing ugly; I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may,- light, shade and perspective will always make it beautiful." John Constable (1776-1837)
Each year around Memorial Day, New York host Op-Sail, the parade of “tall ships”. This year, my son Jonah and I were fortunate enough to get tickets on one of the boats that was ‘touring’ these ships while they were anchored in New York Harbor. It was a beautiful evening. Everyone on board was excited to see these ships up close and in the water. (You could board them the next day while they were docked. This, for us, was more fun. One of the great ways to see the city is from the water and with these ships docked in the harbor, it made it even better.
All images in the slideshow below were made hand-held on a boat rocking in the current.
Last Sunday, Eileen and I decided to enjoy the great weather and headed into the city (that’s NYC) to experience Foodfest 2012. The festival is held on 9th Avenue and draws very large crowds each year.
Foodfest 2012…
Before we made it there, we discovered the Murray Hill Street Fair on Park Avenue near Grand Central Station.
Old Glory watches over the commuters at Grand Central Station…
Obviously at these events there was plenty of food to choose from. Here are a few of selections…
What would any street fair be without music. At Foodfest 2012 the recorded music was blaring from loudspeakers on each block. At the Murray Hill Street Fair we were entertained by live musicians….
The young ladies in the following video were having a blast and we enjoyed their music (?) as well.
Eileen and I are getting ready to return to Bellevue/Seattle to see our family and friends. I went through some of my images from last year and came across these.
Snoqualmie is a small town located in the Cascade Mountains about 25 miles east of Seattle. The town itself is kind of quaint with the stores reflecting an era that has passed most of us by.
Ye Olde Candy Shoppe…
‘Rock & Roll’ in the Candy Shoppe…
The main attraction in Snoqualmie is the Northwest Railroad Museum.
Northwest Railway Museum…
I didn’t go inside the museum but spent my time outside shooting the trains….Here are a few of my images from that shoot.
Although I am a big fan of NIK’s Silver Efex Pro I continue to have problems with NIK products. The above images were processed with the Topaz B&W plug-in. Seems to do a pretty good job IMHO!
Well we’re back home in the States and have begun to settle in. I have finally gotten a chance to work on my images from Israel and also from Cuba. Part of the problem that I was experiencing was that my portable external drive ‘froze’ and most of my images are stored on it although some that were ‘backed up’ were saved. Anyways, my friend Brian was able to find the files and is working on restoring them. For that I owe him a big thanks (and probably dinner as well).
Tel Aviv is a terrific city in many ways. As I’ve shared with you in the past, the Bauhaus architecture dominated the city for years (making it a World Heritage Site) but now the city is expanding and the architecture is changing as more and more hi-rise apartment and office buildings dominate the skyline. What I found in ‘shooting’ the buildings in Tel Aviv is that they lend themselves to being shot and processed in black & white. Here are a few of the images from a couple of visits to the city.
Reminder: Click on any image to begin the slideshow…
Eileen and I returned on Friday and are beginning to settle in. Took time on Sunday to go to The Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue. About 10 blocks were closed to traffic and the ‘bonnet’ wearers were out in force. It was sort of like a combination Mermaid/Halloween/Gay Pride parades with genders often difficult to determine. It was a lot of fun to shoot there. The subjects were more than pleased to pose for you and everyone was in good spirits.
Here are some images from the parade. There was so much to shoot, and we were only there for about 1.5 hours, that I had a difficult time deciding which images to include in the blog. So, I included most of them. I hope it gives you a new look at the Easter Parade.
Reminder: Click on one of the images below to start the slideshow…
Eileen and I recently went to Tel Aviv to visit (and shoot, of course) in the Old Cemetery on Trumpeldor Street (founded in 1902), but that’s another blog I guess. We parked the car and headed off to find the cemetery. Along the way we had to walk through Dizengoff Circle which is a bustling area of shops, residences and to my great surprise The Hotel Cinema.
The architecture of Israel is composed of many different styles of building brought in by those who have occupied the country over the ages, and are sometimes modified to suit the local climate and landscape. Fortified Crusader castles, Islamic madrassas, Byzantine churches, Templer houses, Bauhaus-style modernist buildings (found not only in Tel Aviv but in many other cities, including Herzlya where we live), Arab arches and minarets, Russian Orthodox onion domes, and soaring glass-sided skyscrapers – all are part of the architecture of Israel.
The Cinema Hotel, built in 1939, is constructed in an original Bauhaus style building – The Ester Cinema – one of the first movie theaters in Tel Aviv. The building was recently restored and renovated to become a boutique hotel, whatever that is. Inside, I later found out, are some of the original projectors, movie posters and theater chairs scattered around. Guess that gives us another reason to return to the hotel.
I was immediately attracted to this rounded stone building because of its sleek lines, elegance and the fact that it is in the Bauhaus style of architecture. Tel Aviv, in fact, in 2004 was named to the list of World Heritage Sites by the UN due to its abundance of Bauhaus architecture. The difficulty in shooting this building is the fact that there are numerous trees on the street blocking most of it, so tree-free sight lines were limited. I figured I’d take a couple of images and then post on a blog about architecture in Tel Aviv.
But, when I got home and processed my images, I was in for a big surprise as these lines jumped out at me in a way I had not foreseen. So, here are a few of the images I came up with. They are all taken from the one image above and ‘slightly’ enhanced with Topaz BW Effects. I had thought about cleaning up the images a bit to get rid of the cracks and lines that show up in the white areas. But, I thought they enhanced them, giving them respect like the lines on an old persons face.
Reminder: Click on one of the images below to start slide-show…
The Christian quarter was built around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which is the heart of the quarter. Around the church there are other churches and monasteries. As in contrast to the Muslim Quarter there are few houses. Christian buildings stand on much of the quarter. Besides the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which occupies most of the land, the Patriarchate of the Greek Orthodox, the Franciscan monastery, San Salvatore and the Latin Patriarchate take up large areas as well. The quarter also contains souvenir shops, coffee houses, restaurants and hotels.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection by Eastern Christians is highly respected as the Hill of Calvary, where Jesus was said to be crucified and is also said to contain the place where Jesus was buried (the sepulchre). The church is an important Christian pilgrimage destination…
Christians on pilgrimage pose in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre...
…as it is the purported site of the resurrection of Jesus. Control of the Church building is shared between several Christian churches including Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and roman Catholic.
Just inside the entrance is The Stone of Anointing, also known as The Stone of Unction, which tradition claims to be the spot where Jesus’ body was prepared for burial by Joseph of Arimathea. However, this tradition only exists since the crusader era (1095 AD), and the present stone was only added in the 1810 reconstruction of the Church.
This stone represents where they laid and washed Jesus' body before burial...
The Via Dolorosa is a street, in two parts, within the Old City of Jerusalem, said to be the path that Jesus walked, carrying his cross, on the way to his crucifixion. It is a distance of about 2,000 feet and is a celebrated place of Christian pilgrimage…
The current route…
…has been established since the 18th century, replacing various earlier versions. It is marked by nine Stations of the Cross along the Via Dolorosa…
The fourth station where Jesus meets his mother...
The Church on the site of the fourth station...
5th Station of the cross, Via Dolorosa...
The fifth station refers to the biblical episode in which Simon of Cyrene takes Jesus' cross, and carries it for him...
…there have been fourteen stations since the late 15th century, with the remaining five stations being inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Many of our friends have asked us what it is like to live in Israel. Through the blogs I’ve attempted to share our experiences, visiting the many antiquities, historic sites, cities, etc. that can be found here. Today, I’d like to share a video taken on Sokolov Street, Herzlia, the city where we live. Sokolov is the main shopping street in Herzlia. It is reminiscent of the days when I was growing up in Brooklyn back in the ’50′s. There are small shops everywhere. Many of the shop owners know you personally. In fact, in the video you will see Eileen stopping into one of the stores to say hello to a friend and former patient of hers. There is no Walmart to run to. It’s all here! Well there is an IKEA in nearby Natanya, but in the time we’ve spent here we’ve never had a need to shop there. We did go last year, but only to see it after it had burnt down!
Yes, you can find pretty much find anything you want right here on Sokolov Street. *My apologies to Arlo Guthrie…
Followers of my blog know that The Kotel is the most exciting place in Israel for me to visit. This is our second visit to The Wall on this trip. Wish we could have visited more often, but sometimes life gets in the way.
A little history about The Wall for those of you who do not know or understand it’s significance to Jews throughout the world. The Wall is open 24/7 and 365 days a year. It is known in Hebrew as Ha-Kotel Ha-Ma’aravi.. The Western Wall, dates back over 2,000 years and marks the western edge of the Temple Mount and is a surviving remnant of the Temple Mount. As part of the retaining wall of the Temple Mount, it was built by Herod the Great during his expansion of the Temple in 20 BC. The wall became the Jews’ chief place of pilgrimage during the Ottoman Period. This is where they mourned the destruction of the temple by the hands of the Romans in AD 70. For this reason it has also become known as the “Wailing Wall”.
The plaza in front of the Wall is divided by a fence, with a large area for men on the left and a smaller area for women on the right. Anyone is allowed to approach the wall as long as their heads are covered, behave appropriately (I know, that’s hard for me), and dress appropriately. The wall acts as an outdoor synagogue with written prayers inserted into the crevices between the large stones. You can see these notes in some of our images below. On Friday night at sundown there is the welcoming of the Sabbath which includes prayers, singing and dancing. Hopefully one day we’ll get there to observe this welcoming service.
Photography is allowed at The Wall except on the Sabbath and other holy days. It is a wonderful opportunity to shoot. Below are some images from our last visit.
Reminder: Click on one of the images below to begin the slide show.
The Damascus Gate...entry to the Old City in the Muslim Quarter
The Old City of Jerusalem is that part of Jerusalem surrounded by the impressive 16th century Ottoman city walls and representing the heart of the city both historically and spiritually. In a city already divided, the Old City is further divided culturally and historically into four Quarters: the Jewish Quarter, the Armenian Quarter, the Christian Quarter and the Muslim Quarter
The Old City is fairly small in size compared to modern-day Jerusalem. Despite its small size, or perhaps because of it, the Old City is amazing. Much of the Old City is only accessible by walking because of very narrow streets and steps in the road. This is not a great inconvenience because the Old City is only about 1 kilometer across. The Old City is a maze of twisty alleyways and it’s difficult to keep your bearings even with a map. Then again, getting lost is half the fun—you can’t get too lost due to its size.
Of course while heading to The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Eileen and I once again got lost. The church is located in the Christian Quarter but we made a left instead of a right, (and this was with a map), so we wound up in the Muslim Quarter. The Muslim Quarter is always a busy place with lots of activity in the streets. The following video shows the Muslim Quarter as we entered it looking for the church.
Taking photographs of people in The Old City is kind of tricky. Unlike in Cuba and in San Miguel de Allende, most people do not like their picture taken and will turn their heads or hold up their hand blocking their face so as not to be seen. One vegetable vendor, an old Muslim lady, actually got off from the floor where she was selling her wares, grabbed a stick and started after me. I was just sorry that I wasn’t shooting video. Another vendor in the video above can be seen raising her hand so as not to be caught by the camera. Hey, it was only an iPhone! Below are some images in the Muslim Quarter that Eileen and I managed to take.
Reminder: Click on one of the images below to start the slide show…
The Damascus Gate…entry to the Old City in the Muslim Quarter
