Shooting The Moon

One of Tel Aviv's Azrieli Towers, and what looks like a gantry scaffolding leading... to the moon.

Pyramid Power: Tel Aviv

More of Tel Aviv's Azrieli Towers. This is a shot of one of the buildings reflected in the skylight, on the observation deck. Note the moon.

The Towering Infernal

Night view of the Azrieli Towers looming over the Tel Aviv cityscape. This and the others were shot on one of the (so far...) hottests days of the year, with the Israel Electric Company initiating brown and blackouts nationwide - without warning. So, imagine these structures and hundreds of others across the country suddenly without power (or on emergency generators), riders trapped in elevators, traffic accidents from gridlock, injuries - and a reported death from secondary causes. There's a public furor over the "michdal" (screw up), and a hastily established commission of inquiry is investigating who to blame. Good luck with that, guys: this is the politically powerful Electric Company, after all, and they don't cotton to taking blame - or lowering rates.

This image and the others in the series, were Photoshopped "n" cropped, and generally punched up with a bit of saturation and sharpening to boost the color and detail. Whaydda' think? Leave a note in "comments."

Seeing the pyramids of... Tel Aviv

A late afternoon, rooftop view of Tel Aviv's double Azrieli Towers, that I photographed on the observation deck over the shopping mall a few days ago. The pyramid-like structures are skylights, over the promenade below. More to come... Please feel free to leave a comment on this, or any other posts.

IDF to Israelis near Gaza: Walls "R" Us

Here's a closeup view of a section of the barrier with northern Gaza at Nativ Haasera. Israel is to the left, the northern edge of the Gaza Strip to the right, about 100 meters to the right of the crane, seen here emplacing a segment of wall. And, just like in home renovations anywhere, the IDF offers the residents a choice of attractive glazed finishes to look at, instead of at the Kassams and mortars streaking into their homes and farms from overhead.

Guarding Israel from Gaza

An IDF tank stands sunset guard at a break in the security barrier with northern Gaza at the Israeli farming community of Nativ Haasera. Thousands of Palestinian-launched Kassam rockets and mortars have rained down on residents here and at cities, towns and farms like this one throughout the area in recent days and years, with lethal results, and extensive damage to buildings and structures. The several hundred residents, here, however - most former evacuees from the Israeli pullout from the Sinai in 1982 - say they're holding fast to the land, their homes and agricultural businesses, and are not considering another evacuation - this time from Israel proper.

Still, Life with Kassams

This is the view from Pnina Rogolsky's front porch at the farming community of Nativ Haasera, looking southwest towards the security wall with the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, seen just above the car.

The remainder of the, then under construction, now-completed barrier continues to the left, about 100 meters away from a shed in her backyard, where an Israeli woman was killed in a Kassam attack detailed in the following posts.