Street scene

scott kirkpatrick · Oct 4, 2006

Yom Kippur, besides being a very serious occasion, is the one day of the year in Jerusalem when all streets are completely emptied of moving traffic. The result:

Traditionally, this is the day that training wheels come off for the first time, too.

scott

P.S. I'm kicking myself over the shot that got away. Same street, the night before, under streetlights, with four times as many kids circulating, and all the parents chatting on the crosswalks. No camera, as I needed both hands to be a bike-launcher.

Don Lashier · Oct 5, 2006

Nice shot Scott. I think I would like this cropped vertically or square, just down the street with buildings in background. Maybe leave the pole/sign out, but this would ruin the corner lead-in.

- DL

scott kirkpatrick · Oct 5, 2006

The next step

is eating all your meals for a week in a Sukkah (an outdoor frame structure with an open roof loosely covered with palm fronds). This one seats about 25, is elaborately decorated, and holds four generations each year.

scott

scott kirkpatrick · Oct 5, 2006

Don Lashier said:
Nice shot Scott. I think I would like this cropped vertically or square, just down the street with buildings in background. Maybe leave the pole/sign out, but this would ruin the corner lead-in.

- DL

Hate to lose the kid running, but I agree that it is a stronger picture if I crop from the right until it is nearly square, maybe to the yellow fireplug.

How's this one instead:

The real lesson is that I should have shot more. I had only three or four to choose from. And I wish I had dragged the camera along the night before, using ISO 1600. That was a scene.

scott

Mary Bull · Oct 6, 2006

Scott, here's the Naive Viewer again:

My gut feeling is for the uncropped picture. To me, content appeals more than strength of composition.

Mary

John Maio · Nov 21, 2006

Scott,

Your Sukkah photo brought to mind the movie "Ushpizin", which my wife and I enjoyed very much - both for the story and for the relief from all the horror/end of time fare currently on DVD.

The movie had a good run in terms of DVD sales.

scott kirkpatrick · Sep 30, 2009

Returning to an old subject, Yom Kippur

For Yom Kippur 2006 (actually 5767) I was probably using an Olympus E-1, and even if I hadn't been too busy, it would have been a stretch to push its little 5 MP sensor to ISO 1600. This year, things have changed. First the kids are good bike riders, and the holiday makes non-religious kids like them completely independent for a night and a day. Second, I have been using a Leica M8 for most of the past three years, and have some fast wide-angle lenses. So here's the scene on the evening of Yom Kippur, in the odd glow of sodium vapor streetlamps.

M8u, SX21A at f/1.4 or f/2.0, typically 1/45 or 1/60 sec.

scott

Asher Kelman · Oct 1, 2009

scott kirkpatrick said:
Yom Kippur, besides being a very serious occasion, is the one day of the year in Jerusalem when all streets are completely emptied of moving traffic. The result:

Scott Kirkpatrick: Street Scene

Hi Scott,

Glad you revisited this theme. Let me go back to this first shot. It was suggested by Don Lashier at the time, that one sacrifices the outlier, the runner to get a better total composition. I realized today that my way of looking at the picture has changed. If one does not work on the file, yes, that suggestion seems fair. However, if one looks at the lines of the curb and the white lines that can be emphasized, he fits in perfectly. I think that this image may be worth revisiting.

Asher

Asher Kelman · Oct 1, 2009

Hi Scott,

now to the new crop of pictures! I like the scenes of kids doing their thing.

Here the girl is pleased you are taking a picture. Is that your child?

Now they are oblivious of the pictures and doing their own thing. you wide angle comes to play just as needed for the scene which is very Pieter Bruegel, (The Elder)- like.

Here the parents show the strain of life, or just the fast or they are off guard.

M8u, SX21A - what is the SX21A?

Scott,

You don't seem to work a lot with the files. I have changed my way of looking at things over the past year and have noticed how pictures can really blossom by deciding where the geometry of the image, the spaces, texture, key features and their counterbalancing features and colors are and enhance these if necessary to define the esthetics. Here, the people are all accompanied by interesting shadows. I'd therefore consider working on this common motif, so they are part of the balance of the image.

Thanks for sharing,

Asher

Rachel Foster · Oct 1, 2009

I like this one best.

scott kirkpatrick · Oct 1, 2009

Rachel Foster said:
I like this one best.

Yup, that is a serious sukkah. Those are my in-laws, with the first five children now married, six more to come, five grandchildren already... Their religion dominates their lives, which are quite different from ours and not always accessible to us. Does anyone in LA, which has a climate similar to Israel's, put up real live-in sukkahs (sukkot) these days?

I'll pass along two more slices from that life, from last spring:

to make sense of the last, you have to know a little about the mechanics of feeding a lot of people while keeping all the things that are forbidden during Passover out of touch.

scott

scott kirkpatrick · Oct 1, 2009

Asher Kelman said:
Hi Scott,

now to the new crop of pictures! I like the scenes of kids doing their thing.

Here the girl is pleased you are taking a picture. Is that your child?

Now they are oblivious of the pictures and doing their own thing. you wide angle comes to play just as needed for the scene which is very Pieter Bruegel, (The Elder)- like.

M8u, SX21A - what is the SX21A?

Scott,

You don't seem to work a lot with the files. I have changed my way of looking at things over the past year and have noticed how pictures can really blossom by deciding where the geometry of the image, the spaces, texture, key features and their counterbalancing features and colors are and enhance these if necessary to define the esthetics. Here, the people are all accompanied by interesting shadows. I'd therefore consider working on this common motif, so they are part of the balance of the image.

Thanks for sharing,

Asher

Thanks for the comments. As always, there are the shots that got away -- besides the pictures of a more mixed crowd, some dressed in black, others returning from prayer with appropriate equipment draped over a shoulder (riding bicycles and emptying the video store are not really what you are supposed to be doing for Yom Kippur), there was a wonderful set of arrows on the pavement that I waited by for a while, but it was very dark there and nobody came by slow enough to be visible at 1/8 sec and moderate DOF:

The group of bicyclists was all boys, and my own kids found friends and melted off into the darkness almost immediately, so they aren't in the picture. I'm glad you liked the shadows. They remind me of scifi stories where a character is walking on the surface of a planet with multiple suns. M8u is the upgraded M8, with a quieter, longer-lasting shutter and slightly wider framelines. SX21A is the new Summilux 21/1.4 -- a monster lens by Leica standards, but it does capture more light and has two different looks, wide open and stopped down.

scott

scott kirkpatrick · Sep 18, 2010

Another year, another report card...

Here's our neighborhood corner on the eve of Yom Kippur, 2010. Really safe streets at this hour. Kids out of the house, neighbors meet. It doesn't seem to matter who is fasting, who is back from the synagogue, who isn't...

M9 this year, other data the same as in 2009. Kids older.

scott

Asher Kelman · Sep 19, 2010

scott kirkpatrick said:
Here's our neighborhood corner on the eve of Yom Kippur, 2010. Really safe streets at this hour. Kids out of the house, neighbors meet. It doesn't seem to matter who is fasting, who is back from the synagogue, who isn't...

M9 this year, other data the same as in 2009. Kids older.

This is again an amazing scene! Aren't their any cars? I'd have thought some car could still come at any moment, or do the folks know that this is the kids time?

BTW, is this a 24mm lens?

Asher

scott kirkpatrick · Sep 19, 2010

No cars

Nope. The streets are really safe and peaceful for the whole 25 hours. Even in Tel Aviv, that den of iniquity. The independence that it gives to secular kids is really gratifying for one day. The feeling of a block party for everyone within walking distance is nice, too. Even folks who wouldn't dream of riding bicycles join in after prayers are over.

The lens I was using is a 21mm, but I cropped some photos lightly, so 24mm might be the effective field of view for some of the shots. I can go to f/1.4, but there is so much deep field information that I also use about f/4 and hold my breath.

scott

Asher Kelman · Sep 19, 2010

Scott,

Might there be a tad of anamorphic distortion laterally.. and if so how would you correct it if that bothered you?

Asher

scott kirkpatrick · Sep 20, 2010

anamorphic distortion

If you mean Cinemascope-type lateral compression, I don't think so. The lens I used has pretty good specs for lack of distortion, but I was somewhat lazy in pointing it down from eye level at curb-sitters and pram-pokers, so the perspective effect is strong. Look at the shots of our local construction project, taken with the same lens. There I am feeling architectural, trying to hold the camera level, and it is much harder to see how wide an angle is being crammed in.

cheers,

scott

Asher Kelman · Sep 20, 2010

Scott,

Yes, looking at the initial more architecturally thought out shots, I can see that the lens is doing well. With the latest 24 mm Canon L lens, there's a widening of the last few objects/people on either side. That's the sort of distortion I was thinking of. Your explanation of the angle of the shot is more apt here!

Asher

Doug Kerr · Sep 20, 2010

Hi, Asher,

Asher Kelman said:
With the latest 24 mm Canon L lens, there's a widening of the last few objects/people on either side.

Do you mean vis-à-vis a true rectilinear projection, which we tend to think of as the ideal except in the overt "fisheye" case?

Best regards,

Doug

Asher Kelman · Sep 20, 2010

Doug Kerr said:
Hi, Asher,

Do you mean vis-à-vis a true rectilinear projection, which we tend to think of as the ideal except in the overt "fisheye" case?

Best regards,

Doug

Yes, Doug, that it. We get the lateral 1-2 members of a full orchestra increased in girth by up to 30% but this is not seem in the rest of the image.

Asher

scott kirkpatrick · Sep 25, 2012

Erev Yom Kippur 2012 (actually Taf Shin Ayin .. Gimel)

Another year gone by; both kids ride their bikes to school now, so they are pretty capable. They arrange to meet friends from distant parts of town, ride on the freeways (which are also empty), and I didn't see them at all. Meanwhile at the block party the ritual of taking the training wheels off for the first time continues, with the littlest kids showing up with anything that moves, bikes, trikes, scooters, skates... New faces among the parents, probably because the ones I know have kids the age of my kids, and parents with younger kids have replaced them. But it is just as crowded and free-spirited as ever.

scott

Leica M9, 21/1.4 at f/1.4 and ISO 1600
Shana tovah and gmar hatima tovah.

Asher Kelman · Sep 25, 2012

scott kirkpatrick said:
Another year gone by; both kids ride their bikes to school now, so they are pretty capable. They arrange to meet friends from distant parts of town, ride on the freeways (which are also empty), and I didn't see them at all. Meanwhile at the block party the ritual of taking the training wheels off for the first time continues, with the littlest kids showing up with anything that moves, bikes, trikes, scooters, skates... New faces among the parents, probably because the ones I know have kids the age of my kids, and parents with younger kids have replaced them. But it is just as crowded and free-spirited as ever.

scott

Scott Fitzpatrick: Erev Yom Kippur block Party #1

Leica M9, 21/1.4 at f/1.4 and ISO 1600

Scott,

This is a regular ritual. Hmm, maybe next year the Leica M?

Once a year families and kids get to own the streets as all the traffic stops. Has anyone suggested other no traffic days so people can socialize or does this also occur in the evenings in local parks? BTW, I'd also love to see your own kids with their larger bicycles!

Asher

scott kirkpatrick · Sep 26, 2012

more modes of transport

There are lots of festivals held in the Old City here, but nothing as simple and informal as this day, which is, after all, unique in the year. Here's one more picture with some of the littler kids in it:

And my daughter finally appeared with a group of friends who are all now sleeping in. I didn't get a picture of them, but I can provide one in which she is employing a different mode of transport -- magic.

King's Cross station, London, Sept 2012
Leica M9 21/3.4 at f/5.6

scott

Asher Kelman · Sep 26, 2012

Kirk,

She's grown so much! Start saving for college. Will she be able to go to hebrew University for free?

Time to leave for services!

Asher

scott kirkpatrick · Sep 29, 2012

Meanwhile, downtown...

I just noticed this in Robert Mankoff's cartoons column on the NewYorker website:

It is at the head of an article musing about politically somewhat incorrect cartoons. The cartoon, by Al French, appeared in the New Yorker magazine in 1928, about this time of the year.

scott

Asher Kelman · Sep 29, 2012

That's humorous, Scott!

So now all the traffic is roaring again. I wonder whether there are parks and tracks for kids to speed on their bicycles.

Asher

scott kirkpatrick · Oct 6, 2012

Sukkot during Sukkot

Shortly following Yom Kippur, the sidewalks, yards and balconies of Jerusalem are taken over by Sukkot (Sukkahs), in which the observant take all their meals for a week. Cafes and even pizzerias put them up, they spring up in the parks, and they really change the appearance of the more religious neighborhoods. If you have seen the movie "Ushpizin" or noticed a picture of the inside of a large one earlier in this thread (my in-laws' a few years back), you know what I mean. Here's a house in Beit veGan, an early suburban neighborhood, quite religious, with four very large family-sized sukkot, one per floor:

Hasselblad 500 C/M, Zeiss T* 80/2.8 at f/5.6 1/125, Phase 1 P45+ digital back

scott

scott kirkpatrick · Oct 6, 2012

More Sukkot

Here's a shot of a more upscale, but still fairly religious (Anglophone) district. Big Sukkot on the big porches. I'm not sure what the people in the high rises with tiny porches can do.

technical data same as previous post, but used tripod this time.

scott

Asher Kelman · Oct 6, 2012

scott kirkpatrick said:
Here's a shot of a more upscale, but still fairly religious (Anglophone) district. Big Sukkot on the big porches. I'm not sure what the people in the high rises with tiny porches can do.

technical data same as previous post, but used tripod this time.

scott

Scott,

With a glance, it's hanging canvases make up the wall of the succot. So then, I thought that someone had also hung a giant photographic print of a "Blue Sky with Clouds" on a vast canvas between the two buildings! I was primed for festivity and see what the imagination does!

Asher

scott kirkpatrick · Oct 6, 2012

The twelve story cloud-wrapped Sukkah

that you saw in the last picture, Asher, isn't so far away. We've got several buildings displaying multistory advertising drapes, and a few in Tel Aviv that are covered all round. Since those buildings are really old and dirty, it is an improvement. But wrapping a building in clouds and then putting thatch (schach) across the top to let the sky in would be truly wonderful.

The sturdiest sukkot have plywood panel sides, and I assume that they come out year after year. They get very hot and need to have windows cut into them. The flimsy cloth-draped ones are more pleasant. I noticed that one or two of the Wolfsohn buildings' porches simply had put strips of thatch across the regular latticework that covers them. That's almost cheating. You wouldn't see it in Beit ve Gan or downtown in the traditional areas like Mea Shearim.

I've got one more scene to add to this little essay, but I couldn't get in to the best viewpoint today (Saturday). There's a short window in which to try again tomorrow.

scott

Street scene

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