34th Street Poster Boys

Working on one of my main projects takes a lot of time and attention, but sometimes I like to just get out and shoot on the street for the fun of it.I attended a photo event this afternoon at B&H photo given by my friend and sometimes teacher, Harvey Stein, who has quite a few excellent photo books published. He mentioned a technique he uses which I hadn't given much thought to. So after the class I hit the street and tried out some new angles of shooting.

Rosh Hashanah Treat

Challah, sometimes laced with raisins, is a  sweet compliment to the feast that precedes the holiday observances. Six strands braided into a fluffy loaf. Yummy!

The Shofar

Blowing the Shofar is an integral part of the Jewish high holiday rituals, Rather than repeat what's already been written about it, and much more authoritatively than I could ever hope to do, you can read all about it here. It's a ritual that captivated me as a kid.

Basically, it's a ram's horn (or a goat's, or any other kosher animal - except a deer, their horns are  bone) that has all the internal cartilage removed and a hole drilled in the narrow end. That's the easy part. The hard part is making a sound come out. Kind of like blowing into a trumpet, but more difficult because there's no mouthpiece for a shofar.

There's three specific sounds or signals that are used, each of different length. More about it all on that website.

Drilling the end-hole after the cartilage is removed:

Trying to make a sound by blowing into the hole: