Historic St George in the Wilderness Photo

Photographer’s Note

The West Bank has a large number of historic monasteries. Three are very close to one another; the Huge Mar Saba, the Monastery of the Temptation of Christ, and this one; the Monastery of St George.

Situated in the deep Wadi Kelt gorge, outside Jericho, this is a working monastery. At the moment only 4 orthodox monks live here, and devote themselves to study, prayer and the life of a hermit. Saying that, they are very welcoming and they gave us a tour of the interior (in English too). There are many beautiful frescos, murals and interesting icons inside. They will also explain the history and significance of the monastery to you.

This photo was taken in very bright mid day light. Even with a polarizer and UV filter the picture was too harsh. I had to drop a few f-stops down to compensate for the loss of detail due to reflected light.

mickyg, nels, doubay has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

mickyg (815) 2007-02-06 17:57

you did well in the harsh light to get such a fine exposure, along with great detail .. the buildings give scale to the size of the cliff behind them .. good work Paul

nels (2455) 2007-02-07 4:43

hi paul,, as mickyg says brilliant exposure under harsh light conditionsi know i tried taking shots when i was there i few years ago (not many turned out overexposed/underexposed you name it) like your pov looking down into the valley

adrian

doubay (5023) 2007-02-07 8:34

Hi Paul,
very nice shot of an fascinating place. The landscape is very impressive.
In your note you mention that it is a orthodox monastery. But what kind of? Greek or syriac?
Best regards
Andreas

inanuc (0) 2007-03-09 13:05