Sketching Out Blog: Sketches of art, watercolor, photos, recipes, books, interviews, Jewish topics, and Highland Park, New Jersey

Tel Dan: Suspected Arson

Tel Dan Nature Reserves, Israel
Baila alerted me to the fact that the Tel Dan Nature Reserve, where we enjoyed a wonderful, easy hike with archaeological digs and a cool wading pool, was torched on Saturday night.

Arson: why are some people so destructive? Who benefits from such a misdeed?

Read the Jerusalem Post article.

Also, looking for tips from photographers on how to photograph brightly-lit waterfalls or running water without having them look washed out. Thanks.

Baila says

You found the link. I saw the news in the paper and couldn't find it on line. It was 1 a.m. and I was bleary-eyed...

Reply
Leora says

Baila, thanks for pointing this out. So many yucky things happen in the news, but when you've just been there a week earlier, *that* particular news feels crazy. My husband the news junky didn't see this article.

Reply
Gail says

I have found Picasa to be an extremely handy photography tool. Even if a picture hasn't come out the way I planned in terms of lighting, it can be fixed easily with Picasa. I have Photoshop Elements, and I don't like it nearly as much. Plus, Picasa offers free storage space for photos and you can make albums and collages. Here's the link:

http://picasa.google.com/

As for shooting water or anything else for that matter, most of the time, I let the camera figure it out (the auto setting). If you are getting too much light and want to make a change though, the two ways I know to cut down are 1. use a smaller aperture or 2. Shorter shutter time.

There's also an ISO setting on some digital cameras. I know it exists and I know that it can be raised and lowered and that it acts like more or less sensitive film in a regular camera, but I never mess with it.

Reply
Leora says

Gail, thanks for responding. I put a request on Robin's blog, as she was discussing some technical photography points. Glad for your help.

As I have a digital camera with many settings, I'll have to learn to play with ISO. I've tried the beach setting for Israel, thinking maybe that would help with all the Mediterranean glare. Now I'm back in New Jersey, where we still get bright light in the middle of the day.

I have Photoshop CS3, so it would be a matter of which filter might help this out. Not sure if it's washed out already, what I could do.

Reply
hihorosie says

How horrible!! I too don't understand how people can be so destructive and disrespectful. The photo is beautiful.

Reply
Robin says

Maybe if you purposely exposed for the trees in the foreground it wouldn't blow out the water.
Setting your white balance to "sunny" might help too. You could try shady, but I think that might overexpose the water again. Sorry, I'm still learning too so not much help here.

Reply
Leora says

Robin, thanks for the ideas. I'm going to have to spend a day outside a very sunny day with my camera and my camera's manual and see if I can make progress. Unfortunately, we don't have any water as beautiful as that around here. The water around HP is more sedate.

Reply

Please leave a comment! I love to hear from you.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.