Tel Aviv, Walls and Clouds

Shalom!

Some random last snaps from Israel – this time from Netanya and Tel Aviv.

Lovely bonfire/BBQ at Ricki’s place:

I learnt some Yemen dancing :D

I dislike cats but honestly, how cute is this:

Netanya Market:

She started arguing with me about me taking a picture of her (above) but I told her I was more interested in the market.  She then wanted her picture taken!

Largest knickers I ever seen.  It puts Bridget Jones to shame.

Went to the beach with some amazing sandwiches from the above place. Tuna, peppers, tomatoes and some spicy stuff – it’s some kind of Tunisian mix. Very yum.

Something was up with the camera hence dodgy focus.  Anyway, focus got fixed and Ricki took over while I frolicked in the sand.

I don’t get to run on sand often especially in this kind of heat and scenery, so yeah, I kind of made the most of it :P

Me with the plastic camera, and yes, I really was that red after an hour. I think my shoulders suffered for 2 weeks, but it was worth it!

Some scans of the pics from the disposable waterproof camera (£8 buy one get one free from Boots!):

I like the colours – and this is without any editing at all.

Some snaps I took at the Dead Sea:

En route to Tel Aviv!

Eyal + Goldstar

We had Goldstar on the roof of Eyal’s place and watched all the dressed-up people spilling out of the club below.  It seemed like an unappealing crowd – I was happy to be up on the roof!

I don’t know why I love capturing graffiti so much.  I guess it’s such a universal thing.. I can’t imagine any city without it.

Very cool old school camera shop:

I had a conversation with the lady who was selling this:

She told me she loves the London Underground and that’s why she made that, and she was honoured to meet someone from London. Maybe she was trying to get me to buy it. Or maybe she was just being nice : )

I really liked this Lego/olive pic:

Tel Aviv was hot.  Quite a bit more hot than Netanya which is only 20 minutes away by train.  Walking around in the sunshine takes it toll (especially with already burnt backs), so we went to Rotem’s place and chilled for a bit:

Back at Ricki’s place.. my last morning!

Shalmi – the most arrogant yet adorable cat I know : )

Turkish coffee (mmm!), cake, and nargila for the last time : (

Bye bye Israel..

OK, so airport food is usually barely edible, but I was impressed with the backlava for dessert!

Clouds fascinate me.  I always have to sit by the window so I can stare at the view in awe.  Not many people I know seem interested in looking out of plane windows, which I don’t really get.  Unless you fly every week, it’s surely not possible to get bored of seeing the planet from a completely different perspective.

Full-view:

You can see the faint trail of another plane in the distance. Boring? Not to me!

Hello London:

I only got back last month, yet it feels like years ago.  I don’t remember half of the things I wanted to say about this part of the world, but then, I guess this is a photoblog, so the pictures can speak for themselves. You can read my previous posts if you want more of a descriptive account.

Thanks for looking

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Previous  posts:

2008

• Shalom! http://www.tanya-n.com/?p=125

2009

• 4000 years, 3 cultures, 1 City http://www.tanya-n.com/?p=396
• The Wall of Separation http://www.tanya-n.com/?p=419
• Sun, Salt and Christianity http://www.tanya-n.com/?p=424
• Tel Aviv, Walls and Clouds http://www.tanya-n.com/?p=432

Dublin, an MJ dancer, Tamils, a Fox, and a Fuck Off

A bit of a mish mash of pictures in this one – from no less than 4 different cameras

I’ve been forgetting to post these images I took on Seamus‘s Leica M6 in Dublin, some time last year..

Tri-X 400

Nice work cutting the head off above, eh.

Taken with another one of Seamus’s cameras – Hasselblad XPan I think. Shooting panoramic is quite interesting but also very strange. I think having so many more features/subjects in a picture makes it a lot harder to compose.

To my trusted digi now. Autofocus, yay.

A few months ago (December to be precise so 7 months ago!) in Trafalgar Square, I spotted this guy dancing and singing Michael Jackson tunes.  I’m not sure why I didn’t post these at the time.

I’d actually seen YouTube videos of him before – example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpRmrSYrwEA He’s got skills this guy has!

It makes me laugh when others walk past pretending they don’t notice such people.

This guy joined in, and pretty much upstaged him!

As you can see, he drew quite a crowd, but he hardly reacted to them. He just carried on dancing and singing in his own world.  I wonder how he reacted to MJ’s death and whether he still does his performances..hm.

Back to film, and this time the Nikon F3, with APX 100.

These pictures are from a few months ago, when the Tamil protests were taking place daily in Parliament Square.  They lasted a month I think.

These women were on hunger strike:

Their badges say “Stop Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka”.

Brian Haw, as some of you will know (I’ve mentioned him on a number of occasions) has been living in a tent in Parliament Square for the last 8 years, “to protest against the injustice and suffering caused to the people of Iraq by the UN economic sanctions and the bombing of the country by the US and UK“.

I’ve spoken to him many times and although his mood has often been of anger (towards the government), it has never been directed towards me, until now.

I simply asked him how he was (as I often do), and some other general questions, to which he replied “How do you think I am? You’ve asked me fucking stupid questions”.  He then told me to “Fuck off”.  OK Mr. Haw!  Great way of getting support behind you, and considering I’ve pledged his cause numerous times.. and even given him mince pies at Christmas : )

I suppose living in a tent for 8 years and receiving abuse from the public does that to you. He’s in the background in the above shot.  The man in focus was one of his aides, who quickly stepped in when he heard Brian swearing at me.

Back to digital and some more recent stuff.  East London:

A bit of a ‘fuck’ theme going on here.

Going to work at 6am, I came across a fox.

They’re common in the suburbs although generally they just run away as soon as they see someone, except this one just loitered around as I took some pictures.  I was glad I had my camera on me!

I wanted a bus to go by to take this shot but gave up after waiting for a minute.

Full-view to read:

The fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square is open to one person every hour of the day until October to basically do whatever they want:

I’ve only been to Trafalgar Square twice since it started and seen nothing very interesting going on so far.

Peter Joseph (writer and director of the Zeitgeist Movie) came to London to give a talk on the Zeitgeist Movement, which was quite insightful, although I found some of the ideas to be a bit contradictory.  Still, it was very interesting and I’d recommend the movie to anyone who hasn’t already seen it.

A blurry Peter Joseph:

So, that’s all for now.  I have a lot of India pictures to go through still – I should really get them online soon!

As always, thanks for reading.  Comments are appreciated : )