kmcgrew

Taken near Victory America Palace shortly before sunset. The framing

doesn't seem quite right...and I'd like to get rid of the trailers on

the right-hand side of the photo--do you think they are distracting?

 

Thanks!

Taken while fishing at near sunset in March, 2007.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but in Jewish culture the study of holy books ("seforim") is referred to as "learning" (in Yiddish, "lernen"). It is different from "reading" in that one does it "lishmah" (for the sake of fulfilling the commandment to "...meditate on these words morning and evening...").

 

It's a great photo which captures well the life of an observant Jew.

How could I make this better, either at time of imaging or in the

digital darkroom?

 

Thanks!

Taken at dusk in January, 2003 at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

Bunches of cherries waiting to be harvested.

Taken early on the morning of July 4, 2006 during the cherry harvest.

The Cube on the forehead is called a Shel Rosh and is one of two such cubes which make up tefillin. In the Christian Bible these are generally referred to as phylacteries, which is the Greek term used during ancient times.

The tefillin hold small parchment scrolls with specific verses from the Torah (first five books of the Bible). These little cubes are worn during the morning prayer services Sunday through Friday. They are not worn on the Sabbath nor (generally) on the intermediate days of some festivals. Some Jewish traditions wear them on the intermediate days, but do not say the specific blessings when the tefillin are put on. The act of putting on tefillin is frequently called laying tefillin, and it is not uncommon to hear an observant Jew ask another Jew if he lays tefillin.

If you deduced that tefillin are only worn by men, you are correct in the Orthodox context. Among liberal Jews (Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist) some women wear tefillin. Among secular Jews tefillin have been used in sacrilegious art.

My question is based on the title of the work. Is this really a rabbi? Or is this a pintele Yid--a simple Jew--who is simply in prayer?

While I like the lighting, your model's eyes are straight into the camera. Maybe that was your intent, but her gaze distracts my focus from the candles. If she's meditating or praying, I'd prefer a more oblique view wo׽3her eyes on the candles.

This is probably not a wild albino, but a domesticed white reindeer. White reindeer are bred for their white coats, which are easy to spot amongst the green background during the summer.

 

Nonetheless, I like this shot because of the action the photographer has caught with a foot off of the ground. The look in the reindeer's eye is also captivating.

The lines work great.

How could I make this more effective?

Reb Sholum and his son lighting Chanuka candles. Should I have

cropped more from the left side of the shot?

This statute of the beloved concubine of the Emperor of China, set

behind a riot of color, caught my attention. Does it catch yours?

The statute of Buddha in Kamakura, Japan known as "Daibatsu." Shot

with ETRSi and scanned with Epson 2750.