Decided to go for a photo shoot, so early in the morning I headed out of Jerusalem to drive down to the Dead Sea. After a half hour I arrived at the overlook above Nahal Og, pulled off the road just in time to see the sun breaking through the cloud cover above the horizon. I was looking for sunrise landscapes and although this part of the nahal is close to the highway and inhabited by a Beduin encampment you can capture the view of an ethereal sky and desert solitude if you look for it.

There are other views – it breaks the pristine beauty, but you can include the jumble and junk scattered on the hillsides, Beduin shacks, fences, stuff.

While hiking around the hills taking these photographs I looked down and noticed the rocks at my feet, incredible colors. I’ve been thinking about how to take landscape photos that display the shapes, textures and colors of what I am seeing rather than being focused on the visual scene itself. Here are a few of these rock photographs.

Later in the afternoon, on my way back I drove to the trail head into Lower Nahal Og and took photos, the closing bracket to the sunrise photos at dawn.

A great day!

For more information see my post about Hiking Nahal Og.