Henna, take two

As I promised my loyal readers (all two of you) here is the second installment of the Henna pics.

The background of this one was way too busy. After trying to clean it up I gave up and just cut them out (and made the background bigger because I could, the background being black and all). Looking at it now, I think I'll put in some stars and make it look a bit more real. I'll keep you (yes, you two) updated on how that is coming along.

Um, yeah, that would be Ron. He doesn't always dress like that.

David and his papa (in French).

I think everyone is looking at different cameras.

And some color (yes I also carry color film):

For the record I also have dimples. They're just slightly, umm, hidden sometimes.

Mmmmm, Rolling Rock.

Yes Mr. Picasso, that is a head coming out of his head.

My #1 fan

Carol's #1 fan

Yeah, I know I know they're completely out of order and there is absolutely no (I'm trying to think of another word for order, but I'm too lazy to go to thesaurus.com to find one) whatsoever. Tough. Live with it. Artists are not meant to be understood (that is a joke. I do not consider myself to be an artist, nor do I randomize under the cloak of depth (wow, that actually sounded pretty good)).

On another note, I went to the dentist today and my mouth hurts. It's a good thing I'm not typing with my teeth (though that is something I'd like to learn to do).

Until next time: Dasvedania, Paul Revere.

Disclaimer: I am way too tired to edit this thing, so if my spelling/grammar seem a bit off, please circle the mistakes in red and fax them back to me @ 492-882-081-438-9899910628-7719 ext. 41. Thanks.

Henna Night (that's Henna, not Chenna)

This past Sunday night I had the privilege of attending my first "Henna". It's basically the Sefardi version of a L'Chaim or Vort (engagement parties) with way cooler clothes and some fancy skin coloring ceremonies (replete with lilili'ing and all). Sharon and Oscar make a really cute couple, and I wish them all the blessings for a wonderful marriage together. Oscar is from India (hence the Henna) and drives quite the gnarly bike (stat).

I was there as the photographer, and I got the chance to use that 24-70 lens I picked up recently on craigslist (actually I picked it up at the Coffee Bean, if you care). I really am enjoying the wide angle part of it. It feels like you're smack in middle of everything (that's why most journalists spend a majority of their time with wide angles). And the longer end is good for not-so-tight portraits (examples to come soon).

What I really had a hard time with was the lighting. Inside, the ceiling was low (as in not ballroom high) and the light was from many small circular lights, which looked great in real life, but gave anyone with even a hint of a receding hairline bright white spots on their foreheads. Outside was nice, until it got dark (well is was still nice, it was just dark). I didn't want to use my flash because a. I'm not that proficient in it's use yet b. there was nothing to bounce it off of (the sky doesn't bounce light very well) c. It would have ruined the ambiance of both the event and the pictures.

As always I made the mistake of lowering the shutter speed instead of raising the ISO (I didn't want to go past 2000, I should have though), noise is better than blur (I need to make at some sort of mantra and stick it on my wall, or even better, inside my viewfinder).

Also I should have made more tome to chat up the family and get comfortable around them (more them around me), so a. I get more shots of them and b. they don't look so posed in all of the shots.

On the brighter side, I did take some wonderful pics. I discovered that converting to black and white gets rid of a lot of lighting/coloring/white balance issues, and I me'od like the combo of wide angle and black and white.

I know I mentioned this already, but I am very into (attempting to) getting pictures that capture the feeling of the event more than getting pictures of those that were there (including family). Portraits and even group pics are nice (and getting a few won't kill anyone), but in 5 or 10 years you don't want to see formal looking pics of the people there, you want to see pictures that remind you how you felt at the time, you want pictures that instead of saying "wow, I sure looked beautiful", it's "wow, I was so happy and we all had such a fun time". That's also why I'm so in love (more like, in like) with the wide angles (and now i'm ogling the 24 f1.4..., someone help me).

Whatever.

On to the pics (mostly with the 24-70 and the 50, and a few with the 105):

Mrs. Kaplan hard at work (and Eli doing his thing)

Meet and greet

Carol and her beautiful step daughter

The drink table (always an integral part)

Eli's sister and her über cute daughter

For some reason before the actual Henna, it seems that the couple is tomb chased to their seats by a bunch of woman carrying plates of cookies. Not the worst thing in the world.

The cookie dance.

Behold: the Henna.

The happy couple.

No, that's not the High Priest. It's Phil.

For now. Toodooloo. Too. Doo. Loo. That's how they ask children in the UK if they have to go to the bathroom.

I'll post some more pictures from the Henna tomorrow (I'm at the cow farm and it takes forever to upload pictures to flickr from my iPad out here).

SGI Summer Fest

According to the Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge, animals are divided into

those that belong to the Emperor, embalmed ones, those that are trained, suckling pigs, mermaids, fabulous ones, stray dogs, those included in the present classification, those that tremble as if they were mad, innumerable ones, those drawn with a very fine camelhair brush, others, those that have just broken a flower vase, those that from a long way off look like flies.

I'm in awe.

In love.

Oh how I would love to have met the author of this arcane work. Alas he is long dead and embalmed. If he ever existed in the first place.

I discovered this remarkable work in the opening pages of a so-far brilliant book on photographs and photographers who photographed them (two nouns and a verb, I like the sound of that, maybe I'll make into a movie of sorts). The book is called The Ongoing Moment by Geoff Dyer (who by his own admission does not even own a camera, and who also wrote a book titled Yoga For People Who Cant Be Bothered To Do It). When I'm through with it I'll update y'all with a slightly more informative book report.

This past Thursday I photographed the summer festival at Silver Gan Israel. So far I've attended the camp as a camper for 9 years, counselor for 3, learning director (actually that was part of the counselor job), and now as a photographer. All were fun, though the counselor years were definitely the most fun (this may be due to the fact that I hardly remember the years as a camper other than jumping off the roof on a Shabbaton when all the staff were sleeping, watching sunrise and sleeping through the rest).

The kids performed (I hated that part as a counselor, I think we tried it the first year and then just let the girls have the stage all to themselves and their dances), we ate, and then there was this dunking show (which was neater than I thought it would be, which usually happens).

On to the visuals (all taken on my newish 24-70, which I'm still working on mastering, will let you know what i think of it soon. So far all I can tell you is that it focuses faster than Michael Johnson can run a foot):

This kid has the coolest blond hair. I was trying all day to snap some shots of him, and he kept running away.

I love kid-eating-pics.

Gimme some of that ketchup love.

No, mom. I will not sing, I will not dance, I will not look at the crowd. In fact I'll just look at that really interesting wall back there.

Another eating shot.

Alon's Kids. Cute as anything.

No, there was not trampoline there. No really. Really.

Wonder where he gets his eyes from.

Now for some Monochromes:

Excuse me young sir, how much did that hat cost?

Nice backlit kids playing laser tag.

I'm not exactly sure what he's screaming at but it must be pretty intense.

Priviet. Roma and Esther.

Rosh Hashana Card

This is a Rosh Hashana card I made for Chabad of West Orange County during the construction of the shul (which has since been completed, and is gorgeous). The grungy theme was to reflect the building (verb) aspect, dirt and all. The picture is a stitched panorama with my trusty (actually, not very) point and shoot (which has not been turned on in well over four months now).

And the back of the card:

Anyone guess where the text of the blessing is from?

California's Rainforest

A few months ago I went up to Northern California (real Northern Cali, not San Francisco or the like), to do some do some Rabbi/Kosher work up there supervising cheese production at a place called Rumiano's. It's a cte little family owned operation that makes some great looking and smelling cheese, but as it wasn't Chalav Yisroel I can't confirm the taste (officially (JK)). The plane landed in Eureka, I rented a cute little Kia Rio and drove up to Crescent City. Being as I landed a bit before noon and I didn't have to check in to the cheese plant until 1 AM, I took the time to do some driving and hiking around. I discovered a whole part of California I did not know existed. I mean, I knew that there were redwoods and they were on the larger side. And I knew that it rained more up north that it did down south. Did you know that it rains over 100 inches a year in what's called "the redwood coast"? 100 inches! Most of that is in the winter, then when the snow starts melting and those cold waters run into te ocean it creates this ridiculously cold and foggy sub-climate that provides these massive trees with over one half of their needed water intake. That mean these trees get the equivilant of over 200 inches of rain a year. Amazing. And I know this because I was bored enough to stop by one of these nifty visitor centers thy have set up and actually watched the 12 minute feature film about the redwoods (I actually left slightly after the six minute mark once the "climate change" angle was brought in. Not my thing.).

I also discovered that these forests are very dark and my camera was having a very difficult time there (especially with the patches of relatively bright sky popping in everywhere).

The beaches up there, besides being very cold (the water doesn't get much above 50 degrees) are very rocky. Or pebbly. I.e. no sand. none. Just a lot of pretty polished pebbles that peps pay big bucks for to stick in their fish tanks.

But the air... mmmmm. I guess it's all that oxygen being produced by those giant trees, it's wonderful. Addictive almost.

On to some pics:

That would be mu Kia Rio. A wide angle lens to a dumpy car is like the liquify filter to a double chin. Magic. The car actually looks a lot dopier in real life. And it doesn't really accelerate. Really. It doesn't. But it had air conditioning and a jack to plug in my ipod, so was happy.

That would be someones shoes on a stump. Who leaves shoes on stumps? (I am viciously holding my self back from writing a some sort of stumps me pun, uchhh, wasn't strong enough.)

Big rock on little rock beach.

The now-famous polished pebbles.

Big trees, big road.

And that's that. I wish I went around the actual city taking pics (wasn't as into it yet back then). It's a real interesting city. Very poor, very happy and friendly. Very small, with some cute homes on the beach (more like bluff).

Next time maybe.

A Tale of Two and a Half Sunrises

this is a continuation of last post

As I was soliloquizing, there should be a reason behind each picture. Something is always being expressed (even if something as simple as "hey look at my 2 year old daughter, aren't her arms edible?"), and our job is to realize what we want to express and then compose the picture in a way that best expresses the desired expression (I could use an expresso right now).

As an example here are two and a half sunrises (the second two are from the same morning).

These pics are all from the same spot at around the same time with the same lens at the same aperture (probably) and at the same focal length (around 200mm). Yet each one would elicit a different response in the viewer.

Disclaimer: When actually photographing these I did not think of all of this, these were all taken pre-epiphany.

The first is powerful, makes you want to get up and do something, go on a hike, explore. The colors explode, expressing all the wonderful potential in a new day.

The second is mellow.It's actually a bit before sunrise and expresses calm. Maybe a bit of thoughtfulness. The colors are very low contrast and on the cooler side expressing maybe a relaxed eagerness for the coming day.

The third? I'm not so sure about. It's still low contrast but very warm. the new day is here (the suns out), but I'll take it slowly, firmly (maybe).

I'm not sure exactly how this fits in to every type of picture, but I do think it applies everywhere. So next time, before you press the shutter, stop and think for a minute (if you could), try to express to yourself what draws you into this scene and how to best express what you are feeling or want to express with this picture. See what happens.

Back to the book.

After the epiphanous part. It goes through the visual weight and meaning of different lines, shapes, shades, colors etc. to try to hone your expression skills. Many times we instinctively respond a certain way to powerful pictures but we don't understand why. This book is a short primer on understanding the visual language involved in how we see and perceive (and react) the world around us.

5 stars, Two thumbs up and a packet of mustard to "Photography Composition" by Tom Grill and Mark Scanlon.

Good luck finding it though.