Announcement + Mental Dump

Hello and welcome to summer. In honor of this monumental season I am offering up a special deal. Just for you (Middle Eastern haggling).

Family portrait session will be $500 (that's my normal price) but now (until October, in which I need more money for all the beer) that includes a disc with all the Full Resolution photos (around 50 per session). Which I normally sell for an additional $400. It's a good deal. So act quickly, and book that thing!

For some reason, bloggers have always liked listing things. It's easier than having to put together sentences and thoughts (all those conjunctions and prepositions!), and people like reading lists (top ten ways to stop procrastinating...).

Here a some of my lists.

Three downright awesome photographers.

1. Nick Brandt. The only wildlife photography I care to see.
2. David Burnett. Sports and event photographer. Shoots with a Speed Graphic (4x5) and a Holga.
3. Kitty & Craig Fritz. I love weddings and I love shooting them. They're real, important, and loads of fun. And there are some really good wedding photographers out there. But its rare to find a wedding photographer who produces real art. Someone whose images are so crazy good that people who have no clue whose wedding it is have their photos on their wall. These people do it. All the time. If I'm not available book them. (Yeah, pronoun overload. Deal with it.)

Some recent books that rock.

1. 52 Loaves. Best book I've read since Catch 22. And that was ten years ago.
2. Little Heathens. Decently written, but great content. A glimpse into the 1930's farm life.
3. Portraits of America. Photo essays from middle America. It portrays an America we all know exists but have never seen. The photography is amazing but it doesn;t show itself off. The content is king, and only after looking at it for a bit do you noticc the perfect lighting, composition and moments. Really good stuff. Buy it used.

Cameras I own (this is a bit crazy).

1. Nikon D700
2. Nikkormat FT2
3. Nikon F3
4. Nikon F4s
5. Canon QL
6. Canon AE-1
7. Minolta XG-2
8. Polaroid 100
9. Polaroid SX-70
10. Yashica D
11. Holga 120N
12. Mamiya RZ67
13. Pentax 6x7
14. Contax 645
15. A borrowed (indefinitely) Mamiya C330

Current favorite beers.

1. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale
2. Mad River Double IPA
3. Stone Ruination IPA

Favorite sandwich ingredients.

1. Fresh sourdough bread (cut thickly)
2. Fresh & Kosher Mozzarella cheese (the best kosher mozzarella out there)
3. Onions from the garden
4. Tomato from the garden
5. Homemade pink sauerkraut
6. Mustard
7. Avocado
8. One of the aforementioned beers (not technically part of the sandwich but an integral part of the meal)

In the spirit of oversharing here is a barrel full of recent(ish) photos.

Enjoy.

Side note: Pushing four kids in a stroller (two on the seats, two finding places), uphill, over grass, with an RZ67 hanging over your neck, is not easy.

Shovels and hammers >; toys anyday

Check out that eating position. The kid takes his food very seriously.

yeah, that's me, pushing two kids on the swings, with a kid on my back and somehow focusing and shooting.

Making lemon juice (with lemons from our tree of course)

Zusha: "dadadblgambujj"

Chanaleh: "ZUSHA'S GOING UP THE STAIRS!!!"

Zevi: "Chanaleh, shhhhh, we're in a library, tatty says it's okay" Mendel: "TATTY, LIBRARY SLEEPING??"

Yeah, we got kicked out.

No random post is complete without cows.

Geek speak: Most of these were with the RZ67 and the 110 lens, a bunch with the Contax 645 and the 80mm. All on Arista 100 Edu (a few with Delta 3200 shot at 1000), processed at walmart and scanned by me. Besides for the last three.

the Schnitzlies (not their real name. Though that would be cool)

We do not eat out. Ever. So I felt kind of bad telling this family that I never heard of their restaurant. Especially seeing that it's pretty darn popular (with huge. Really huge. And great tasting. Sandwiches). I shot them, they fed me and all was in balance.

And for your information, when you feed me (or drink me, but for some odd reason Merriam and Co. decided that wasn't proper english) good things tend to happen.

Babies rock.

Burn ye Leaven

Doing our part to end hunger in Cambodia we spent the morning chucking all the remaining chometz (anything leavened, ie. grain+water+time) into the burning trash can. It's the original burning man festival. Just in a can. Zevi: "Why isn't the trash can burning?"

Me: "It's metal."

"Metal can't burn?"

"No, but it can melt in a very, very hot fire"

"Like the sun?"

"Yes, like the sun Zevi."

Mendel: "I want to play iPad."

Zevi: "Let's throw this into the sun."

"The sun is too far, Zevi, that's why it looks so small."

Chanaleh: "Like on an airplane?"

"Kind of..."

Zevi: "does Savta live on the sun"

Me: "Nope, she lives in Israel, but it does get pretty hot there."

Zevi: "How hot, like a billion hot?"

Me (getting hot, hungry and tired): "Exactly"

"Does metal burn in Israel?"

...

the above dialogue may or not have happened.

I am now officially ending my second and final foray into Walmart developing. Though I still have some more to post. Adieu to Walmart and your little electric cars that I so badly want to try out. Peace, and as they say "waist not, want not".

Holga Fun

This past Sunday I had a booth at the Israel Expo in Irvine, this big annual bash celebrating all things Israeli. It's been going on forever (I remember, as a kid, manning the hamburger booth my synagogue used to have there). Recently they've added a "Simcha" section, where all type of event vendors can strut their stuff and people could check out their options.

There were around ten other photographers there, and thanks to my wife we had a really unique booth. Cool people were met, people with good taste were wowed, people with bad taste walked on, brochures were given out (I'll post them soon), and good times were had by most.

I shot a few polaroids (which I gave away) and some more with my new fancy Holga. Which I'm pretty sure I screwed up on. You see a Holga is a dinky little medium format camera with a fixed lens, one shutter speed, two apertures, and approximate focussing. You also have a choice of square or rectangle photos. And while I thought I was shooting square, it turns out that the whole time it was on the rectangular setting. So not only were my compositions all off, I also lost 4 photos per roll. And that is plain evil. Focussing is approximate, and for the most part I either missed focus or forgot to focus entirely (I'll get used to it).

One sun roasted polaroid of our booth coming right up. (I'll have the Holga shots developed in a few weeks or so.). It looked a lot better in real life :)

Here a some from my first few rolls with the Holga. Yeah, pretend those are square. And in focus.

Eig8th Day

There's this Rabbi. His name is Shmuli Marcus. And he rocks. In fact he rocks so good, he started a rock band. It's a joint effort with him and his brother Bentzi, with a bunch of (very good) random musicians thrown in the mix.

He also is the Rabbi of Chabad of Cypress, creator of Farbrengen magazine (now Soulwise), runs a Hebrew High program (Hebrew school for high school kids) which is the model that many use when trying to start something similar, and does a bunch of other holy stuff.

A real Renaissance Rabbi. And a real (really) splendid dude. He also has the good sense to hire a hotshot photographer for the cover shoot.

The name if the band is Eighth Day, and they're pretty darn good. Check 'em out.

This one is a crop of the above, and was my choice for the album cover. It wasn't chosen (probably for a good reason), but I still love it.

Here is what the final design looks like (designed by Uri Kelman)

After said shoot, we went back into the studio for some live action shots.

I did get to hear parts of two songs. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Geekspeak: Shot on D700 (gasp), 28mm 2.8 (manual focus), 35mm f/2, Sigma 50mm 1.4

Ancient of Days

In certain circles I am considered to be hot stuff. The circles are quite small, but they exist. Now I'm sure you're scratching your head trying to figure out why in the world anyone would consider me hot stuff. Let me debefuddle you.

My mother (happy mothers day!) is a Carlebach. The Carlebach family is an old and pretty well known name in the Jewish world. Historically they had many great Rabbis in Germany and surrounding countries. My grandfather was quite the scholar and was twins with one of the most famous Jewish composers of all time, Shlomo Carlebach. "Uncle Shlomo", as we call him, was also a tremendous scholar and brought an excitement about Judasim to thousands of Jews. They even made a broadway musical about him "Souldoctor" (which I have not yet seen).

My mother's mother (happy mothers day!) is a Schneerson. The Schneerson family comes from Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (his son was called Schneur-son) also known as the first Lubavitch Rebbe. He started and was the first "Rebbe" (grand Rabbi) of the Chabad movement, which now has thousands of communities around the world. We come directly from the third Chabad Rebbe (known as the Tzemach Tzedek), as well as from another great Chassidic master, Rabbi Levi Yitchak of Berditchov.

Also, my great grandparents ran an orphanage during world war two which was very instrumental in saving the lives of many many young Jews. I'll stop there :)

My mother (may she live to be well over a thousand) raised us to be aware of where we came from, but not think it made us in any way better than anyone else. A bit special, but no better. I fact I wasn't even aware of how awesome it was until some people found out about it in Yeshiva and were like totally in awe.

I have a point, I promise.

For the holiday of Purim, my Bubby (mother's mother, may she live a long and healthy life) came to California and brought a Megillah (a handwritten Book of Esther, which we read on Purim) which was written by the fourth Chabad Rebbe, known as the Rebbe MaHarash (Rabbi Shmuel). He only wrote three or four megillahs, one of which is in the Library in New York and the other, by Bubby has. It's a beautiful scroll, in remarkable condition for its age (around two hundred years old) with really wonderful handwriting. The Rebbe wasn't a scribe, but his doctor told him he should do detailed work with his hands. So he wrote one Megillah for each of his children.

One of his grandchildren had epilepsy, which in those days caused one to be shunned by most of the community. People tend to fear what they don't understand. Especially epilepsy, as it could look like you're possessed. My great grandparents (especially my great grandmother) took him under their wings, even as an adult. They fed him, bathed him, and treated him as one of their family. In gratitude he gave them his fathers Megillah (which he got from his father). Which made its way down the family and now belongs to my Bubby

Now, my Bubby is very protective of this Megillah. She does not publicize its whereabouts, or if she's going to travel with it or not. Unfortunately there are those who covet these types of objects (do they not read the ten commandments?!). And would go through great lengths to get their hands on it.

Before Purim, we went to the local Chabad Cheder (chassidic boys school) to let the kids see the Megillah and hear my Bubby speak about the Megillah and her family.

Here's how that went:

One of the rules is that only family member can read from the Megillah. I did that for the first time and it was quite an experience.

Geekspeak: Shot with my Nikon F4, my 28mm, Delta 400 pushed to 1600, and a few with hp5 pushed to 800.