Yawn
Another Photoshopped photo. I do hope these women don’t recognize themselves. I used so many different Photoshop tools: brush, clone stamp, palette knife, colored pencil filter, sponge, desaturate, paint daubs, magic wand.
Leora
Saying Thank You
Juggling Frogs, a blogger I have wanted to write about, has set up a new blog carnival:
A Carnival of Overdue Thanks
Who is being thanked?
The “object” of the gratitude should be a person, or more than one person. Not an object, not an animal, and not an idea or fictional character. (Although, it’s within the rules to address the author/creator of ideas and/or characters.) The person can be living or dead.
Ruby Tuesday: Learning my camera
This was my favorite of a series of lily pictures I took at various camera settings. I have a Canon PowerShot 710. Settings for this photo: ISO=80, Colors=Vivid Red, White Balance=Day Light, Tv (Shutter Speed) 1/1600, Av (Aperture Value) 4.0. I lightened it in Photoshop.
This one’s the runner-up. Settings for this photo: ISO=80, Colors=Vivid Red, White Balance=Day Light, Tv (Shutter Speed) 1/500, Av (Aperture Value) 4.0.
These lilies are an example of how the photo looks if the camera settings aren’t right. Settings for this photo: ISO=200, Colors=Vivid Red, White Balance=Day Light, Tv (Shutter Speed) 1/500, Av (Aperture Value) 4.0. Setting the ISO to 200 was too high, so that’s when I took the two photos above.
Clarification: I’ve had this camera for over a year, but this is the first time I’ve had any success with the Manual settings. Other settings include Scene settings, like Beach (used that in Israel a lot), Kids ‘n Pets (I mostly use that one), Foliage, Night, Landscape, Indoor, Fireworks and Portrait. I mostly use those settings, and I use good ‘ole Auto, as well.
A friend suggested I buy a digital SLR camera. Maybe. I’ll think about it.
Blog Carnivals and Challenges
Haveil Havalim is up on Frume Sarah’s World.
I’m going to be hosting the Kosher Cooking Carnival in August, so please submit here:
http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_208.html
Recipes, restaurant reviews, cooking, food: as long as it’s kosher!
Last week I posted a blog challenge. It’s fun to see where it went:
Batya’s Blog Challenge
Gail’s Blog Challenge
Both mention Soccer Dad, a fine blogger indeed, though he writes so much I only read some of what he posts! (update: and Soccer Dad responds with Meme Thanks).
Then:
Ben-Yehudah’s Blog Challenge
Devash’s Blog Challenge
Linda’s Blog Challenge
And yet another: Reb Akiva’s Blog Challenge
Variations:
Jack’s Community
Baila’s Blog Anniversary
Raizy’s Response (new!)
There are other bloggers I read that haven’t gotten mentioned yet, so that will have to be a separate post. This one has too many links already. And I love SO many of the new photo bloggers that I’ve started “reading” (more looking than reading) that the task of posting a few would be impossible.
Regarding the photo, we went there yesterday. I took pictures, and we (my husband, my daughter and I) got to act in a play. If I can think of a good angle for a post, maybe I’ll write more later.
Ghost Bride of Rosh Hanikra
At many tourist attractions in Israel nowadays you can see a little “seret” or movie about the place. This is quite welcome, as the movies are shown indoors in air-conditioning, and I found each movie to be refuge from the summer heat and the emphasis on walking and walking and walking. After seeing many of these little films, however, they begin to blend together. One, however, stood out from the crowd, and this was the one at Rosh Hanikra, the one that told the story of the ghost bride.
Long, long time ago south of these tall white cliffs lived a young girl in Acre (Akko). Her father made a deal with a older businessman in Tyre, Lebanon, that she would be his bride. So she was taken in a caravan north. As the caravan passed over these cliffs, the young bride jumped out, never to be seen again. And as the movie continued the history of Rosh Hanikra (the British built a railroad through the cliffs; the Haganah blew up the tunnel in the 1940s), the young bride appeared over and over again in the background with the cliffs.
After the movie is over and we emerge back into the brilliant sunshine, my daughter (who is 6) had all these questions: why did they show that girl over and over again? what’s a ghost? what happened to her? did she die? what happens after you die? is she still here?
So I suppose we (my husband, my two sons who are older than her, and I) came up with some sort of explanations. One week later, when we were in Jerusalem, I found her making up ghost stories one evening:
Photographing Pigeons – No, Mourning Dove
I took these pictures of this pigeon (at least I think it’s a pigeon – now I think it’s a mourning dove; it doesn’t look like the greyish blue pigeons in New York City) in the Old City of Jerusalem. A little boy with blond payis (curly sidelocks that some religious Jewish boys wear) asked me in a thickly-accented English why I was taking pictures of a bird. It seemed to be amusing to him. I told him I had also photographed ibex and hyrax, too. “Oh,” he said, “you like taking pictures of animals”. Yes, I agreed.
More camera critters here.
Sky and Sea from Rosh Hanikra
In the northwestern tip of Israel right at the border to Lebanon are some tall cliffs called Rosh Hanikra. We visited there early this summer. The photo is looking south from the cliffs at the Mediterranean sea. I hope to write more soon about Rosh Hanikra and about a ghost story associated with these beautiful high cliffs.
Flower to brighten the day
It’s nice to have a cheery photo at the top of my blog. This is a flower from the kibbutz we stayed at in the north of Israel, Kfar Blum. An expert in the comments (see below) has declared this a nerium oleander.
The Blog Challenge
Ilana-Davita got picked as one of Swedish Chekchouka’s seven blogs, so Ilana-Davita picked me as one of her favorite blogs.
As Ilana-Davita pointed out, by picking out seven, you are eliminating others. I decided the first person on my list would be the first person disappointed by her list, and here she is (drum roll, please):
Batya at Me-Ander: Batya was the blogger who introduced me to blog carnivals. Many months ago, she left a comment on one of my cooking posts; I felt like she introduced me to the JBlogosphere. Yay, Batya!
And now for my second pick:
Daniel who’s Struggling with God: He writes nicely and a very human way. Yes, he is often struggling. Sometimes someone else can voice what others just feel.
Three:
Gail at Rubicon3: Gail writes insightfully about politics, warmly about her family, and I love when she puts up a drawing. She’s also a great photographer. Yesterday she helped me with Twitter. I still am not quite sure what Twitter is all about, but if you want to follow me, I’m leoraw.
Four:
A Mother in Israel: She’s one of the only bloggers I’ve met in person. There’s always an interesting discussion on her blog. And I’m rather partial to the lovely header she has up there (I designed it for her).
Five:
Frumhouse: Always something interesting to say, an interesting angle. Sometimes a lovely poem to warm your day.
Six:
Jack: He helps keep the Jblogosphere going with Haveil Havalim, and he’s funny. More the second one. I mean, the first one is a lot more work. But the second one is why it’s always worth a peek to see what he’s noting today.
Seven:
Lion of Zion: He teaches me about Brooklyn, what’s up in Camp Moshava these days (I went there for four years in the 1970s), gives me a peek into the male world of leining. Unpredictable, what his next post topic will be.
Eight (who said I can count):
Robin, who introduced me to all these wonderful photo bloggers and Mr. Linky fun
Who I didn’t pick:
TherapyDoc is already on Ilana-Davita’s list.
SuperRaizy is already on Ilana-Davita’s list.
Baila is on Swedish Chekchouka’s list.
ImaBima is already on Ilana-Davita’s list.
HiHoRosie just got a similar award from her set of bloggers.
And I’m often finding new ones. I also really like A Simple Jew. Is that cheating?
So, feel free to take up the challenge of seven favorite bloggers. It’s not easy.
Little Girl, My Version
Instead of posting this little girl in the original photo, I changed the photo using Photoshop. I used the filter called “cutout” on most of it, but not on the face and arm. The cutout filter took out too much detail there, so I used the “colored pencil” filter for the face and arm. Did it work? Maybe. I wanted to take away some of the likeness. I have some other photos with faces that I may want to post, and this Photoshopping may help me feel like someone is less likely to recognize the person.