Yemin Moshe and stitching in general.

I've passed this scene every time I went to the airport (about 50 times in the past 1.5 years) on the way to the UK to shoot weddings. It's in the Jerusalem Forest and as I don't have a car here and it's pretty inaccessable otherwise I've never gotten round to shooting it. I've rented a car to go north to Tzfat (Safed) tomorrow scouting for a new project so I took the opportunity to shoot this. Not sure if I've achieved something or just got something out of my system. You tell me.

Both. I like the disappearing steps - they lend a route throgh the image and a mystery too. The tonality is lovely again, giveing a great feeling of antiquity.

I would like to see it bigger.

Mike

Went up to Tzfat (Safed) yesterday, the mystical and kabbalistic city of old though nowadays more a hangout of hippies and a major drug conduit from the Jordan Valley. I also went to visit some of the holy sites from the time of the Talmud. It was a scouting trip with a friend to give me an idea as to the scope of a future project up there. I did get several photos there for starters. Seperating the Tzfat of historical significance from the hippie and commercialised yeuch of today is going to be a serious challenge, far more difficult than I had expected or than the Old City and settlements of Jerusalem.

From a square in Tzfat, all within 10 metres of each other and the latter two taken from the same wall where I was sitting nursing very sore feet!


Tzfat Vines: Lamp post: Kedushat Pinchas

Here is a photo taken from the Burial Site of the Mishnaic 'Tanna' Rabbi Tarfon. This is pretty much straight out of camera and converted to B&W, shot handheld @ f8, I need to go back and do it again properly. I've no idea how I would stitch a shot like this and still get that distorted look of the arch that I got using a 17mm focal length. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Please excuse the nasty posterisation, it isn't in the original file.

In answer to Asher who pm'd me asking where I'd been..

Been a while though there will be more work through the winter which looks to be as dead for bookings as last year, sigh..

I only had 5 days I could shoot in the Old City during the Sukkot Festival and due to many considerations (all procrastination!) I only got out there on the last one. 5am, just before dawn, I'm on location, I set up, take out my little 'Walkstool' and sit down to wait for someone to walk through the arch and start shooting.

Bit of an introduction, my Canon Timer Remote Controller was cut in half and a stereo jack and socket installed for the days when I shot with a EOS 50 that used the old jack for long night shooting on film. Anyway for some reason I'm not getting a good connection with my setup on location and when I tried to fiddle with it, the stereo socket falls apart in my hand leaving me with a broken cable release. I was shooting at a 1/6 iso 1600 to give you an idea why that was a problem! I also wanted to be sitting by the tripod not standing with my finger on the trigger, I wanted people looking towards the arch they were walking to not at me!

One field strip (teeth) and splice of the wires later and I'm back in business! When I was holding the bits in my hands and bemoaning my situation (no days left to get the image, woke up stupidly early, etc) I remembered that there are never any excuses for a pro. Now I'm a wedding shooter by profession but the principle was the same. I stopped feeling sorry for myself and got down to sorting out the problem. Note, nothing I've ever tried to DIY in my life has ever worked, especially trying something like this. Couldn't believe it worked!


Picture took a full day of wrestling with in Autopano Pro, was very difficult to get right as it's a pretty wide FOV and shot upwards. PTGUI did a perfect job straight out though by the time it had finished all the stretching and pulling necessary it left me with an 11 megapixel file and not a very sharp one at that. The Autopano version gave me 21 megapixels but needed more work in PS.

Ben,

This is an excellent composition and totally gives the feeling of a man with prayer on his mind. How many pictures were there? What was the timing between them and did you have changes in light between them, while you were waiting? I can't believe the man is so sharp at 1/6 second as he's moving!

Glad to have you back and sorry that the wedding orders slowed so much!

Asher

It was a drop lighter by then, managed a 1/50th, when the cable release broke it was still a 1/6th and I was panicking!, 24 frames in the final image though only bits and corners of half of them were used in the final image. I was pondering a 2:3 crop when I shot it so shot enough frames to decide later, in the end I settled for my usual 1:2 crop. The time between that frame and then end of shooting was 13 minutes according to the EXIF. To be honest once I had seen him I knew I had the image I wanted, it only needed after that to shoot all the other frames to make up the image.

From today, heavy driving rain, kinda squint through almost opaque spectacles and guess through the plastic cover over your camera.


oh, and the new radio cable release which was fun!

Ben Rubinstein said:

From today, heavy driving rain, kinda squint through almost opaque spectacles and guess through the plastic cover over your camera.

oh, and the new radio cable release which was fun!

Click to expand...

Ben,

I'd never guess it was raining! This seems like a hot, dry Jerusalem day! Where are the puddles? The arch is superb and there's just enough of the overhanging trees and that light from the right. I am surprisingly sanguine about the lack of the end of the wrought iron fixture holding the white globe as we only need the electric globe to bring us to the modern era from the previous millenia.

Asher

Now this should be a treat - most successful 24 hours of shooting I've ever done for keepers! Went up to Safed (Tzfat), the ancient kabbalistic city to do a commercial shoot that I'll share later. Took some time out for my own work at the cost of only 3 hours of sleep in the car! All around the city are the burial sites of the writers of the Mishna and the Talmud, quiet and peaceful sites where the greatest leaders and teachers of the Jewish people lived, taught and died (actually most were killed by the Romans but anyway...).

Methinks that this should be quite a treat...

1)


2)

Safed night life..


3)

Site where the writer of the original and main work of kabbala, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai taught. The books on the shelf are the 'Zohar' what is now known as Kabbala by most. Written over 20 years of hiding in a cave with his son from the Romans who had issued a death warrant on all those who taught the Torah about the year 80.


4)

At the monument for the Mishnaic writer, Rabbi Tarfon just after dawn.

5)

The grave site of the Talmudic writer Rabbi Karbedoi near Safed, at dawn.


6)

Very proud of this one..
At the synagogue over the burial site of Rabbi Meir (known as the miracle worked), the writer and compiler of the Mishna, the written works of the Jewish Oral Law and what the entire Talmud and all Jewish law and tradition is based on.

After a lot of logistics and faffing around, my website is now live and prints are up for sale, wish me luck folks!

good luck Ben

nice site.

good luck and many very happy customers

Ben Rubinstein said:

After a lot of logistics and faffing around, my website is now live and prints are up for sale, wish me luck folks!

Click to expand...

Good luck Ben,

Not that you have to depend on luck alone, but a bit of luck never hurt anybody either...

Cheers,
Bart

Ben,

An awesome website. The color of the page and text go well with the theme of timeless stone buildings. I had a problem finding the prices and the picks for the limited editions. Is it ready yet?

Maybe have an intro to explain how to get around. On Safari 4.04 clicking on a picture gives the same slide show as when one calls up the slide show.

Asher

Photo from today, pouring with rain, took an hour to get the right human element in the right place at the right time, my clothes are all drying out at the moment!

Meah Shearim neighbourhood in Jerusalem, mostly slum housing and streets with an incredible level of poverty. The walls of the Jerusalem prior to the distruction of the temple stretched to within this neighbourhood and it's about two centuries old. I thought perhaps that the rain which is such a blessing in this incredibly dry country would perhaps give me a new look on what is usually a place which is more depressing than inspiring. I walked for an hour through the narrow alleyways piled with junk, buildings a century old and in a horrible state of repair and I despaired of finding a way to photograph it in a way which would both be true to what the neighbourhood is, but also show beauty.

I was almost back to where I'd started when I saw this scene, the gates of a relatively newly built synagogue framing the stairways and buildings of the neighbourhood.

I hope this works, especially for those who have walked those streets...

Asher, if you click where it says 'click for details and pricing' under each thumbnail you will get to the pricing page. Clicking on any thumbnail enlarges the picture on the screen, as it happens it is using the same thingy as the slideshow so you can move back and forwards to other pics.

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!

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.

Ben Rubinstein said:

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!

Click to expand...

This, Ben, this one little sentence, is so funny as it really sums up the issue between couples where just one is a serious photographer.

Ben Rubinstein said:

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.

Click to expand...

They did, but the time it took everywhere else needs to be added as those thousands of hours didn't just vanish!

Ben Rubinstein said:

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.

Click to expand...

So I'd take this as an opportunity for the new series you can begin which would include mist and even snow. That would, in a way, be a metaphor for repeated cycles of forces that control the middle east and then evaporate!

This picture, like a few of your major series, have a figure from the present that makes the picture of ancient streets special. Here, however, there's much more, there's a sense of joy of this moment! The image has a lot of life and the mist adds much to creating a scene of the present where one does not know everything and so we are asked to imagine more.

I'd really encourage you to segregate such pictures and see if they form a new body of work.

This brought me a great experience. I was there and watched her!

Asher

I have an idea for a new project actually for when I finish this project.

Basically really old lens on LF camera look, low contrast, soft and dreamy but without using a soft focus filter, kinda like pin hole but without the long exposure, nearer a painting than a photograph, giving an impression perhaps more than accuracy, ethereal images that speak to the soul.

I've spent this whole project stitching for loads of sharpness and resolution, great tonality, crisp prints, etc. I'm interested in going all the way over in the other direction, to say the same things but in a very different way, a way closer to the soul and further from the eye if that makes any sense. I'm afraid that I have less than zero training in art so I don't know how to phrase what I'm trying to say, just that I want to say it.

Oh and I want to do it with a DSLR but LF look tonality because I really can't be bothered with starting up LF again, probably using stitching for the tonality. Either that or if they resurrect Type 55!

I think I can do it with the right lens and technique. Not got to the stage yet where I'm specifically investigating what tools will give me that kind of look. Heck I don't exactly know how to describe what I want to do but I'll know what it is when I see it!

I will only ever take on a project if it involves expressing something that is within my soul. I'm not the type to do a project for a projects sake. I know pretty much what I want to say and express unlike in the beginning of my photographic career. I was taking photographs where my soul was crying out but I had no idea what I was saying, only that my images connected with me. One day I sat and looked at the photo below which was hanging in my bedroom. I sat there for hours just staring at it trying to work out why it spoke so much to me, what had I tried subconsciously to say when I took it? After hours I finally worked it out but when I mentioned it to my best friend he was shocked that I hadn't realised what I was expressing, it was obvious to everyone else and was a running theme throughout all my images.

In any case once I realised what I was subconsciously trying to say in my images, it became far easier to make the image as I knew now consciously exactly what I was looking for. Although those emotions are now much suppressed due to 8.5 years of an incredible marriage, the idea of knowing exactly what you want to express even before you go out to make the images is why I can go out, take only 4 images in 3 hours of wandering in that incredible cauldron of image possibilities and have 4 keepers, 4 images that express what I am trying to say, in this case along the theme of my website 'Timeless Jewish Art' the feeling of history in the streets were the echoes of centuries are there to be heard.

I'm not a photographer. I believe that a photographer will photograph regardless of whether they are trying to say something with their images just for the love of the photograph. I respect that but it's just not me. I am trying to express what is in my soul and go out to find and make an image that will describe my feelings. I use a camera to do that eventhough more traditional artistic methods are far more suited to the job. But, I can't paint or draw so I use a camera as my paintbrush.

Whether what I have to say is worth listening to is for others to decide as in any other form of expression. The important thing though, I think, is that I'm trying to say it.

This is the image that to this day hangs in my bedroom, the image that made me realise that I was trying to reach out through my art to express what was in my soul. Today I'm trying to say something different. No longer about myself, now I'm trying to express my feelings of being in the cities were so much of our history lies, of feeling the steps of history all around me as I tread those same pathways surrounded by the realisation of what was, what is and what will be in this incredible place. Sometimes I use people to give the impression of the present overshadowed within the past though always described as a fleeting presence or moment within the centuries of history (I almost never fully freeze the human movement for that reason and you'll notice that I pretty much only allow one person in an image). The people are not the point, it's the ancient feeling oozing out of those walls and pathways. I want the images to feel ancient, to feel like they are not only part of history but history itself. Because that is what I feel as I walk through them.

You see joy in that girl dancing down the steps. I feel melancholy in the childhood among these ancient streets, the most fleeting of moments when seen on the scale of the history these stones have seen. It's very hard to live and rejoice in the present when walking through these streets, the present feels so very artificial...

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.

Asher Kelman said:

Here's where I go back to last years picture. Have a look at the stone of the previous photograph and the new one. Previously the stone wall and tower were much more dimensional because of different lighting and microcontrast. Might you consider a version with last years stone wall in this years photograph? I just wonder if there's now just enough on the left of the picture to be able to take on this more formidable wall.

Asher

Click to expand...

Good point! I found this scene diificult to photograph and difficult to process. It is, certainly for me, an extremely complex and busy scene and I've tried as far as possible to tame competing elements within the composition. I think this was the problem with the original image, the shadows added yet another dimension to an almost too busy scene and also killed the strength of the curve of the path as a compositional force. The light of the first is more ethereral with as you say 'glowing walls' I think however that included in the composition it would mean that the path and the walls were vying equally for attention within the frame and the effect would not be comfortable. Added to that I doubt having flat light on half the frame and dynamic light on the other half would look realistic.

I have throughout this project used simplicity as the thought provoking tool. Simplicity of elements and lighting. If you look through the images on www.timelessjewishart.com you will see what I mean. I intend to build a bit further on this present project while staring my new project (using the lensbaby). I'm pushing myself with that project to shoot busier compositions with more complicated lighting but still try and produce a more ethereal/old time look to the images. We'll see where it goes!

Ben Rubinstein said:

The light of the first is more ethereral with as you say 'glowing walls' I think however that included in the composition it would mean that the path and the walls were vying equally for attention within the frame and the effect would not be comfortable. Added to that I doubt having flat light on half the frame and dynamic light on the other half would look realistic.

Click to expand...

I think you're right. But there might be a seed of good here to consider. This would mean the picture would have to continue as you replace more and more elements. This sounds like a great idea. I once saw a valuable grandfather clock that was said to be over 400 years old. Well, there was a long history of repairs. A side panel, the legs, only one original remains and that's in question and various springs, cogs and other parts of the clock have been replaced several times over the centuries but the inventory is uncertain. Still, the clock is still described as over 400 years old! The same with us! Our bodies are likely not the same mass as was present 20 years ago. Most of it, (water, salts and other chemicals) havw been exchanged many times over. So why not have further work on this picture and as you go on you will have new versions and also combined versions that will defy unity, as the grandfather clock!

I know the struggle in completing this picture to your satisfaction has been going on for a long time. The new picture is a marked jump forward in it's strength and interest. I hope you will not consider this, (however great its reception), to be the definitive Ben Rubinstein picture of the Old City from this special viewpoint.

Asher

Are you up in the middle of the night there Asher? ;-)

I am stopping there for this particular composition, I'm happy with it. I've been there about 12 times from when I first conceived the image until yesterday and I'm happy that I've captured it as I had imagined it standing there 2 years ago. Actually for all my trips, I've only been able to photograph it twice for real. The other times the light wasn't right, cars in the way, flags on the wall, people on the grass, etc. As it was it took 3 hours of shooting between the tourists and the sun going in and out of the clouds.

Funny story, half the tourists had DSLR's, I took a lot of pictures of tourists with their cameras while waiting there yesterday! Anyway bloke comes walking behind me (I'm sitting on a rock a couple of meters away with my radio remote trigger - heaven for unobtrusive shooting). He has a DSLR round his neck with a proud legend on its strap '5D mark II' (cheesy as heck what were canon thinking?). I see him staring at my 1Ds mkIII then as he walks past he cranes his neck round to see which camera it was. I was dying to say "yeah boyo, I've got your cameras big daddy!" :-D

You know me though, still plenty more to come in this series albeit in between wedding work!

Oh and BTW my body is certainly not the same mass it was 20 years ago (I'm 29), heck it's nowhere near the same mass it was just 8 years ago when I got married and was in the army and very fit. I have to suck my cheeks now when at passport control so that my photo matches the current bulge! :-D

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.

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 said:

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...

Click to expand...

Ben,

It should be there! The crash will not have destroyed the data. Take out that drive. Don't try to fix it. Copy the entire drive. Then use Prosoft software to recover the data.

Asher

It was a software RAID 0 disk that might or might not have been killed when everything went down. I do have the formatted memory card which has not been reused for recovery should the data be gone forever. Pain in the neck to reprocess from scratch though. For the life of me don't remember my processing. I'm changing my backup schedule to 12 hours instead of 24 hours after this...

Glad you have the memory card in reserve! The new version will be better!

Asher