Progressive Street

View Original

Selichot by Dov Oron

Selichot (prayers for forgiveness and atonement) are definitely my cup of tea...

During the last month if the Jewish year, leading to the Jewish New year and ten days of atonement, it is customary to wake up very early and say SELICHOT every day towards sunrise of the new day, between 4-6 in the morning.

As is it is still dark and cold, in some synagogues there is a 'hot drinks' man who walks around offering tea or coffee to the rest of the congregation. Somehow the spiritual and physical needs blend together in harmony.

Taken at the 'Ades' synagogue in Jerusalem, the main synagogue for the community originally from Aleppo, Syria.

A beautiful and unique old synagogue with a special atmosphere.

Tonight is the Jewish new year, I want to wish all of you and a happy, healthy and prosperous year.

Dov Oron  I was born 59 years ago, I grew up in Tel Aviv and I currently live in a small town, Karnei Shomron, and it's been my home nearly 30 years. 

Until recently I was using an Olympus OMD E5 mark II, mostly with a Panasonic 20mm/1.7 lens, and sometimes the Olympus 12-40/2.8. I received a Fuji X-T20 with the Fuji 18-55 lens a couple of years ago, and since than it has become my main tool, with the Fuji 23mm f2. 

Fuji 18 or 23 mm are my prefer lenses, manual or aperture mode, metering to the light, or if metering generally underexposing a little, f5.6-11 depending on light. Nearly always jpegs. Only in very challenging conditions I turn to RAW. Prefer shutter speeds 160 and above on the street, to freeze movement, but am not afraid to take shots of nonmoving subjects at up to 1/4s, especially with the Olympus. 

90% of my shots are shot in colour, but I see things in B/W most of the time, and convert the shots to B/W in pp. With the fuji film simulations I shoot more B/W jpegs than before, but still prefer to have both options. There are shots where colour is part of the story, and some where it is a distraction. The majority of my completed works are in B/W but lately the size of this majority has become smaller. 

I use Photoshop cs6