Darkness and light – on the same day. After visiting the Holocaust museum of Yad Vashem in der morning (see yesterday’s post), we continued on to Bethlehem to visit the site of Jesus’ birth inside the Church of Nativity. Read about it in this episode of “Israel Explored – Bethlehem”….
Visiting the world’s central Holocaust Memorial in Yad Vashem was one of driving goals for me to visit Israel. For some photographs and a bit of history enjoy this episode of “Israel Explored – Yad Vashem”
Today I want to say a heartfelt “thank you” – to all of you!!! When starting the “Streets of Nuremberg” back in January 2016, I would not have imagined in my wildes dreams that one day 7000 people will follow my photographic musings. I am truly grateful for each and every one of you! I’m grateful for those who stop by once in a while, and for those who are frequent readers. I’m especially grateful for the many friendships that have developed with great people from all over this globe. It means so much to me! Today this blog has reached a truly memorable milestone! Thanks for 7000 followers!
The days of our trip to Israel are filled with sightseeing, stressful things like lying on the beach and evening activities like dining and a enjoying some after dinner drinks with our friends we’re travelling with. At least I find time to dump the days images onto the computer, but not enough time to edit and post process. So I’m seriously behind creating new episodes of “Isreal Explored”. But no worries, they will be published eventually 😉
When my Leica failed me on day 3 of our trip, I basically turned exclusively to my iPhone 12 Pro Max to capture the sights and sounds of this beautiful country. When looking at some of my street photography shots from today, I seriously ask myself why I need a camera…these images are a mix of action shots, closeups, wide angle images, photos in bright daylight, at sunset, after sunset and at night. Shooting into the sun and with it…the iPhone handled them all pretty well, I would say. Camera? iPhone! But see for yourself…..there are more images after the jump….
The latest episode of Israel Explored talks about our transfer day from Northern Galilee to Jerusalem took us along the Jordan river towards the Dead Sea. Highlights of the day were visits to Jesus’ baptism site, iconic mountain palace Masada, the discovery site of the Qumran Scriptures and finally a bath in the Dead Sea. For the images and a bit of history continue after the jump.
We have made it to the Holy City of Jerusalem, at last. And for sure this is a dream come true for The Significant Other and myself. After the joint dinner of our tour group, the two of us headed out of the hotel and took a city tram to nearby Mahane Yehuda market. Every Thursday evening is the night market, which turns the place into a giant party zone, a giant melting pod of people. A perfect place for street photography. Come along for a trip across the market….
Sometimes the worst case happens. You are on vacation, bringing your best gear to capture all the magic of the places you visit. And then disaster strikes. My Leica failed me. My brand new SL2-S decided to stop working while we visited Jesus’ baptism site on the River Jordan this morning. “System Error” was the bright orange message on the display. Switching on and off, removing and re-inserting battery, changing SD cards and lenses. All the tips I googled in the Leica forum, nothing helped.
I send a message to the Leica store where I purchased the camera, pointing out that I was three days into a once in a lifetime vacation and I needed help to reset the camera (the SL2-S seemingly has no hard reset) or with whatever trick they have up there sleeves to somehow overcome the failure.
Well…I even got a return message two hours later. They wrote that they talked to Leica Service and they indicated it most likely is a shutter failure and they need to resend the camera to the factory for repairs.
Leica, in case you read this: My Nikons never ever failed me like this. My Olympus workhorses never ever failed me like this, whatever I did to them. This Leica SL2-S is a brand new camera that costs triple what I payed for these other cameras. And it simply stopped working, without warning, being handled and operated with care. Shutter Failure. Are you kidding me? And I’m simply being told I will have to send in the camera for repairs. No apologies, no nothing. A suggestion that I might want to look for a retailer in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv that maybe can take a look. Not even sending me addresses or phone numbers. Not even a simple sorry for having a new high end 5000 Euro camera fail on vacation.
Leica, your customer experience sucks! I would have at least expected some kind of “sorry”. Or a proactive suggestion how I could get it looked at here in Israel. And even when I get this thing repaired within warranty…how can I ever confidently take this camera on vacation again or use it on a wedding gig? So disappointed…so disappointed….
Now the old M240 and my iPhone 12 will have to cover the rest of the vacation. At least I brought a 10 year old backup and some vintage primes. And the iPhone camera is also quite capable. I’m looking forward to the challenge to get the best of the failed SL2-S luxury camera. To still capture all the memories of our trip to beautiful Israel.
Day 2 of our Israel Trip started with a visit to Safed. Then wir continued to the source of the River Jordan in the Tel Dan Nature Reserve and onto the ancient Israelite city of Dan. For more photographs and history continue after the jump…
The first day of our trip to Israel took us to the holy sites at North Shore of the Sea of Galilee. A first opportunity to take out the Leica and capture some vacation memories. Classic travel photography, so to speak. Being part of a tour group, the day and the evening are fully packed. So I decided to just dump the memory card onto the Macbook and share some out-of-camera jpgs captured with the Leica’s high-contrast monochrome program for a first episode of Israel explored – Sea of Galilee….
I can’t believe I’m posting about travel again….at least air travel, that is. My last time on a plane was November 2019 on a business trip to India. After that, and thanks to Covid, my travelling live (for the job that pays the bills) came to a crushing stop.
But this morning, after some crazy months back home, The Significant Other and I took to the skies to fly to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport for two weeks of vacation in Israel. And for sure, this was the perfect opportunity to revive my Travel Day series of posts with episode 18. Continue after the link for some impromptu iPhone 12 travel shots from my first air trip in 30 months….