Last Shabbat we were in Ofra, and while sitting high up in the main synagogue's
Ezrat Nashim, Women's Gallery I looked out and tried, very, very hard to figure out how, from what angle, direction some very popular in the media pictures of Ofra could have been taken.
I
first blogged about one of the pictures six years ago,
Wednesday, June 6, 2007, no way that's the real thing.
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The settlement of Ofra with the outskirts of Ramallah in the background
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski |
For those who don't know, Ramallah is southwest of Ofra, behind a mountain range. And these homes in southern Ofra, meaning that the photographer had to have been facing north. So the Jerusalem Post Photo Editor, or whoever identified the picture, obviously does not know geography. One of those commenting on that first post, Evan, thinks it may have been taken from the east, but there are no high buildings to the west of Ofra.
Here's a much newer version of that picture.
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| The Jewish community of Ofra, 15 kilometers (10 miles) north of Jerusalem.
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Photo credit: Reuters |
One of the reasons I find the picture suspicious is that Ofra is not lower than the nearby hills/mountains. I just can't picture/reproduce this view in real life.
This week, while traveling on the bus going home to Shiloh we passed Ofra. Since I had a front seat I figured I could try to reproduce the picture somehow.
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| Ofra from the road going north -photographed by Batya Medad |
Maybe I got it all wrong. Things do look a little different from the entrance of Ofra, which isn't the highest point in Ofra.
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| Ofra from the road going north -photographed by Batya Medad |
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| Ofra from the road going north -photographed by Batya Medad |
The very highest point is where I was sitting on Shabbat in the shul/synagogue, and I had a birdseye view of the north and northeast of Ofra.
Is there a way to photograph Ofra, outside Givat Tzvi that shows the Arab town to the north as if it was overlooking Ofra? If it's really possible, could someone please take me there so I can reproduce the shot. Otherwise I'll keep on claiming that these pictures are photo-shopped, meaning fake.
3 comments:
Expect Oprah or Orpah.
Bad joke.
Maybe from a helicopter at a low level?
The houses look funny in the Reuters pic .
And in the first photo, it looks like an overlay of one scene atop another with a horizontal demarcation .
You're on to something. Try to get them to send you a copy, and then maybe some can open it in photoshop and read it says.
ebm, maybe it'll bring more people to my blog. Visit again.
Neshama, I agree. I've tried to get people in Ofra to take an interest but failed.
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