My Photography, Some Recent 52Frames Photos

I never studied photography, nor art, nor composition, though I've been drawn to it. In recent years I've been a member of 52frames, which began as a small group of people, photographers, amateur and professional or hopefuls on Facebook. The committee decides on a weekly "challenge" plus its "extra c," which isn't required. 

When I first heard about 52frames it was hard to be accepted. Our "portfolios" had to be approved, and there were limited chances during the year for newcomers. I was terrified that I'd be rejected; also most members photographed with impressive cameras, not phones. In the beginning I had used an inexpensive camera, because affordable phones had rather primitive cameras. As phone cameras got better and it became more difficult for me to carry a camera, I retired the camera and now only photograph with my phone.

In the early years, the weekly album was posted on Facebook, and now there's a site 52Frames. 

Since I being accepted in 52frames I never missed a week. You can see that in the photo below. 

Here are some relatively recent photos, and click here for a larger collection: 

Pool Season Open

 

"Modern" Jerusalem Can "Play" With Water

The Old Shaare Tzedek Where I Became A Mother

Caught By The Slow Shutter

Jerusalem of Gold Lyrics

Walking in Jerusalem

Purim- Beer, Wine & Whiskey

Now and Then X2
Self-Portrait

What do you think? Maybe you'd like to join up.

Orange Season, Now's The Time to Eat Them

Our tree's oranges are already bright orange

Perfect catch for "Orange" challenge, 52Frames

After almost a half a century in Israel, a unique country that is simultaneously agricultural/nature oriented and high tech, I religiously buy my fruit and some of the vegetables seasonally.

Years (decades) ago I read that fruits and vegetables are healthiest in the season they ripen. And as I remember the article stated that if you try to get around it, cheat, by eating imported fruit from a country in the opposite hemisphere, it won't have the same benefit.

Way back when, when one of my summer babies was a few weeks old, we got oranges very cheaply, so I ate a lot of them. Oranges are a winter fruit. Here in Israel I've learned not to buy them until a couple of weeks after the first rains, so they'll be sweet. The oranges were sweet, since they had been stored well. Suddenly I noticed that my baby had a terrible rash. None of older children had ever had a rash like that. Since the baby was fully nursing, I guessed that something I was eating must have been triggering the rash.

I experimented by cutting out oranges from my diet. Like magic the rash cleared!

In addition, we don't drink juices, even fresh juice. And I certainly don't drink orange juice. One of the last times I drank orange juice was a summer when visiting New York. I had orange juice in the break fast meal after the 25 hour fast of Tisha B'Av. I felt such awful burning in my mouth that since then I'm unable to have raw fruit when breaking a fast. But that's another story and the reason I try to make a good vegetable soup...

Where was This? "Break the Rules!" 52Frames

I used to post a lot of my 52Frames photos. Maybe I should resume. 52Frames is a group Photography project in which we are challenged weekly. It's based on a facebook page.

I've been a member for years. I haven't missed a week since I joined. My photos aren't considered among the best. I use a cheap phone rather than a fancy camera, and I doubt if I spend as much time in "planning and creating" my shots as others do. But I've still learned an awful lot about photography, composition, photo-editing etc. And I'm still learning and enjoying it.

Here's my latest photo. Do you know what/where I took it?

"Taking a Peek"
Need I say more?

Mystery to Me, Too

This week's theme/challenge on 52Frames was What is it??

By chance I spotted something very strange. I photographed it from a few angles, in its real color and also sepia. I chose the sepia and cropped it a bit.

Mystery to Me, Too

Can you guess what I photographed? Please post your guess in the comments. In a few days I'll tell you what I know about it.

New Mind-Boggling Photo-Editing Technique

It's hard to believe that just a few years ago, I barely knew more than cropping as a my repertoire of photo-editing. Now, besides "lightening," sharpening, turning the photo into black and white, etc. I've discovered that you can change its shape.

I thought people in 52Frames were kidding when they said that I could change the perspective of a picture. I could make a distorted one into a perfect square or rectangle. Someone told me that I could do it with Snapseed, an app I have on my phone for editing. They were right. I did fix the photo with the Perspective Tool.

I'll show you what I mean with a photo that was really distorted. I turned this one...

into... this.  Until I did it, I  couldn't believe such a thing could be done.

It's like magic. Isn't it?

Framing the Sky

The challenge for this week's 52Frames photo was the Sky. I take lots of sky pictures. Almost every morning I photograph the sunrise, and the sky in Israel is extraordinary. But to be honest, recently, the sky has been so clear it's almost boring.

I wasn't quite sure what to do. Then when I was walking in Jerusalem I saw this "frame," and took a few pictures. I finally decided that they were the the most interesting, and I finally, with a little help from some friends, chose this one.

"Framed"It's all in the accessories. 

It's not perfect, and I couldn't return to take more. What do you think?

DOF- Depth of Field Photography for 52Frames

The latest photographic challenge I did for 52Frames was Depth of Field, aka DOF.

"Love That Lox"
Feasting on Lox, cream cheese and salad on the Jewish Purim Holiday. We celebrate two days in Shiloh. On the second day, my husband and I had this special lunch, not an everyday menu for us.

The photo was taken with my phone, a Canon IXUS 145, which I hardly use. It's not a great camera, and in general I'm happier with the photos from my simple phone, Samsung J7. But it ended up that I couldn't get the phone to cooperate for DOF. I couldn't trick it into blurring part of the photo. Davka, I was bvle to get the camera to do it by having it set for a simple close up, which resulted in the further section being blurred.

Here are a couple of other photos I took, but decided to serve the lox.

Did I choose the right one?

All Lines Lead to Jerusalem

Sometimes Gd is the Stylist 

This week I took lots of Leading Lines photos for the 52Frames challenge. It was pretty easy at two very Jerusalem sites, the Chords Bridge aka Bridge of Strings and the Train Park which follows the old, unused tracks which lead to Matan where I study each week.

With a healthy choice of Leading Lines photos to choose from, and the help of a small sub-group of framers, I chose this one of the String Bridge below.  After reading and digesting their praise for it straight from my simple Samsung J7 phone, I did absolutely no editing, not even the tiniest cropping. That's why it's so clear to me that I had Gd with me as the "stylist."

"All Lines Lead to Jerusalem"
The now iconic Chords Bridge aka Bridge of Strings designed by Santiago Calatrava always catches my eye. And for me it is always new. It was built 40 years after I moved to Israel.
It definitely features leading lines.

The "Rejects"

I had more good Leading Lines photos, and here are a few of them,* None have been either cropped or edited:

Do you agree with my choice?

*I had some technical problems and will add more Gd willing when I can.

3 Self-Portraits

I've been a member of 52Frames, the weekly photography challenge for quite a long time. And amazingly, bli eyin haraa, I've an unbroken streak since the week I was accepted as a member. Way back when, the time I joined, you couldn't just "join." You had to be accepted.

We're given a couple of week's notice as to what the theme/challenge will be, except for the first week of the year, when the tradition is a Self-Portrait. The first few years I'd freak out in hysterics about it. But this year I found myself with three very different shots to choose from. They were all taken in the Israel Museum. Here's the one I chose:

"Me"
Yes, that's me. I took this photo of myself at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. It was just for practice but ended up the best compared to the rest.
I am an active retiree always looking to learn new things. Does it show?

Following are the two others:

What do you think? Did I choose well, or should I have sent in one of the others? And why?

Disagreements Re:My Last two 52Frames Shots

This week, as Sunday, which is the deadline, was the last of 2017, the 53rd Sunday of the year, a very unusual occurrence, 52Frame's challenge was "Endings."

For me it was clear that I'd have to photograph our local Shiloh Cemetery. I managed to get down there just as the sun was beginning to set. I had the end of the day and the end of lives all in one package. 

I've been using my smartphone, the Samsung J7 as a camera. It really is better than the cheap camera I bought a few years ago. First I photographed it in black and white, but it looked too stark and cold. Then I tried the sepia, which gave it the warmth and character I had envisioned. The cloudy winter sky added the perfect dose of sadness.

When I consulted with member of a "subgroup" from 52Frames, I was told that the sepia was too yellow. I toned it down and added the vignette, hoping it wouldn't be too kitschy. I, davka, like the look it produced, a bit more sorrow, looking into a tunnel of sad memories, which really is the case. This is a community cemetery and I really did know almost everyone buried in it. There are so many stories...

"Cemetery Sunset"
Sad as I knew most of the people buried here. Their ends came much too soon. 

So far, there have been a nice amount of comments. Most people like the basic photo including the light sepia, while there's a split in opinion about the vignette effect.  What do you think? And why?

The previous week's photo, Black and White Minimalism, also had people either liking or hating one of the elements.

"Window Up High"

I took it in my daughter's house on a wintery day. Even though it was less than two weeks ago, I can't remember if I had photographed it in Black and White or removed the color in "post-production." Besides a bit of cropping and sharpening, there wasn't much to do. I liked the simplicity and asymmetric look of it, with the focus on the light in the perfect spot.

Comments have been almost evenly split about that lamp. Some people love it, and others find it distracting. I couldn't have removed it, though I could have turned it off. I think it adds a good visual focus of white on all the grey and black. What do you think? And why?

Photography Fun

I'm a regular in three very different photography groups, sites, apps or whatever you want to call them. Actually, they are different and each may be one of the names I used.

• 52Frames is a photography group that functions via facebook. Each week we're given a "challenge," some sort of "technique" we are to use within that week and send it in. Then an album is posted. It can be as simple as a black and white photo or something that sends me searching for instructions/explanations like Low Key.
• Instagram is an unstructured photography "app," for sending photos and short videos to other members/followers via a smartphone. There's no frequency requirement. One can have a small personalized membership, of close friends and family, or it can be used as a marketing tool or anything inbetween.
• 365project is a daily photo posting site with members all over the world. There are optional challenges, but I haven't participated in them much. I don't think there are too many Israelis in it, so I try to give an idea of my life via daily photos. 

If you're a member of these groups, say "hello;" follow me, too. 

Some photos are used for more than one of the groups/apps/sites. Here are some recent photos:

365project

Overripe Olives

Fall from the tree...

"Flower"
I used two new techniques here. Negative color and a new application recomnended by a framer. Thanks

Location: Shiloh, Israel

Critique: SHRED AWAY! I feel no pain.
This photo qualifies for the "Extra Credit" challenge: "New Technique"

Most nights I take a picture as I kick off my shoes and "share" what the pedometer has counted.

12,167 #steps #go_binyamin #shilohisrael#publicdiet #tryingtoloseweight #fitness — ‎at ‎שילה הקדומה Ancient Shiloh‎.‎  

Most nights I take a picture as I kick off my shoes and "share" what the pedometer has counted. I then combine the two with another app, layout, and then post the product on Instagram, plus facebook and twitter.

Each of these groups suit different needs and offers different sorts of challenges for me as a photographer and a person. One thing I found very amusing. During a session of the "intergenerational group" at the Senior Adult Education program I'm in when the students were asked what surprising thing they learned about "their senior citizen," my student said:

"Batya has an instagram account!"

I don't understand why she was surprised, but... now we follow each other.

Amazing Results With Photo-editing, Snapseed

For the longest time, I totally avoided and looked down on "extreme" photo-editing. I was raised in the film photography world and was always warned by my parents that it was a waste of money to develop and print bad shots. I had one chance, and one chance only, to click and produce a perfect photo.

So, as you can imagine, it's rather traumatic to accept the digital photography reality in which people may take dozens or more shots of the same scene. Trying to choose the best, after three or four, my eyes go foggy and I just can't see what's better or worse. I'm not a visual perfectionist. The truth is that I'm just not a perfectionist at all!

Now I must admit that even though I highly doubt that I'll be taking more than a handful of photos of the same scene, I have not only discovered the fun and art of photo-editing, but sometimes I fear that I'm addicted.

This week's 52Frames challenge was to use our phone as a camera. To be honest, I've been using my phone pretty much every week for months. Its pictures are far superior to what my cheap camera can produce. That created a bit of a dilemma. I needed to submit a photograph that would be a superior one, davka, because of my phone.

Here is the photo I submitted:

"Flower"
I used two new techniques here. Negative color and a new application recommended by a framer. Thanks

This is the story:
I decided to use a photography option that my Samsung J7 offers. I photographed this pretty flower in the negative. It looked pretty unusual, but just not special enough.

I'm also in a small 52Frames group which is to help each other out with ideas. One of the members of that group suggested that I use Snapseed, a free photo-editing application. So, that's what I did. It lightened the photograph just enough to give more detail and contrast between the flower and the leaves. What do you think?

On Being a Morning Person

I love the sunrise. I'm so happy that the front of my house faces east. The biggest mistake we made in planning the house was putting our bedroom in the back; it's like a dungeon. But the upside of that is that I just can't wait to get out of bed.

My body doesn't need great amounts of sleep, and frequently after about six hours it just wakes up. If I nap or have too inactive a day, I have trouble falling asleep. Today I awoke an hour before the alarm went off. I was on my second mug of coffee when I heard my alarm.

When I travel to different time zones, I combat jetlag by forcing myself, frequently with the help of lots of coffee, to go to bed at about midnight, and then my body wakes up about six hours later. Yes, that's on time for me.

This morning I had great fun photographing the sunrise.

And I'm sure that I'm one of the only 52Frames members who had an easy time getting the Golden Hour "extra credit" by photographing dawn.

"Magic Morning Coffee"
Luckily for me I kept waking up very early last week, with plenty of time to drink my coffee and photograph the dawn during "Magic/Golden Hour."

woke before alarm
got to see gorgeous sunrise
now drinking coffee
#morningcoffeehaiku

Psyched up for the pool
Today's another scorcher
Coffee cold and strong
#morningcoffeehaiku

rescued by coffee
sometimes sleep isn't enough
grey sky but still hot
#morningcoffeehaiku

Enjoying coffee
Wonderful Day Yesterday
but need much more sleep
#morningcoffeehaiku

Grey summer morning 
Cold brew coffee, jar, filter
No need for French Press 
#morningcoffeehaiku

ripe cold brew coffee
perfect for hot summer's day
yay, pool, here I come
#morningcoffeehaiku

Yes! Cold Brew Coffee
Perfect hot day summer drink
Must plan in advance
#morningcoffeehaiku

Wabi Sabi, The Beauty of Imperfection

I had never heard of the term Wabi Sabi before it became an annual challenge on 52Frames.

"Fallen Rose"

I love the photo, but it was pretty much ignored by the other members. The same happened with last year's picture.

"Lonely Leaves"

What's funny is that they were taken barely two meters from each other.

What do you think?

Before and After, Think for 52Frames

A few days ago, I blogged about the photo I had submitted to 52 Frames for the "Think" challenge and promised to reveal the original photo. So, here they are:

After lots of editing, this is what I sent to 52Frames. 

This is the Chords Bridge in Jerusalem.

The theme was "think," and one of the suggestions was to turn reality upside down. That's what  I did. What do you think?

Think! Interesting Challenge from 52Frames

"Alternate Reality"

I must admit that this week's challenge has proven most challenging. I kept reading and rereading the email with suggestions. And then finally certain words Yosef wrote hit me:"change the way reality normally looks"I trust some of you will try to guess what was photographed. My plan is, bli neder-a Hebrew phrase meaning "not an oath," to blog about it later, after giving people a few days to guess, and show the original photo alongside. In the meantime, keep guessing. 

I just wonder if anyone can correctly guess what I photographed.  Does anyone recognize it? My plan is to post the original in a couple of days. In the meantime, Think and guess.

Photography Fun!

As you may know by now, I'm in three very different internet photography groups, 52Frames, Instagram and 365 . They are all very different. I'm sure there are other groups or whatever you want to call them.

52Frames is a weekly challenge from which I'm learning photographic principles that I never would know without it unless I was taking a photography course. It began, if I'm not mistaken, on Facebook, and even though there is a site, the feeling of "group" is via on FB. Here are a couple of my most recent photos for them. I'd appreciate your input, either as a comment here or on Facebook by clicking the title.

Paper

Abandoned

365Project is daily, and themes or challenges are optional. I post almost everyday. You can see my photos and become a "friend" by clicking here.  Here are a couple of recent ones:

Lastly is Instagram which has the least amount of structure and restrictions. You can post multiple times during the day or very infrequently, using your membership to see other photos. I post from my phone, not the computer, but pictures show up on Facebook. You can find me as shilohbatya.

Enjoy!