The Training Blog of Bill Anders

Tram Waiting

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Bagging Nuns

Goddess grabbed this shot of me and Shimon, both shooting quite a sight.

A flock of nuns, all with their habits pulled up over their knees, standing in the wash of the Dead Sea, harvesting salt from the rocks.

Quite a risque act for them.

Good fun for us.

Bagging Nuns

One of my shots will end up on the page in the coming weeks.

BTW, if you aren’t up on your geography, those mountains in the background are in Jordan.

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Rainy Wall

הכותל המערבי

A powerful place, regardless of your beliefs.

Shot with my Canon G12, which gave me many of my most favorite shots from this trip.  Unfortunately, it did not like the sudden deceleration caused by the floor today.

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Comfort

Goddess has long suffered my plans.

And we look forward to many decades more.

But one thing about out Jerusalem trip was the request/requirement to dress modestly.

Not that she has a problem with that, but the going rate at some areas even frowned on slacks or jeans on females.

So that meant that we did a bit of shopping before the trip.

And regardless of the length of the skirt (below the knee for most areas), she knew that we’d be covering a lot of ground.

So that meant that she knew to wear comfortable footwear.

The funny thing was watching the reactions to skirts such as this.  Since the skirts weren’t a plain, solid color, it was obvious to the locals that she was not a local.

Even though she was abiding by the desires of the locals.

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Future Dreams

Jerusalem is full of children.

Children full of hopes and dreams.

Children with a full life ahead of them.

Regardless of their ancestry, their upbringing, or their beliefs.

They’re children.

Pliable.

Moldable.

I have read, and have heard in polite company, the discussion of the “Palestinian Problem”.  I find that description extremely distasteful, considering that it was only 70 years ago that there was discussion of “The Jewish Problem“, even in the United States.

The bottom line, regardless of which side of the fence that you sit, is that there are hundreds of thousands of people that are either willing to live in harmony with the other side, or willing to see the other side forcibly ejected from their homes.  Or worse.

All based on family history.

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Hey Brother

…can you spare a dime?

…can I have a smoke?

Pick any street in any medium- to large-sized city and you’ll have folks walking around, looking for things.  Whether it be a dime, a smoke or what have you.

Some are pushy, some are meek.

And some are just plain nice.  Like this guy, who was bumming a smoke from Shimon.  And once he found out we were American, he was quite gracious in his welcoming Goddess and I to Jerusalem and wishing us a pleasant visit.

No, he wasn’t asking for anything else.

Lots of character in those eyes.  Lots of stories in those wrinkles.

And quite typical of the welcome that we got from all corners during this trip.

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Jerusalem Moonrise

On Saturday afternoon, which was the Shabbat, Goddess and I were roaming the markets of the Old City.  We had read and were told that the Old City would be all but shut down since it was the Shabbat.  But we found it to be anything but shut down.  Not even in the Jewish Quarter, which was a surprise to our friend Shimon and his wife.

While roaming through the Muslim Quarter, we stumbled across the Via Dolorosa and started walking down it.  A hundred meters down the road, we happened upon a procession that happened to be walking the path of what was said to be the path of Christ as he carried the cross.  A sea of Fransiscan monks, nuns, believers and onlookers were following the steps, stopping to learn a bit about what happened at each location and slowly walking as a monk’s words bellowed over a loudspeaker.  It was interesting to see, especially as we worked our way through the Muslim market.  But there are pictures and words to go with that story, which will come later.

As the sun set and the Shabbat came to a close, we left the Old City through the Jaffa Gate and decided to walk a different direction back towards the hotel.  We worked our way through the Artists Colony and headed into a park as the sun was setting.  It was a beautiful sight to see the pinks and reds work their way across the walls of the Old City.  While there, we noticed a group of people standing there and enjoying the view.  We decided to join them.

An elderly lady mentioned that they were waiting for the lunar eclipse, which was to be a total eclipse at 4:31pm.  This news surprised both Goddess and I, since I’m a bit of a geek and usually keep up on news like that.  So we stood and waited.

The time came and went.  No view of the moon.  But that was no surprise, since there were mountains to our west, plus the walls of the Old City.

4:45pm came and went.  Impatient people left.

5:00pm came and went.  The elderly lady, who happened to be an American expatriate living in Jerusalem, was getting cold and decided to leave.

5:01pm, a full 30 minutes after the totality.  I shifted positions and caught a glimpse of a change in shading in the eastern sky.  I called to the elderly lady, who was still within earshot.

The moon was barely visible, thanks to it being past totality.  The elderly lady still couldn’t see it, so I took a picture of it and zoomed in on the image so she could see the features on the Old City walls the focus her attention.  Eventually she saw it.

We all continued to watch it for another 30 minutes before deciding to move on.

It was quite fun to watch the moon slowly rise and grow as it rose to barely clear the top of the Tower of David (to the right of the moon).

While I was disappointed to not have my DSLR and tripod with me to get sharp, crisp images, I’m still quite pleased with how the G12 handled the hand-held shots in decreasing light.

And Goddess and I agreed that there likely couldn’t be a more perfect setting to watch such a show.

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Meeting a Virtual Friend

Well, as you saw from the last post, Goddess and I traveled to Jerusalem this past week.  The purpose of the trip was two-fold:

1. I’ve always wanted to travel to the Holy Lands.  Regardless of religious beliefs, the amount of history and impact on world culture is undeniable.

2.  I wanted to finally meet, in person, a man who I first met via the interweb six or seven years ago.  In that time, we’ve become close friends thanks to our love of photography, imagery and thoughts.

Goddess, being the Goddess that she is, agreed to the trip.  And I know she’s glad she did.

The man is Shimon Z’evi, a retired professional photographer and college professor.  A lifelong resident of Jerusalem, he was willing to show Goddess and I the city.  And, if we passed muster, some of the countryside.

I’m pleased to say that we did pass muster.

Shimon was very honest, as he always is, from the outset.  We were to get to know each other during the first day, then see if the we clicked in person as we did online.  We were all pleased to find that we did.  Matter of fact, Goddess and I agreed after that first meeting that we were looking at me in 40 years time.  I just hope that in 40 years, I have the energy that Shimon has, as he did a fine job of running us ragged over the next week.

For five of our six full days in Israel, Shimon guided us through different parts of the city, giving detailed explanations on the history and meaning of what we were looking at.  He answered every question that we had, even if it made him uncomfortable.  But that’s been part of our relationship for years.  Shimon is the one person, other than Goddess, that I can count on for honest feedback on my photographs.  He’ll tell me when I nailed it and he won’t hesitate to tell me when I’ve missed it or completely blew it.

But why five of six days?  Shimon is an Orthodox Jew, so he left us to our own devices as he observed the Sabbath.  And that’s certainly something that we could not begrudge him.

During those five days, Shimon introduced us to the Haredi Jews, which are generally referred to as the Ultra-Orthodox Jews.  He showed us many of the non-touristy sites as well as the back alleys, neighborhoods and markets of Jerusalem.  In other words, he really put us in touch with the pulse of the city.  And during one of those days, he willingly drove us out to the Dead Sea and to Masada, which fulfilled a life-long desire of mine to see the site of one of the most impressive acts of defiance in history, which ultimately ended tragically (or heroically, depending on your viewpoint).

While Goddess and I didn’t have access to a reliable computer during our trip (a choice we made before we left), Shimon wrote about our first meeting.  We looked forward to reading it as soon as we got back home.  Quite a few great memories in those few pictures and words.

And that was just the beginning of the trip.

Goddess and I are much richer for have met Shimon in person.

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Old Jerusalem

It’s been mighty quiet around these parts for the past week.  But that’s because Goddess and I have been visiting Jerusalem, Israel.  Plus a side visit to the Dead Sea and Masada.

It was an amazing visit, mainly thanks to the guiding of a long-time internet friend, whom we finally met in real life during this trip.  And he was gracious enough to spend almost every day showing us the nooks and crannies of the city, the countryside and the people.  But more on that later.

Here’s a quick peak of things to come.  I’ve got some 120 photos from the trip that I’m pleased with, which means that I’ll whittle it down to 30-40 that I’ll post.

Mind you, I’m not a fan of sepia toning.

But I think it’s appropriate in this case.

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Black Sky

I’m always amazed at the power of a red filter at high altitude.

Yes, in this digital age, the red filter was applied in post-processing.  But the effect was no different than 20 years ago, putting that same red filter over the lens and burning through roll after roll of B&W film.

And the occasional roll of color slide film too.

Just for fun.

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