Foto Friday – 360 degree Holy Land
Filed under: Art, coexistence, education, Entertainment, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Movies, Picture of the Week, Politics, Pop Culture, Religion, Technology, Travel, tv
The Internet offers us endless ways to view the sites and sounds of the Holy Land. This week, we present some of the many panoramic photo and video images that are available online.
Panoramic photography, states Wikipedia, “is a technique of photography, using specialized equipment or software, that captures images with elongated fields of view. It is sometimes known as wide format photography.” (Click here for more about the methods used to create 360 images). Panoramic photo images have been around since the mid 1800s; this one of Jerusalem was taken in the early 20th century.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
As with everything else photographic, clearly, the technology has evolved. Take, for example, this amazing 360 degree panoramic photo of the Galilee.
Tel Yodfat, Galilee, Israel in Israel
The Church of All Nations is located on Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, next to the Garden of Gethsemane. Click on this photo — the link will take you to a panoramic view of the Church, the Garden and the walls of the Old City, courtesy of 3D Israel.
Israeli company Simply Live has developed a highly technologically advanced 360 degree video camera (only last week presented at the Bezeq Expo innovation showcase). Click on this photo of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — the link takes you to their site where you can view an interactive video that allows you to enter and move through the Church interior.
A fascinating if politically charged panoramic view of Israel’s coastline as viewed from the West Bank is available at MyIsrael.com. The site owners are very blunt about the purpose of the wide-angle shot: they wish to show how vulnerable Israel would be to an attack were pre-1967 borders to be reinstated. It takes only one look to see why the situation here is complicated.
Even on its own, the image is complex: a very wide-angle view (MyIsrael.com say it is the largest publicly available) with interactive controls so that viewers can zoom in on highly detailed close ups. Photographer Yaal Herman provides several pages of explanation on how the photo (really hundreds of photos stitched together) was accomplished. Click on this thumbnail to see the full version.
Whatever the political future holds, we can still hope for stability, quiet and — dare I say it? — peace. A few weeks ago, I was in Bethlehem once again for the annual Papal Peace Run. Instead of a highly secured, quick in-and-out, I would like to be able to return one day at my leisure to visit the Church of the Nativity. Till then, I will visit this way — and invite you to do so, too. Happy holidays to all.
Church Nativity Bethlehem in Israel
Grotto of the Nativity – Church of the Nativity, Betlehem in Israel
Foto Friday – Israel in 3D
Filed under: Art, design, Entertainment, Foto Friday, Picture of the Week, Technology, Travel
We’ve written before about 19th century stereoscopic images of the Holy Land. The 20th century version was the ViewMaster (more on that another day) and the anaglyph, popularly known as 3D vision.
Anaglyph images provide a stereoscopic effect when viewed through glasses with two different colored lenses. The technology is enjoying a 21st century comeback due to Photoshop and other programs that allow people to easily create anaglyph images and post them online. So, get your red and cyan spectacles on! It’s time to view the sights and sounds of the Holy Land in three dimensions!
There’s been a resurgence in anaglyph movies as well. Production company Highlight Films provides a range of services to facilitate and manage TV, film and video productions, including researchers, production fixers, camera crews, HD cameras and equipment, location scouting, personnel and, of course, 3D film and video. Enjoy.
3D HD landscapes of Israel
3D Dead Sea 7 Wonders
3D Jerusalem
Foto Friday – Ilan Garibi comes to light
Filed under: Art, coexistence, design, education, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Profiles, Religion, Travel
Yotze la-Or is a new exhibition of modern-day origami paper lanterns at Holon’s Hankin Gallery (December 19 to January 28). The name is a play on words — “yotze la-or” means both “coming to light” and “published”* — and also fits nicely with the upcoming Hanukkah holiday which, like most winter celebrations, has light as an underlying theme.
Using a unique origami technique known as Tesselation, artist Ilan Garibi creates lighting fixtures made of Japanese paper and red mahogany. Tessellation refers to a collection of figures fill a plane with no gaps or overlaps. In origami tessellations, pleats are used to connect elements together in a repeating fashion.
Garibi, a retired Israeli Defense Forces officer, was first introduced to the Japanese art of paper-folding at age 12 by a family friend but it was in 1996, while on assignment in Asia, that he took on origami as his hobby. In an interview with All Things Paper, Garibi related that while in the IDF, he would motivate his soldiers to get up early with the promise of origami lessons.
“Those lessons were always full… soldiers liked the idea of having a break from the serious business, to have their commander taking down his uniform shirt and teach the crane or a Ninja star.”
About five years ago, he began creating his own individual designs — mostly complex geometric patterns — that attracted attention and led to several exhibitions. Today, with 170 unique designs to his credit, he teaches “Origametria” a technique pioneered by Miri Golan and Paul Jackson of the Israel Origami Center, that uses origami to teach geometry in high schools. He also writes for the British Origami Society magazine, The Fold, (the online magazine of OrigamiUSA), and has authored a book on the subject.
See more pictures of Ilan Garibi’s work on his Flickr page. For more about Origametria, view this short film from 2006, which shows some of the IOC’s activities, including their peace program, Folding Together.
* Referring to the ancient practice of publishing on paper, kids.
Foto Friday – Beyond Realistic Representation: Constantiner Photography Award
Filed under: Art, design, education, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, News, Picture of the Week
Two photographers were named winners of the 2011 Constantiner Photography Award for an Israeli Artist. Both Ilit Azoulay and Liat Elbling, writes curator Nili Goren, “represent a significant trend prevalent recently in Israeli photography, centering on a renewed discussion of seeing, remembering and documenting, through the use of processing, simulating and assembling—originating in direct photography but removed from it, thus creating paradoxical environments.”
Elbling’s work combines photography and computer digital processing. “I photograph raw material, then deconstruct and re-organize it on the computer,” she writes. “The process is comprised of several stages and operates in layers, while keeping the logic of the photographic order intact.
Untitled Photo by Liat Elbling
“The main themes in my work relate to photography as a representation of reality and to the relationship between photography and memory. I am fascinated by the manner in which photography is considered reliable testimony and used to mediate reality.”
(A) Part #50888970 Photo by Liat Elbling
“My work focuses on uncovering scenes and images that posses day-to-day familiarity but at the same time, it’s seems like they have been exaggerated or have lost the ability to function.”
Azoulay, who received her MFA from the Bezalel Art Academy last year, stated, “I start with an attempt to create a place and only then to document it in a photograph; to detach objects from their usual adjectives, to annul the common familiar meaning they hold and rearrange them into a different and coherent reality.”
A space for a man with a chair Photo by Ilit Azoulay
About Azoulay’s work, Goren writes: “Like an archaeological study that sorts and catalogues findings from the past, she collects remnants of the present and applies onto them a clear regularity of gaze and photographic conditions, and assembles a continuous pictorial sequence devoid of thematic meaning.”
Room #8, 2011 (detail) Photo by Ilit Azoulay
“The space achieved in the final photograph subverts the spatial logic of sensual vision, its photographic representation and their (the gaze’s as well as the photograph’s) interpretation through the human brain, i.e. with consciousness tools.”
Tunnel Photo by Ilit Azoulay
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art – Leon and Michaela Constantiner Photography Award for an Israeli Artist was founded in 1999. Award recipients include Pesi Girsch (1999); Dalia Amotz, Simcha Shirman, Ori Gersht (2000); Barry Frydlender, Hanna Sahar (2001); Lee Yanor, Galia Gur-Zeev (2002); Adi Nes (2003); Reli Avrahami (2004); Leora Laor, Igael Shemtov, Pavel Wolberg (2005); Roi Kuper (2006); Michal Chelbin (2007); Yanai Toister (2008); Naomi Leshem (2009). In addition to the Prize, the photographers’ works are entered into the Museum collection.
Foto Friday – Hula Valley Bird Festival
Filed under: Art, education, Entertainment, Environment, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Music, News, Picture of the Week, Travel
More than just birds migrated this week to the Hula Valley, one of the most important stopover and wintering sites for migratory birds through the Great Rift Valley. This week marked the opening of the Hula Valley International Bird Festival, part of a five-part series of international birding events in the Galilee.
Each year, the Valley hosts thousands of Common Cranes, Pelicans, Ducks, Waders and Passerines. Over 300 species are seen here annually including very rare European birds of prey. (A full checklist of birds migrating through the Hula Valley is available here).
According to the event organizers, KKL Agamon-Hula Park and Hula Nature Reserve, “We believe it is time to spotlight the region as the world class birding destination that it is, and the way to do so is through a large scale birdwatching event.” The result: the Hula Valley Bird Festival, a one week event running from November 24th to 27th offered birding tours, art exhibition, photography seminars, a large scale scientific conference and much more.
“Much more” includes last night’s concert by seven time Grammy award winning musician Paul Winter, performing a new bird migration-inspired piece, Flyways, which takes inspiration from ethnic music from the countries along the migration route — Africa, the Middle East and Europe — embellished with bird songs and calls.
The scientific conference focused on various aspects of stopover site conservation such as habitat protection, migration ecology, climate change, regional cooperation and site networks, national and international policy and programming, public awareness and eco-tourism.
The photography seminar, “Cranes, Kingfishers and more in the Hula Valley”, led by renowned photographer Thomas Krumenacker and other leading nature photographers, focused on the Valley’s most important wintering species, the Common Crane.
“The Hula Valley in winter is probably among the best places in the world to get up close and personal with these beautiful birds.”
“Besides the Cranes we will spend time with some of the valleys other beautiful species like three different species of Kingfishers, Pelicans, wintering raptors and more.”
Berlin-based Krumenacker has been to Israel many times to photograph the Hula Valley. More photos can be viewed and purchased from his website.
All images are copyrighted by Thomas Krumenacker and come courtesy of the Hula Valley International Bird Festival website.
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