6X12 in Jerusalem

[Ben Rubinstein]

Just went looking for that 2nd pic, it's gone. It died in a big hard disk death about 9 months ago, as I hadn't considered it as a keeper it hadn't been backup up. Sod. Nevermind, I know exactly where I took it, wouldn't be hard to do it again if I was patient enough, heck it's even the same time of the year..

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Went up to Safed yesterday with my wife, wanted to get a day together without the little one, only the 3rd time in 4 years.

I may have slightly brought my camera along! :ROTFL:

Seriously though my wife told me how amazed she was at how fast I took each photo compared to what she'd imagined for the images needed for stitching. About 60 seconds for each one. I took only 4 photographs over 3 hours of wandering through the Old City of Safed and I believe that all 4 turned out good.

The middle east is not really cut out for torrential rain but that is what we had (the forecast was supposed to be good ) together with thunderstorms, etc. Safed is at the top of a high hill and the entire city was actually pretty much inside a cloud. The cloud would clear every now and again for more torrential rain!

Although thick mist makes for incredible photo opportunities, as I was photographing specifically for my project detailing the timeless aspect of Jerusalem/Safed, I didn't want to have half the images within a project specifically mist related as that is far from what Safed usually looks like. The weather infact was extremely unusual. It did make for less photos than I may have taken otherwise.

Anyway enough talk, here are the pics in the order I took them.

Abuhav Mist

Magen David (The first square composition I've ever shot in my life but when I looked at that doorway, I saw it in square)

Esthers Tent (Synagogue)

Dancing Home in the Rain..

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[Ranger Rick]

Ben,

as always, wonderful work! I love the caption (and image) for #2

 

[Lloyd]

Wonderful indeed.

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Been a while folks, my apologies!

I've been trying to take this photo for two years. There is only a small gap of the year where the cloud isn't bleached almost white by the sun, the sun horrifically strong, when there are clouds but not thick heavy cloud cover. Added to that the path is usually full of tourists, kids playing on the grass and cars parked all the way up.

I posted up an attempt a year or so ago. I wasn't happy with it, the shadows on the path just didn't work. Here is the previous attempt.

I went back today and chased cloud cover (for the sun) for hours until I had all the elements for my stitch. Also the 1Ds mkIII's first outing. I'm a lot happier with this version than the one above, the light was far more condusive to the composition, I actually prefer the blander coloured sky as the eye immediately goes downwards to the path and the Chassidic youth walking purposefully up it.

Towards Jaffa Gate.
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[BoardroomPhoto]

Great job Ben!! You have captured and described all pics wonderfully. I liked the last one most. Thank you for sharing Ben.

 

[Shelby Lewis]

Ben... I love this series. I can really appreciate your willingness to stick to your artistic preconceptions about your images. The last one is a situation where your original image might be preferred by some, seeing that it has a more "normal" tonality (ie, plenty of black, grey, and white)... whereas your final version serves your vision so nicely.

That... IMO... is the mark of true artistic intent. Fantastic!

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Artistic preconceptions. Interesting way of putting it! I admit to strong arming images into saying what I had in mind before even setting out to take them. I'm an artist who cannot paint and so instead uses a camera as my brush. Like an artist I scout and do 'sketches'. Unlike an artist I cannot then transcribe my vision to canvas at home, I have to go looking for the scene and light which matches what I dreamed of creating when musing over that 'sketch' often (as in this case) years ago.

Now if only I could get my new 1Ds mkIII to bleeding well focus accurately I could go and take more photos!

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

OK folks. Bit of a tangent but looking for advice. I've been aiming to try a new project which is sort of a photographic answer to this one. Instead of 70 megabytes of stitched detail - more impressionistic. Dreamy. Kinda like turn of the century look photography.

I didn't want very shallow DOF to achieve the effect nor swirly look either. Just soft and dreamy throughout. I bought a lensbaby with the single lens optic thinking that a single peice of glass would give me the look I'm aiming for. I tried it out today for the first time. The lensbaby does not provide a flat field of focus, part of the whole lensbaby look which I find so boring. You can bring about 80% of it into focus by stopping down to f22. Problem is it sharpens up as well when you do that. Here is an image I shot outside my flat about an hour ago. It's looks kinda dreamy in the 100% view but I'm not sure that in print and viewed from a distance it's going to work. This was shot in flat but bright light, perhaps in harsher light the single lens will provide more 'feel'. It's pouring at the moment so I'm going to have to wait for that.

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Thoughts people?

p.s. considering it was just a test shot, that picture is quite growing on me! Maybe I should print it and see what it's like 'in the flesh'.

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

OK folks, no thoughts on that from you so I went out and took some more today. I'm finding this lens pretty difficult to shoot with, for a start, even at f22 only about the middle 50% is 'sharp', the rest is just blurred out. I hadn't realised quite as much but in the first image none of the tree is sharp and the latter two pictures, both kids are very blurred. It does help towards the more dreamy feel but I think I'm going to run some prints to see whether the effect suits larger or smaller prints. Apart from that the distortion is horrific and very weird, these pictures have corrections but at some point I just gave up.

Anyway, all from the Old City Jerusalem today.

The famous 'Baatei Machsei', built by Sir Moses Montifiore a century ago as housing for the poor.

A child runs home from school clutching the 'Matza' traditionally eaten on the minor 'Pesach Sheni' festival (not that you can see the detail of it unfortunately).​

Not sure about this next one, the wife likes it, I'm not sure.

Ariel
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Just a point of interest, the DR of the 1Ds mkIII, especially with a low contrast lens is absolutely incredible, these shots were all taken in full middle eastern midday sun. Mindblowing.

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Another from yesterday that to be honest I'd forgotten to process, I forgot I even took it until now. f22, 1/100 handheld and snap focused (stopped down of course) in about a second, suprised I got it right to be honest. Poor man could'nt walk more than 5 yards before pausing for a rest but he was determined, he just kept on going. A lesson in determination that I was priviliged to have seen.

Looking at the photos that I took yesterday during the course of just a few hours I think it shows how crucial it is when working on a project like this to know your subject (in this case the Old City) so well. I've had these compositions in my head for years, they just didn't fit in with the feel of the other project. Now I can finally make them work.

 

[Lloyd]

Ben, this latest image is really wonderful, and I'm glad you shared the man's struggle, which makes it all the more poignant.

The processing on these is wonderful and timeless... could have been taken anytime in the past century. And I think you're correct, knowing your subject makes all the difference in the world here.

Thanks for sharing these with us. (p.s., I'm with your wife on that one above. The more I look at it, the more I like it.)

 

[JordanRHughes]

All these pictures are so captivating. I love these types of shots. Thanks for posting them.

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

OK, slight problem, I have no idea what the square in which this was shot is called. Hope to rectify that soon. It was built by Moses Montifiore in the 19th Century but I'm afraid I don't know much more about it. Strike one against me for poor research.

I've wanted to shoot this square for a long long time. It's a small square tucked away in between two of the busiest main roads in the City Centre and in general is like stepping back some 150 years into history from bustle of a city centre with its modern buildings to the quiet and relaxation of a over a century ago where the only regular travellers are the cats of Jerusalem..

It's also the square where I shared my first kiss with my wife some 9.5 years ago! At the time it was pretty dingy but it was quiet and out of the way. Since then the city council renovated it and built a tiny auditorium where the old well was, cleaned it up and now it's a beautiful spot.

The dreamy look of the lensbaby stopped down was particularly suited to this place. First time using it on my 5D, i.e. without LiveView to help me focus, came out OK though. Not quite the tonality of the 1Ds mkIII or the incredible DR of that camera but more than enough for my needs.

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

It's called 'Rav Goldman' Square.

Oh and since a computer crash some 5 hours after I processed this pic, it might be gone forever. Not happy...

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

It's back! When you have a catastrophic computer failure including toasted motherboard, toasted main hard drive and toasted half of your RAM, you get rather nervous about whether your software RAID O setup is still going to be alive. It was! I've now changed my backup schedule from 24 hours to 12...

 

[Lloyd]

Glad to hear you got it sorted out. Tough news (and a cautionary tale) about the computer, but great that you had it backed up.

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Having had an eye operation 2 weeks ago which rendered my right eye pretty blurry, add to that a broken wrist in plaster, 34 degree (celcius) heat and photography is pretty difficult and when your 1Ds mkIII's screen can't be seen at all due to it being rubbish in that kind of sun, focusing or composing with a lensbaby can be quite a challenge. Heck getting the tripod open and camera locked on with one hand was hard enough!

Taken me a few years to photograph one of the wells within the old courtyards of Jerusalem. Here is one at last in the foreground. A capped well, one of two in a courtyard within the Nachlaot area of Jerusalem just 3 minutes and about 100 years away from the centre of modern Jerusalem.

 

[tokengirl]

Ben,

I just read through some of your posts in this thread that go back a few months, sorry for the ultra late reply. Actually, when you wrote it, I probably didn't have any suggestions for the more dreamy vintage look. But I just built a pinhole camera, and that might be an avenue you could explore (even with digital). See my thread in this section titled "Fun Without Lenses" - is that the "look" you're seeking?

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

I'm actually pretty happy with the lensbaby @ f22 effect. Gives me the look and shutter speeds to freeze movement as well. Thanks.