Friday, December 30, 2011

File under: not something you see every day

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Thorny crowns on sale in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. I didn't see anyone actually buying one. Maybe the vendors hoped pilgrims would buy them to save for Easter time?

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography on Etsy and Society6 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 one of my shops yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Stained Glass Window

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Jerusalem's Christ Church, completed in 1849, is the oldest Protestant church in the Middle East.

Click here to purchase this image on etsy.

This one can do triple-duty for Wordless/Wordful Wednesday and Whimsical Windows, wouldn't you say?


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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography on Etsy and Society6 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 one of my shops yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
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Monday, December 26, 2011

Poinsettia

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Beautiful red poinsettia in a Jerusalem church. 

Click over to this post for more images of Christmas in Jerusalem's Christian Quarter.


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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography on Etsy and Society6 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 one of my shops yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
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Saturday, December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas from Jerusalem

I spent the day on a Christmas-themed photowalk in Jerusalem and couldn't think of a better way to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. As a Jewish country you don't see very much of Christmas here in Israel but what it lacks in size the tiny little Christian Quarter of the Old City sure made up for in spirit and pomp and circumstance.

So Merry Christmas from Jerusalem, where the rain thankfully held off until evening so I could get these shots to share with you:


Christmas Tree Outside a Jerusalem Church (St. Spyridon I think? I'm not sure, it was a side entrance and the church was closed.)
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Santa's looking very fit this year, don't you think? He certainly seems to be enjoying himself too.
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Appointed on June 21, 2008, His Beatitude Fouad Twal is the ninth Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem since the reinstatement of the Latin Patriarchate in 1847. Patriarch Twal, a Jordanian, is the second Arab Patriarch following his predecessor, H.B. Michel Sabbah (from the Patriarchate's official website). We had the incredible privilege of being invited into the Patriarchate to hear (and photograph! with permission!) Bishop Twal give his address to the assembled auxiliary bishops, priests and assorted dignitaries before the entire crew set off, with full regalia and a lot of pomp and ceremony, in their official motorcade for Christmas Eve in Bethlehem. Oh, and after the address they handed round brandy and chocolates to everyone, and we all ended up shaking all their hands and exchanging Christmas wishes in the receiving line as well. This guy is head of the Catholic Church for all of Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Cyprus. Definitely not something you experience every day.

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Procession of priests (note the incense burner) at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
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Decorations for sale in what seems to be the Quarter's leading (and only dedicated) Christmas store.


And with that, I wish you all a joyous holiday full of all things good. Check back later in the week for many more images from my visit to Jerusalem's Christian Quarter.
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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Happy Holidays!

To all my dear friends-in-the-computer,

Wishing you a most wonderful Hannukah, Christmas, Solstice, New Year or whatever you choose to celebrate. Your being here makes my little corner of the internet a far better, far richer place.

Love,
Robin


Monday, December 19, 2011

Charlie Brown Bokeh

For obvious reasons Israel really doesn't get into the whole Christmas decorations thing, which makes it challenging to take the kind of stunning holiday bokeh images you see all over the internet this time of year. One very small exception is our favorite beachfront bar. Since they cater to a lot of tourists they do decorate for the holidays, if you call a tiny Charlie Brown Christmas tree and a few LED lights decorating. Still, one does what one can, right?

And with that, I give you "Charlie Brown Bokeh" - a few glowy lights from one of the sadder looking trees I've seen. Buy hey, they are colorful.


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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography on Etsy and Society6 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 one of my shops yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
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Saturday, December 17, 2011

Sunday Snippets and Writing on Walls

I love shooting street art and graffiti, so when I heard about Cheryl's Writing on Walls meme I knew it was going to be right up my alley. For my first week I offer this segment of the wall outside famed muralist Rami Meiri's Tel Aviv property (click here to see more of this amazing wall). I love the way all of the artists overlap and work within and in combination with each other to create a giant collaborative riot of color.


And now for the snippets...
  • Maya spent most of the week home sick so other than too much tv watching and a lot of snuggles on the couch not much got done
  • She was finally feeling better yesterday so we spent the afternoon wandering around the flea market in Jaffa (long on character, short on quality), eating ice cream, and then walking down the beachfront promenade to our favorite Tel Aviv beach bar.
  • It was happy hour.
  • We love happy hour.
  • There was also a baby's birthday party going on. A bar, even a family-friendly one, seems like a strange location for a baby's party but hey, the food and drinks are good so why not.
  • After all, we go there with our kids too, and have since they were babies themselves.
  • While in Jaffa we came across a ridiculously large flock of pigeons.
  • They looked quite sneaky.
  • I think this is why...
So what's on your snippet list this week?

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography on Etsy and Society6 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 one of my shops yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Today I'm Dreaming in Pink

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 Sweetly romantic fine art photograph of this same delightful pink and white gerbera daisy.

Click here to purchase this print on etsy, and here to purchase it as an iPhone case, laptop skin, etc. on Society6.

Visit Wordless Wednesday to see what others aren't saying this week, and Wordful Wednesday to see what they are.
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Monday, December 12, 2011

Graffiti Wall - South Tel Aviv

Section of a long wall in South Tel Aviv utterly filled with brightly-colored graffiti. Looking at the mailbox and surroundings I have a feeling the house inside is owned by renowned street mural artist Rami Meiri, but I wasn't able to confirm that.


Click here to see more Ruby Tuesday images from around the world.

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography on Etsy and Society6 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 one of my shops yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
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Sunday, December 11, 2011

Sunday Snippets - Lunar Eclipse

(Phew, what a relief to be back again - unless you caught my rants on Twitter and Facebook you probably didn't realize but I was locked out of my Google account for most of the weekend after they mistakenly disabled it! No gmail, no blog, no reader, no nothing! Let's just say it wasn't pretty... Thankfully my very stubborn and quite the genius husband finally found a way to get me back in yesterday before I became homicidal, but it was touch and go there for a while...)


Now for the snippets...
  • We spent yesterday afternoon down by the beach in Tel Aviv.
  • Okay to be precise we spent most of the afternoon in our favorite family-friendly beach bar, but both before and after we ogled the surfers taking advantage of the amazing eclipse-induced waves that were rolling in, bigger than any I've seen in Tel Aviv.
  • The above picture doesn't do them justice, but if you look at how ragged the horizon line looks you'll get a sense of what the sea was like that day.
  • You can also tell that the locals aren't used to waves this big (or am I supposed to say gnarly or something?) because many of the surfers seem to have spent an inordinately large amount of time getting knocked head over heels into the stew.
  • Which makes grabbing that winning shot a real challenge - I never did catch the perfect combination of rows of killers waves with a lone rider streaming by, every time I thought I had they wiped out!
  • We missed most of the actual eclipse, too many tall buildings were blocking the way. 
  • I didn't mind that much since I caught the last one.
  • We did see a little bit of it on the drive home though.
  • We also bumped into a college friend and his wife on the beachfront promenade. That was fun, since it's been twenty years since I've seen them.
  • A certain child's behavior when meeting such friends was particularly ratty, but her spiking a high fever today probably explains why she was struggling more than usual yesterday.
  • Looks like tomorrow will be an at-home day for us. I see a lot of snuggles on the couch in my future. That's okay, I don't mind :).
  • Oh, and I'm not allowed to take any photos, but the other one is sporting a brand new set of braces on his teeth (top only). He suddenly looks so much older. I swear he was just born last week, where does the time go?
So that's my list, what's on yours this week?

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography on Etsy and Society6 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 one of my shops yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors - Inaugural Edition

How fun - Toby from I Wish I Were a Photographer really missed Mary's old Window Views meme, so she decided to start a new one of her own. Today marks the debut of her new Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors - come play along!

And hey look, I've been wordful this week too - happily this photo can do double duty for both Whimsical Windows and Wordful Wednesday :).

Here's my first contribution, a pair of old windows in Tel Aviv's historic Neve Zedek neighborhood.


I'd have loved a slightly wider shot showing more of the surrounding building but the street was so narrow that this is the best I could do. It's full of character though, which is what drew me to it in the first place.

I'm off to go link up now. Why don't you come along and join us?

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography on Etsy and Society6 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 one of my shops yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
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Monday, December 5, 2011

The Shopkeeper's Gift

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Click here to purchase this print on etsy, and here to purchase it as a laptop skin, iPhone case, etc. on Society6.

Lots of pinks, whites, and even glimpses of red in this gorgeous gerbera daisy, a gift from a shopkeeper's sidewalk stall when I stopped to admire it.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Sunday Snippets - Holiday Card Outtakes

Lest you think that having a bit of skill with a camera makes it easy, these are just three of my MANY, MANY attempts at a decent photo for this year's cards... (Notice I said decent, nowhere did I actually say "good". Sigh... At least they had fun with it.)




And now for the long-awaited snippets (humor me, pretend you've actually been waiting for them) -

  • Last week's cold has left me completely and utterly unable to speak. I can barely croak.
  • The other possibility is that the culprit is all the smoke I inhaled the other night when we turned on the oven to bake bread, not realizing that something had spilled all over the floor of the oven. 
  • In case you were wondering, it's not all that fun to have to open all the windows in the house and crank up the fans in the middle of a December night, even if that is December in Israel, not Siberia.
  • My daughter just received a sno-cone machine as a belated birthday gift. 
  • She isn't letting the falling temperatures dissuade her in any way from her love for sno-cones.
  • I however am cold just thinking about it.
  • Also, my head hurts from all the coughing and croaking.
  • It's making me cranky.
  • Luckily, Itai has mastered the fine art of making his mother a cup of tea. Speaking of which...
So, what's on your list for this week?

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My (real) photography (the artsy stuff, not the outtakes of my pathetic attempt to photograph my kids) is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography on Etsy and Society6 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 one of my shops yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
.