Before my trip to Israel I thought of Bethlehem naively in terms expressed in the familiar Christmas carol as the birth place of Jesus, an idyllic little village where our Lord was born in a manger on a cold winter's night.  That was about the extent of my knowledge.  That was yesterday.  Having now been to Bethlehem I can't say I know a lot more about it, but my impression has changed and now grounded in more real terms.  

Today it is a town caught between worlds of political turmoil and religious division.  We visited Bethlehem on two occasions, the first to shop and a second to visit the Church of the Nativity.  The first was somewhat of a shock to my western sensibility.  I've never followed the politics of the region closely, but Bethlehem is located on the West Bank something like six miles outside Jerusalem.  It is a highly contentious region largely inhabited by Arabs, and a small community of Christians who are being gradually driven out by religious persecution and atrocious living conditions.  For some time extreme Arab murder-suicide bombers conducted terrorist attracts on the Jewish community in Jerusalem.  In an effort to put a stop to these attacks the State of Israel in 2002 built a wall around Bethlehem to keep the Arabs in Bethlehem and out of Jerusalem, with good effect, at the expense though of creating a virtual prison.  Not only can the Arabs not get out but the dwindling community of Christians can't either.  The border is tightly controlled by the Israeli Army both as to ingress and egress.  To my mind it is no different than the Berlin Wall that so offended us during the Cold War.  As American tourists on a tour bus we were not challenged.  However, I am left to wonder what the case might have been had I as an individual tried to enter Bethlehem.  Our group of pilgrims were shocked by this wall but then what else was Israel to do short of all out war?  Under the circumstances, and armed with new insight, I hesitate to criticize.

On the day we visited the Church of the Nativity I expected to see a magnificent temple built over the site of our Saviour's birth.  What I saw was the oldest complete church in the Christian world built by the emperor Justinian in the 6th century.  It replaced the original church of Constantine the Great built in AD 339; it is old and looks it.  Far from a magnificent temple it is more on the outside like a fortress to which someone attached a steeple as an after thought.  Directly across the plaza from the Church stands a mosque as if mocking the site of nativity.  The surrounding area too is a bit run down and intimidating.  Inside is little different.  It is dark, dank, cold, and in sad disrepair.  The multitude of icons around the altar and sanctuary of the Orthodox Church imparts an over furnished and closed in feel even though there are no pews, just a bare forbidding Nave area.  Scaffolding stood throughout indicating some kind of ongoing repair, but little evidence that anyone was actually working.  Our guide explained that because the Church was subject to divided jurisdiction (Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Roman Catholic) that it is difficult to raise funding for the church, so it stands...waiting.

We entered the site of the Nativity by a low doorway and down narrow, smoothly worn, stone stairs into a cave which has been venerated as Christ's birthplace since AD 339.  The doorway was lowered around 1500 to stop looters from driving their carts into the cave.  It seems appropriate to stoop low to enter the cave where God humbled himself to become a man.  It reminds one of Scripture that admonishes us to stoop low to humble oneself if we hope to one day be exalted.  That Christ may have been born in a cave and not a manger behind an inn is believable in that the area around Bethlehem is riddled with caves.  What a logical place for the Holy Family to seek refuge in a time of need! 

How ironic it is that the site of the Word made flesh is today in run down condition in a town torn by division and turmoil.  Wherever we have traveled the abodes of Kings and potentates have been lavish and magnificent; Versailles, the King's Bishop's Residenz in Wurzburg, Germany, Windsor Palace in England, and the Vatican in Rome come to mind.  Even the White House, austere by comparison with the baroque palaces of Europe, is an impressive monument to the more plain thinking Americans.  Perhaps that's as it should be.  Jesus was not accepted when he was among us and he was put to death.  After all His Kingdom is not of this World.  

I have just returned from an awesome journey to the Holy Land.  The fifteen images just posted are the first of what will be a new and important portfolio for me.

This trip was first and foremost a religious pilgrimage and not a trip where photography was the prime motive.  That being said those that know me understand that I would not go to some place like the Holy Land and leave my camera at home.  No, my camera was with me the whole time, but I can say doing quality photography was a real challenge.  At no time was I able to simply stop and think through a photo opportunity.  Every image was done on the fly, some too much so.  Nevertheless I think I brought back some quality shots suitable for my website.  It is situations such as this where years of experience and the ability to anticipate opportunities really paid dividends.  It is with pleasure that I share these images with those who follow my travels and website.

Over the next several weeks I will be adding to this portfolio as I work my way through more than 2,000 images created in eight days.  Our journey began in Caesarea, went north to Haifa, continued east to the Sea of Galilee where we spent two days, then proceeded to Jerusalem where we did short trips to Jericho, the Dead Sea, Qumran, Masada, Ein Kerem and Bethlehem.  Most of the images I will be posting will be of church architecture and street scenes in Jerusalem.  

A trip of this nature requires a lot of forethought about equipment.  Space is severally limited so photo gear must be selected with anticipation of the type of photography one will be doing.  I took two cameras, a Nikon D300s and a Nikon P7100 as a backup.  I took one lens for the SLR, a Nikkor 18-200mm zoom which is a dynamite travel lens.  I threw in a couple Lensbaby lenses which were not used due to time constraints at each site; I just didn't have time to be switching lenses.  I also took a Gitzo Traveler tripod with a Kirk ball head which was likewise not used for similar reasons, and due to the fact that most sites were too crowded for tripod use.  I use a Cotton Carrier vest to carry my camera to allow my hands to be free, and transport all gear but the tripod in a carry-on Gura bag.  That's pretty much the outfit with exception of batteries, chargers, a couple filters (Polarizer and a Vari-Neutral Density), extra storage cards, and a Digital Foci portable hard drive to which I transfer each day's production for safe keeping.  I also carry an iPAD to enable me to pre-edit selected photos and perhaps share a few while on the road.  

Check back often as I will be uploading images as I edit them.  

Recently I spent a day photographing in Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California.  Normally a day would hardly be enough to even scout the place, but having been there before I was focused on what I wanted to accomplish and wasted little time with orientation.  I wanted to capture the feeling of spaciousness and the harsh character of the desert.  At the same time I wanted to capture it's incredible beauty.  The result is represented in the accompanying portfolio, Harsh Beauty.  

Joshua Tree is a transition zone between two very different deserts, the Mojave and the Sonora.  The western part of the Park above 3,000' is in the Mojave; the lower eastern portion is in the Sonoran Desert.  The flora and fauna found in each is quite different.  For instance, Joshua trees, really a specie of Yucca, are found in the upper elevations of the Mojave; Cholla Cactus (pronounced Choy-ya) and Prickly Pear are found in the Sonoran zone.  While the different deserts might host differing plants and animals they share the commonality of being harsh environments where only the especially adapted can survive; and both offer their unique beauty.  

For those who have not been exposed to a desert environment beauty may seem a strange appellation; after all, what is beautiful about shades of gray?  There are several things I find beautiful.  I see lots of color, perhaps muted at times, but color none the less.  For instance, color is to be found in the sand, in the rocks, in the plants, in the animals.  It's everywhere but one must look closely.  The unique lighting in the desert enhances these colors.  Finding a backlit garden of Cholla rewards one with a sea of thorns glowing in the sunlight.  A desert sunrise or sunset is special to behold.  The rising sun brings with it a sense of renewal and hope; watching it drop behind the western mountains in the evening instills a feeling of peace and fulfillment.  Who has experienced the aroma of sage and not hastened to draw the heavily scented desert air deeply into his lungs?  A garden of Prickly Pear can delight the eye with hues of reds, greens, and yellows.  Spring in some years will see the desert come alive with flowers of every hue and color.  My first visit to Joshua Tree several years ago was such a year, perhaps one of the best years for desert wildflowers in recent memory.  Even the fauna, bearing colors that in the whole blend in with a mostly grey green environment can display a surprising array of vivid color if one looks closely.  An example might be the colorfully beaded back of a Gila Monster, or the colorful patterns on the back of a Diamond Backed Rattlesnake.  I recently photographed a Mexican Grey Wolf that appeared mostly grey as his name implied, but when observed close up displayed gorgeous black and white markings around his eyes, ears and mouth.  What a remarkably beautiful animal! The portfolio on this site named "Abstract Expressionisn" was photographed in the Arizona desert where the overall impression was gray-brown; these images are among the most wildly colorful images in my portfolio.  But the best attribute of the desert is it's mystery.  I can't describe it in words, it must be felt.  It has to do with the the seeming emptiness, the vast space, and yet the feeling of closeness with God.

Because I wanted to emphasize the harshness of the desert and to create emphasis on lighting I chose to render most of the images in this portfolio in black and white, or more accurately in chromatic gray scale.  All these images began life in color, and it is that color which is responsible for the gray scale tonality in the images.  These images too were made in the month of January, a time when the least color appears in the desert.  Even so, I do not sacrifice beauty in the character of the plants, in the way the light strikes desert features such as backlighting on Cholla cactus, or shading on the rocks.  This is a land of contrast and extremes, little water at times and at others raging torrents down desert gulches as evidenced by the patterns in now dry watercourses; scorching hot days in the sumner, freezing temperatures at night in the winter; intense color in the midst of monochromatic gray-greens and browns.  It is indeed harshly beautiful.