Monday, May 30, 2011

Orchids

More orchids, this time with a hint of red. Utopia was really a photographic goldmine...


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Friday, May 27, 2011

Golden Apples of the Sun

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Golden apples on sale at a Ramat Gan greengrocer, spring 2011

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
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If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Jacob's Ladder 2011

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It really just doesn't get any better than our annual pilgrimage visit to the incredibly wonderful Jacob's Ladder Music Festival. Nope, just doesn't get any better than that. Pure bliss. Amazing music played by and for lots of good friends, great weather, beautiful scenery on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and the most family-friendly festival you could possibly imagine. (And if I didn't have a chance to visit your blog last week, I'm sorry, and this is why - Wednesday was all about packing (we camp there for two nights, so a bit of a production and by Thursday we were living it up at the festival.)

Featured here today is the always outstanding SONiA of Disappear Fear on tour from the US, who we were also lucky enough to host for a house concert last week. Even more fun, she asked if I'd shoot some photos of her while we were at the festival (a little intimidating, I confess, since I'm a fine art photographer not a portrait one but it was a lot of fun and great for me to step out of my comfort zone). It was such a treat, too, to be able to give back a bit to someone who's brought me so much joy through the years with her beautiful music and poignant lyrics, and a great subject too with a real spirit of adventure and a beautiful smile.

Oh, and the whole family had a great time too. See, I told you it just doesn't get any better than this, didn't I?






Visit Wordless Wednesday to see what else people aren't saying this week, and Wordful Wednesday to see what they are.

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
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If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Yellow Pompoms

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Acacia Blossoms, Nes Harim, April 2011

Visit Wordless Wednesday to see what else people aren't saying this week, and Wordful Wednesday to see what they are.

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
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If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
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Monday, May 16, 2011

Not mine, and also not dead

No, mine's not dead yet either. It's doing just fine thankyouverymuch (especially to those so-called loved ones who made cracks about three week life spans and death masks).

This pink red-tinged sweetheart is growing beautifully at the Utopia Orchid Park, a breathtakingly gorgeous installation about 40 minutes to the north.

And no, I didn't manage to kill it just by taking it's photograph. At least not yet.

(I think I've got a bit of a complex, wouldn't you say?)


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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
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If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
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Sunday, May 15, 2011

The Musician at Rest

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Traditional Bedouin musician, Rahat Coexistance Festival, May 2011

Today especially I would like to be reminded that there are those that still view being good neighbors as a moral imperative. That see coexistence as a virtue, not a threat.

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
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If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

63 Years Young - Israeli Independence Day

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Israeli Independence Day 2011 - Happy 63rd Birthday to this old-new land! If you will it, it really is no dream.

Fireworks were viewed (from right outside my house and yet I still didn't manage to have a tripod at the ready and the camera settings were all off - I really never learn), performers were heard, shaving cream was sprayed (by the older kids, it's a tradition and an unholy mess, don't ask), meat was grilled, friends were visited, and a grand Independence Day was had by all of us here around the island.
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Friday, May 6, 2011

Not even a little bit dead (yet)

Alive. Very very alive. Not dead. Not even a little bit dead. One might even be tempted to say thriving (should one be a tempt the fates sort of person, which I am not).

What is this miraculous undead object you ask?

Why, it's this -


This gorgeous orchid was given to me on Passover by a dear friend who is probably the only person who knows me well who didn't believe that I have the dubious talent of being capable of killing even plastic plants, the only one who didn't believe that every live plant that enters my home ends up keeling over dead just in self-defense!
She didn't just gift me with this thing, this stunning orchid is one she raised herself with her very own hands and is only the second one she has ever given away.

This is a lot of pressure to put on a self-declared plant murderer. 

(She said she knew that even if I did manage to kill it that at least she knew it would be well photographed before it's demise. I've managed to keep it alive for several weeks already so I figured I'd better pull out the camera quickly before something happened to it.)

I've been quaking in my crocs (really in my flip-flops but that didn't rhyme) but at least so far it is absolutely, positively, very very much not dead. 

It's even got a new blossom that just opened up! Go me!

(quickly spits three times and throws salt over her left shoulder to avoid upsetting the fates or angering the plant gods...)

So what do you think? Not half bad hey?

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
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If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
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Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Showing Off

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Visit Wordless Wednesday to see what else people aren't saying this week.

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
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If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
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Finally!

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A family portrait - all four of us - and everyone looks pretty good. I think the last time we had one of these Maya was an infant. She's 7.5 now, it was definitely time.


And hey, it's even got some red in it.

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
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If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
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Sunday, May 1, 2011

Never Forget - Never Again

This post was originally published on April 20, 2009. It bears repeating.

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Tonight marks the beginning of Holocaust Remembrance Day here in Israel. All places of entertainment will close, radios will broadcast only soft, quiet music, and the whole of Israel will embark on a day of quiet contemplation, remembering all those lost to the evil and the madness, among them most of my father's extended family, all the relatives he never got to know, the cousins he didn't get to grow up with, because his grandparents, aunts, and uncles, and their families, friends and neighbors, were murdered by the butchers in a world that had gone insane.
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Tomorrow morning at 10:00 a siren will sound, and for two minutes all of the country will come to a standstill. Cars on the highway will stop driving. Meetings will cease. Shopkeepers will stand silently at their tills. Pedestrians will stand quietly where they are. No music will play, conversations will halt, and all classes will stop, as we remember the six million and those who fought to save them, and vow "Never Again".
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When the siren again falls silent activity will resume, but at a quieter, softer pace, at least for a while.
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Never forget.
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Never again.
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