The Flickr Deirelsultan Image Generatr

The first click caused him to raise his head.
This is the second (and last) one

I must admit it's very easy for me (and I assume that for you too) to identify with the young boy, that sits between two older boys, that enjoy to bully him, laugh at him, as kids (especially boys) often enjoy to do.

The other side of the coin is what you don't see in the photo, but I saw in reality: he is not 'a total saint' himself, either… And, between you and me, this is also, only, natural: it's a human trait that we want to do to others, what some did to us, we turn passive into active…

Last, I think that as photographers, we are poor reviewers of out photos, and one of the reasons is that we know so much more about the situation than the observer, and I am afraid we cannot neutralize this knowledge, even if we are aware of the bias.

The theme: 'Crying People' occupies me for a while. I find it very challenging: to present a good photo of a crying person.
Specifically, with this photo I struggle for quiet some time: he was too close to me when I took the photo.
If I still remember correctly, the reason to his cry was that an older boy grabbed his snack from his hand

Israel is a tiny country; therefore, generally, people meet their relatives very often.
Today, my eldest daughter (24) flew to India for about half a year or so.
(it is very common among Israeli youngsters to go for a long trip, more or less at this stage of life).
She was never away for such a long time.
Therefore, in some senses, I can identify with him…
(she is the one in my buddy icon, some 24 years ago...)

p.s.
Was the kitsch painting of 'The Crying Boy' famous in your countries (during the '70s-'80s) too?

I love her peaceful, harmonious facial expression, and movement with the music

Yesterday, was 'The Light Saturday' of the Orthodox Churches. As I generally do, I went to the old city, to the evening ceremony of the Ethiopian Church. The ceremony was picturesque, with people in white veils, prayers, candles, drum music, singing, dancing (and tons of photographers); but all that is already well known to me, and though I walked back and forth, to and from the various focal points, all I could get were rather banal photos similar to those I already took in the past.

Rather disappointed I started to do my way back home.

Then I heard drum music from the entry court of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
To my delight, I discovered that a few Ethiopian youngsters decided to continue their celebration there. The Ethiopian large-drum music is simple, repetitive, and sweeping. It was heart warming to see how all the people that were at the court (Palestinians, Russians, Greek, Israelis…) joined the singing and dancing with a large smile on their faces. Even your true servant clapped his hands (when he was not shooting).
I am doubt if I ever took so many photos at such a short time. I left the place only when my card was full…
Due to the bad conditions (people moving fast in a dark place), I knew most of the stuff would be 'non-edible', yet I hoped at least some would be of value.

Somehow, I find it very difficult to get a good photos of a crying person (including a child or a baby). I don't know why. Maybe, the facial expression is deformed. I do many efforts, but most of then end at the trash. :.-(

Each time I see these old Ethiopian pilgrims I ask myself: what does it mean for them to come to Jerusalem? How different is the city than their place? How unique is this journey for them? What do they tell and to whom when they return?
I have no idea…

"The Israeli novelist David Grossman’s impassioned account of what he observed on the West Bank in early 1987—not only the misery of the Palestinian refugees and their deep-seated hatred of the Israelis but also the cost of occupation for both occupier and occupied—is an intimate and urgent moral report on one of the great tragedies of our time. The Yellow Wind is essential reading for anyone who seeks a deeper understanding of Israel today."
(www.goodreads.com/book/show/60367.The_Yellow_Wind)

Recently, Grossman won Man Booker International prize for his book 'A Horse Walks Into a Bar' (which personally, i like less than many of his books)

At least this was my association to this trio
(the third consecutive one on my stream)

For ages and ages, our existence is connected with use of fire.
No wonder fire put a spell on us: it attracts us; it frightens us; it helps us; it can destroy us.
I believe that in any religion fire plays some role.

When I was a little child, the threat: 'if you would play with fire before you go to sleep, you would bed wet' was still well known. I think that since then, it disappeared. I even remember that Freud said something about the threat; unfortunately, I don't remember what his interpretation was.

Genesis, 24: 57

Deir El-Sultan is a monastery located on the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The Coptic Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church both claim ownership of the monastery which occupies a prime location in the Old City in Israel.

One sends a suspicious gaze at the stranger;
the other, lowers her eyes

Psalms, 137, 1

A Man In His Life by:Yehuda Amicha
A man doesn't have time in his life
to have time for everything.
He doesn't have seasons enough to have
a season for every purpose. Ecclesiastes
Was wrong about that.
A man needs to love and to hate at the same moment,
to laugh and cry with the same eyes,
with the same hands to throw stones and to gather them,
to make love in war and war in love.
And to hate and forgive and remember and forget,
to arrange and confuse, to eat and to digest
what history
takes years and years to do.
A man doesn't have time.
When he loses he seeks, when he finds
he forgets, when he forgets he loves, when he loves
he begins to forget.
And his soul is seasoned, his soul
is very professional.
Only his body remains forever
an amateur. It tries and it misses,
gets muddled, doesn't learn a thing,
drunk and blind in its pleasures
and its pains.
He will die as figs die in autumn,
Shriveled and full of himself and sweet,
the leaves growing dry on the ground,
the bare branches pointing to the place
where there's time for everything.

but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein; for then thou shalt make thy ways prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." (Joshua, 1, 8)

(otherwise, she wouldn't have the forbidden fruit, at this holy place)