"You took that better than I ever would have..."

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ORIGINALLY POSTED: 27 Mar 2008
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Palm Sunday in Nazareth, Israel. This just doesn't happen... people just don't spend a week in Israel in this time of the year.

Well, at least people my age don't... The older and grayer spend their "100 things to do before I die" times doing things like this...

They stand on the street corner in front of the gates of the massive Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth at the site where (traditionally) Mary received the news that she was to be the one to bear a child (in Luke 1.27-38). They just stand there and take it all in...

While they stand there, the party goes on around them with the streets filled with parades and people waving palm fronds and the locals look down on them from their elevated apartment balconies.

But much happened before this point in our day...

On a visit to Mt. Precipice that overlooks Nazareth, one of my lenses met its doom.

You think it'll never happen to you. In fact, you scoff at the idea and shake your head shamefully when you see or hear of others whose equipment takes a bounce.

Remember Nic's camera at Cesarea Maritima and a bounce down the stairs?

Then it happens to you...

The day started like any other: we packed up all our belongings into our luggage and left our nice little seaside bungalows at Galilee...

...for the largely Arab town of Nazareth. We climbed higher and higher up the side of a cliff named Mount Precipice to have a full panoramic view of the area - all of Nazareth and opposite to the Jezreel Valley.

And that's where it happened... during a routine lens change, the camera and the 18-135mm hit the ground.

The camera is fine. Nikon knows how to build 'em...

The 18-135, however... rest in peace, my friend... it broke at the body connection between the mount and the manual focus ring... pieces of gears and little computer chips... flying everywhere... quite an explosion... quite messy...

As a memorial: the last photo taken before that fateful moment...

Nazareth on the right... Jezreel Valley on the left...

Okay, since this was the first stop of the day and there had been barely 50 photos taken before this point, I couldn't just stop taking pictures and mourn the loss. Haha...

I put the 80-200/2.8 on there and kept going...

Be strong, soldier... mourn when the job is done!

"Wow... you definitely took that better than I ever would have," someone said when they saw the parts hanging out of a busted lens, "I think I'd be freaking out..."

Okay, anyways... enough of that... it happens... lenses break... we move on...

Anyways anyways... Downtown Nazareth and the Church of the Annunciation. Hmm... the haze in that picture makes weird contrast now that I look at it...

And since it WAS Sunday and it was PALM Sunday... might as well go to church with a local Arab protestant congregation. See? Its called culture, my friend...

And then on to the cathedral... Church of the Annunciation...

The Cathedral actually has two levels. Downstairs is a large room where the original structure where Mary received her "annunciation" and pilgrims flock there by the thousands... especially on days like this - even though Palm Sunday has very little connection to this event.

Sam found this lighting preeeety... I found Sam in this lighting more interesting than the lighting itself. See... photos of the site is one thing - and of course I have them with nobody else in them - but if you put a human element into them... don't they just get so much better!?

But it is still beautiful to just stand by itself...

Oh, and I forgot to tell you... since my other lens was down for the count, I was now shooting with a cheap little US$90 lens that I got off eBay a LONG time ago. Its a Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8-4. Honestly, it is a pretty abysmal piece of equipment, but now I have new appreciation for it and know ALL of its capabilities and strengths and weaknesses since it was my only real alternative for a medium range zoom lens... all my other lenses are either high-power zooms or primes. Cheapy cheapy lenses can really save your life sometimes... go out and get one JUST in case...

The Palm Sunday party outside was in full swing...

Since I lost my long(er) zoom from the long end of my 135, for moments like this - I went back to my prime lens roots.

Zoom with your feet...

Find out how short 70mm really is... even with a 1.5x crop.

Anyways...

Everyone out in their Sunday finest for the parades and parties in the street...

Lots of street moments on the short end of 28-70. Being restricted takes me back to the 50mm days on the Canon A-1.

Except in color... and having to convert to black and white using the "special formula" in CS2...

Typically, breakfast and dinner is provided for us; however, lunch is in the fend-for-yourself category and often consists of street food.

Avner contributed his wisdom to our plight:
"Go to the place where there is the longest line," he said, "Why? Because all the locals know of that place as the place with the best food! If the place is bad, only American tourists that think they have to have everything now-now-now will go to the place with the shortest line. They'll go home hating the food because they never took the time to enjoy the real stuff..."

For someone to learn this is a turning point in a person's enjoyment of foreign food. Some of my friends that did not share this sentiment concerning food and "just wanted the quickest cheapest option" ate the same shawarma, shnitzel, and falaffel every day. Or they ate their cans of raw tuna they brought from Greece.

A few of us decided to take a break, enjoy a foreign coke, and wait on our food...

I have no idea what I ate in Nazareth... but it was good!

Moving on from here...

Sometimes I wish I had the M4 ALL the time so I could take photos like this without putting a full-body SLR up to my face... but not on this day. I visualized this in black and white so I converted it... I think that's fair, right?

This, however, couldn't be any better or worse with or without color...

...but just for the romanticism, I wish it was with the real film.

So, moving on to the rest of the day: we left Nazareth for the Sea of Galilee again.

A few years back and after a huge drought season, some locals found a boat buried in the silt and sand at the bottom of the sea. Archaeologists did all sorts of research and carbon dating on the vessel and discovered it was approximately 2000 years old - from the time of Jesus.

Of course, some made a valiant effort to say this was a boat Jesus used... but the proof of that is completely non-existent. No proof at all. But this was the kind of boat that was used by the fishermen that he would use while on and around the Sea of Galilee.

They preserved it...

And only a few miles away is Capernaum, the base of Jesus' Galilee operations.

There isn't much there but a few ruins and a synagogue... but it was still kind of a cool place.

This is one of those pilgrimage spots for people from all over the world. They come here and leave prayers, hopes, and wishes in the cracks of the columns.

And we had to take a few notes... no pilgrimage for us - we're in college!

The day ended with a trek across the grassy hillsides of Galilee to a place now known as the hillside where Jesus gave his famous Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7) to his followers there.

We read the entire thing in the setting where it occurred... on the hillside, overlooking the Sea of Galilee, at the foot of a teacher...

No matter what your personal beliefs may be, its pretty cool to be in such a place as this...

Meet Wil. He finished up reading Ch.7 for us... He had to leave abruptly during the middle of our Israel trip on account of personal reasons. Best wishes, Wil.

The day ended on the Sea of Galilee... literally on it...


Now, we had completed our time in North Israel and headed to the south... south toward the Dead Sea... and south into the West Bank. No more lush hills and green valleys of banana plants and citrus groves stretching to the horizon.

South to the Negev.


Keep coming back!
~Noah D.