Origami

Today's subject on You See i See is Birds. It wasn't supposed to be birds though...
As you know, the subjects were predetermined for us by other bloggers back in March. Originally week fourteen (that's this week) was supposed to be Courage, a subject suggested by the lovely Dionne. Both Laura and myself have put our thinking caps on to try and come up with the best photo idea. By Sunday morning neither one of us have shot her image yet. Laura has been out of town all week, visiting family and busy working. I was pretty busy myself and then after Saturday night's scare I just couldn't focus on such a tough subject as Courage. Laura and I talked it over (more like texted it over the internet...) and agreed we needed to have a change in subjects. We have a few extra subjects at the bottom of the list, and so we picked a subject we both could manage to shoot by Monday evening. Birds.
For some reason the first idea that came to mind was Origami birds. As always, I wanted to shoot something that wasn't the obvious thing you'd expect, and I am sure paper birds fit that thought :)
My friend Timna helped me out and got me some colored parchment paper, my someone cut them into square shapes, and then both him & myself folded them into Pelicans & Cranes using some online instructions
We had fun shooting them all, and we got some pretty good options (as well as some images of goofiness...)

The chosen image

some runner-ups

and some goofing around

:: on a positive note, my grandpa is now much better. Thank you for all your support and care ::

My Head's not here

My head's been everywhere but here this past week.
Things are pretty hectic between my job at the restaurant and my photography. It is wedding season and so I have a few weddings this month that I am shooting along with my friend Dvora, which is great, amazing even, but I am exhausted, physically that is, trying to fit it all in. It's just not possible to work 5 shifts a week, and by shifts I mean 9+ hours on your feet managing the floor at the restaurant, and then add to that my shooting assignments (You See i See weekly shoots), the occasional wedding shoot, and maintaining my blog and my online shop... Exhausting! And the problem is I don't really know how to catch a break from it all, but I really do need one. I need a week, just 7 days, of no assignments, no photoshoots, no WORK at the restaurant or anywhere else for that matter. Just me (and my someone) relaxing. Before I loose my sanity! ...and my back! (I did mention the 5 days a week standing for 9+ hours....)

On another note, last night we had a little scare. It was 9 PM and my someone and I were at home after a long day at work, when my dad rang. (dad lives in Romania...) He said something's wrong with my grandpa, that he cannot get one clear sentence out when he speaks, and my dad was worried he might have had another head stroke (my grandpa had a minor one a few years back, which caused him to not be able to read any more...). I jumped! We both immediately grabbed our stuff and headed out to my grandpa's place. At a first glance he seemed fine, as always, seating on his chair, he smiled at us when he saw us, and even greeted us both. But then when we started asking him questions he was completely out of it. After phone calls to my dad in Romania, and his brother in San Fransisco, and my grandpa's neurologist, we decided he needs to be taken to the hospital for examination. But my grandpa refused to go... enter the persuasion stage... Between my dad and myself we managed to convince him eventually (a mission that took about 30 minutes...). By 10:45 PM we were at the ER waiting to be serviced. They took him in, put him on a gurney, changed his outfit to a hospital gown, measured his fever (which was normal), measured his blood pressure (which has sky-rocketed to 203 !!), and asked him a few general questions (like his age, to which he answered 95, though he's only 85). And then we waited. And waited. Then at 11:30 PM when the doctor said that they are sending him for tests, and that it'll take a few good hours, my someone and I left him with his care-taker (my grandpa has a care-taker living with him 24/7), and told the doctor to call us and let us know if there's any change.
I woke up this morning to find out that my grandpa was released from the ER at 4 AM after they've run some tests on him. They concluded it wasn't another head stroke (Thank god!), and that his disorientation is due to the extremely high blood pressure, for which they've written a treatment suggestion to his family doctor (who will see him later today). They told us that with treatment he should be back to normal within a couple of days.
:: a sigh of relief ::
I love you grandpa and I am anxiously waiting for you to get better!

my grandpa

The balloons mission

On Sunday afternoon my someone and I headed on a mission. A balloons mission. A photography mission.
It all starts with You See i See. As you all know, each week I have a new photography assignment to complete for my collaborative blog. This week was no exception. The lovely Dionne is responsible for this weeks' subject which was (I'm sure you all can guess...) balloons.
My someone and I have brainstormed ideas beforehand, and then scheduled Sunday afternoon as our shooting day (since we both had it free of work/school). I decided that we'll do the shoot at the Slope Park in Yafo because of the green hills, as well as the water front. I've searched for a near-by place where we could buy helium-filled balloons but I couldn't find anywhere that was close enough by foot. In fact, the only place we could come up with was the Happening store at Dizengoff Center, which is about 15-20 minutes drive from Yafo. Now if we had a car then this would have been a minor detail, cause nothing could happen to the balloons in a closed car... But we don't have a car. We have a motorbike...
We got to the store, picked out 5 balloons (red, green, pink, yellow & blue), all tied in ribbons and fully filled with helium. We tied them real good to the back of our bike, and headed along the sea line towards Yafo. All was good until half way there when suddenly we heard a VERY load popping sound. I looked back at the bundle of balloons to find out the green one didn't make it. I thought it popped because perhaps we were driving too fast, so I slowed my someone down, and so we continued in a slower pace into Yafo. Then, as we were standing in a small traffic jam by Yafo's clock tower, we heard it again- a VERY load popping sound. My heart dropped. I looked back to see which one it was. The yellow balloon. I was starting to worry none of them will make it, as I couldn't tell what it was that made them pop. I must say though, that everyone surrounding us on the street were quite amused by the balloon popping, and they were smiling and yelling out to us to pop another one... Needless to say I wasn't amused...
Thankfully ten minutes later we were parked and ready to shoot, with the remaining three balloons- pink, red and blue. It was a bit too windy, yet we managed to get some good shots. All in all it was a successful shooting day, but mostly, it was a fun day. There is something so freeing, so innocent, so joyful, about holding a balloon in your hand. I recommend you try it sometime :)
Here are some of the snaps we got

Carbon Neutral

I just came by from a visit at my dear friend Shannon's blog Happiness Is... 

Besides mentioning the fact that she's got an amazingly interesting blog, with daily posts, and sometimes more than that, and the fact that she strikes me as such an interesting, talented person, I wanted to tell you about her latest post. It's all about the Carbon Neutral project. 

"My blog is Carbon Neutral" initiative started off in Germany by the "Make it green" program, that has made it their goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. But what does that have to do with our blogs? What carbon emissions are they talking about? Well, basically what the organization is trying to do is get more promotion for their cause. For every blog that posts and adds their button on their blog, Make it Green will plant a tree under the blog's name. The trees will be planted in the spring of 2010 by the Arbor Day Foundation. This will neutralize your blog’s carbon footprint for the next 50 years. 

Now that's cool!

Shannon did it, so did I. Will you?

Bicycle ride + TLV boardwalk = Fun afternoon

Last Monday morning I worked the morning shift at the restaurant, which was followed by the weekly managers meeting in the afternoon. I rode my bicycle to work, as I do every time I have a shift. My someone, who is also a shift manager at the restaurant, showed up for the meeting on his bicycle too, which was rather unusual for him, as he normally rides his motorbike. But he didn't just bring his bicycle. Nope, he had a whole plan. He brought a change of cloths for me (I was more elegantly dressed for that morning shift...), and he brought my beloved camera as well. As soon as the meeting was over I made a quick change, and we both hopped on our bicycles and headed towards the beach's boardwalk. We rode north towards Tel-Aviv port, and then continued a little further up the path until we reached half way through Sde Dov Airport. The entire ride, going there and back, was about 14 km, and it was entirely along the beach line. We started about two hours before the beginning of sunset, and when we reached Yafo again (the south of TLV, where we started) the sun was already setting. It was such a fun ride, stopping along the way to snap a few photos, as well as a quick pizza (=energy) break at Beta Pizza in the TLV port area (if you say that quick "betapizza" it's as though you're saying Beit Ha' Pizza, which translates to "the house of pizza"...).
Here are some of the snaps we took

Tel Aviv's power station

I was photographing myself, not him... :)

They had a Basil plant on each table!

Pizza makes you do funny faces while eating it!

Old Yafo town

Day Off

My someone and I sometimes get lucky enough and have a day off together.
Since we work at the same place, and we're both shift managers, there's rarely a day that neither of us are working. We try to set it up so we do have that one day a week, but it's not just up to us.
Well, just last week we were lucky! We both had a day off together, and we spent it mostly at home. With each other. And my camera.
He made us lunch. (I did the dishes...). We had coffee and dessert (if you call candy dessert) on our balcony. We watered and admired our recent additions to our balconies "garden". And we played silly games with one another. Oh, and yeah, we documented everything ;)