Getting Personal with Keith

This week, our assignment for class was to photograph food. He gave us the general guideline of using natural light in the background and a reflector in the front to capture the light. I think I did pretty well at getting the subject to really pop with the reflector. I took some shots without the reflector for comparison and they came out a little too contrast-y - and not in a good way. The reflector gave the food a nice glow to it.... go on »

Tags: learning, photography

I'm a bit behind on my posts about photography class. Week 6 was all about black and white photography. I was hoping to bring in some male nudes, but all of my friends were shockingly prudish! I'm trying to figure out if that's because in the age of the internet, people just don't want someone to take nude photos of them. Or perhaps none of my friends trust me. Or perhaps the younger generation just isn't as comfortable stripping for art. Hmmm...... go on »

Tags: learning, NYC, photography

Our second stop on my organized tour was to the Baha'i Temple Gardens in Haifa. I thought we were going to have more time in Haifa - which is considered by many to the most beautiful city in Israel. We only had about twenty minutes, which was disappointing. They droves us to the top of the gardens, let us out to take pictures, then we drove off to the next stop. Bummer - but at least I was able to see some of the gardens.... go on »

Tags: Israel, religion

I had the fortune of going to Caesarea two days in a row. The first visit was with David and our friend, Idit. She had decided to take us there to see some new films and exhibits that had been installed there and for lunch. She had been married at Caesarea, so it holds a special place in her heart.... go on »

Tags: Israel

After getting acclimated to Israel, we left the Ein Gedi Kibbutz and headed to Be'er Sheva. It's a major city located in the Negev Desert. David drove us up the cliffs of the Dead Sea to the desert. It was a bit of a culture shock. There were large stretches of barrenness with an occasional Bedouin village. I was not a fan of the Negev desert on our first day.... go on »

Tags: Israel

I missed the 4th week of photography class, so I'll jump right into week 5.

This week in class, we started using soft boxes - which are big boxes of fabric you put over a light to direct all the light in one direction. There's a flat white part where the light emits, which diffuses the light.... go on »

Tags: learning, NYC, photography

If you live in NYC, you should go see Wig Out! at The Vineyard Theater.... go on »

Tags: NYC, theater

While we stayed at Ein Gedi, we took a trip to the spa. The spa had all sorts of treatments that you could get: mud treatments, ayurvedic massages, swedish massages, hot stone therapy, you name it. I got an ayurvedic massage and David got a mud massage. There were plenty of things to do if you didn't want to get a treatment. You could hang out at their big, blue pool; you could take trip down to the Dead Sea and go swimming; you could give yourself a mud treatment; or, you could stay indoors and hang out in the Dead Sea waters (they had piped up the water from the sea).... go on »

Tags: Israel

Many years ago, I complained regular to anyone who would listen about the horrible state of espresso drinks in New York City. You only had a few choices: Starbucks, Your Local Deli, and restaurants. There were a few places in the village or Little Italy where you could maybe get a decent espresso, but you couldn't count on getting the good barrista on any given day - and without a good operator, you can only go so far.... go on »

Tags: food, NYC

The third week of photography lighting class, we worked on beauty lighting. We set up two stations with a tripod and a strobe light. We later added umbrellas to the mix to see how that affected things.... go on »

Tags: food, learning, NYC, photography

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word of the day

onus

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 22, 2008 is:

onus • \OH-nuss\ • noun
*1 : burden 2 : a disagreeable necessity : obligation 3 : blame

Example sentence:
Everyone else on the overworked staff was relieved when the onus of handling the new project fell to Cindy.

Did you know?
Understanding the etymology of "onus" is not at all burdensome; it's as simple as knowing that English borrowed the word -- spelling, meaning, and all -- from Latin in the 17th century. We can also add that it's a distant relative of the Sanskrit word for "cart" (a vehicle that carries a burden). English isn't exactly loaded with derivatives of Latin "onus," but the root did give us "onerous" ("troublesome") and "exonerate" ("to clear from accusation or blame" -- thus, "to unburden"). Additionally, our legal language has "onus probandi," which is often shortened to "onus." It means "burden of proof" -- that is, the obligation of proving a disputed assertion in a court of law.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
non sequitur

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 21, 2008 is:

non sequitur • \NAHN-SEK-wuh-ter\ • noun
1 : an inference that does not follow from the premises *2 : a statement (as a response) that does not follow logically from or is not clearly related to anything previously said

Example sentence:
The professor's lecture was a jumble of non sequiturs and irrelevant observations.

Did you know?
In Latin, "non sequitur" means "it does not follow." The phrase was borrowed into English in the 1500s by people who made a formal study of logic. For them it meant a conclusion that does not follow from the statements that lead to it. But we now use "non sequitur" for any kind of statement that seems to come out of the blue. The Latin verb "sequi" ("to follow") has actually led the way for a number of English words. A "sequel" follows the original novel, film, or television show. Someone "obsequious" follows another about, flattering and fawning. And an action is often followed by its "consequence."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.