Israel: Touring Jerusalem (Day 11) - Travel Photography Blog by Jeffrey Worthington

By: Jeffrey Worthington, & JPWorthington

First day of the tour and boy was it a full one!

(Religious jews going for a memorial service on the Mt. Olives)

(Great view of the Dome of the Rock and the Temple Mount)

(One of my personal favorite)

(from in side the Dominus Flevit Church, it's about half way down the Mt of Olives)

(The famed Golden Gate which I believe the Muslims blocked up in order to prevent the return of the messiah)

(a nun attending a service inside the Church of All Nations)

(two young jewish men near the Western Wall)

This is what the LORD says: “I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the Faithful City, and the mountain of the LORD Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain.” Zechariah 8:3

(Mt. Zion)

(Looking out over Silwan)

Then we visited St. Peters church just outside the Old City. I think it is one of the more beautiful church in Jerusalem!

Capped the day off with a rally remembering the Holocaust.

We watched a great documentary on a survivor going back to his home town in Northern France. Very moving and inspirational. Sorry but I can't think of the name and don't have time to find out. If you want the name let me know and I'll find it.

I'm a freelance photographer and cinematographer and have extensive travel and shooting experience in North & South America, Africa, Europe, the Pacific, and the Middle East.

If you need media work, including video editing, please contact me through my website, www.JeffreyWorthington.com You can also check out my photography on

Facebook!

All photos, portraits, landscapes, nature, and travel photography are copyrighted 2011 by

JP Worthington, Jeffrey Worthington, & Worthington Media Inc. - Ruidoso/Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Shoot Location: Jerusalem

, Israel.

Israel: - Jerusalem Sunset - Travel Photography Blog by Jeffrey Worthington

By: Jeffrey Worthington, &JPWorthington

Last night I witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen in Israel. I can only describe it as "stunning." It was taken at a lookout with an unbeatable view of the hills of western Jerusalem. Hope you enjoy it! Don't forget to visit my website www.JeffreyWorthington.com for more of my travel photography.

(click image for larger photo)

I'm a freelance photographer and cinematographer and have extensive travel and shooting experience in North & South America, Africa, Europe, the Pacific, and the Middle East.

If you need media work, including editing, please contact me through my website, www.JeffreyWorthington.com You can also check out my photography on

Facebook!

All photos, portraits, landscapes, nature, and travel photography are copyrighted 2011 by

JP Worthington, Jeffrey Worthington, & Worthington Media Inc. - Ruidoso/Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Shoot Location: Jerusalem

, Israel.

Israel: Restoring Courage - Qesarya (Day 10) - Travel Photography Blog by Jeffrey Worthington

By: Jeffrey Worthington, & JPWorthington

I really enjoyed Glenn Beck's Restoring Courage rally at the historic Qesarya. I was impressed with the fact that Glen was able to bring together both Christians and Jews, and Arabs and Settlers. And who could forget Glenn's statement about "lumping people together"?! Good times.

I'm a freelance photographer and cinematographer. I have extensive travel and shooting experience in North & South America, Africa, Europe, the Pacific, and the Middle East.

If you have a project you'd like to contact me about working, please contact me through my website, www.JeffreyWorthington.com You can also check out my photography on

Facebook!

All photos, portraits, landscapes, nature, and travel photography are copyrighted 2011 by

JP Worthington, Jeffrey Worthington, & Worthington Media Inc. - Ruidoso/Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Shoot Location: Ceasarea/Qesarya

, Israel.

Israel: The Galilee & Mt Arbel (Day 9) - Travel Photography Blog by Jeffrey Worthington

By: Jeffrey Worthington, & JPWorthington

Day 8 of my fall travels took me from Jerusalem up to the Galilee area! Approaching, Beit She'an, I took a side road toward the Jordan river and came across these beautiful date palm trees. And yes, they really looked this good!

Quick stop by the commercialized baptismal site. If you've ever been there you may have wondered what was at the bottom of the murky water, the answer is hundreds (if not thousands) of catfish! Big ones! LOL

Continued on north to Sea of Galilee (Kinneret). It was such a beautiful day!

Then we popped in to see the ancient synagogue in Capernaum.

Overlooking the Sea of Galilee from the Mount of Beatitudes.

Then it was time to visit one of my favorite places in northern Israel, Mount Arbel! Some of these cliff dwellings date back 2,000 years. They were inhabited by the zealots fighting the Romans.

View looking down from the top.

Panorama of the sun about to set atop Mt Arbel!

(Click image to enlarge)

This is my favorite tree in Israel. :)

Got to love the view of the night sky from here!

This is the view looking down into the nearby Arab villages

Behind the Scenes:

One thing about traveling is that I don't get pictures of me doing the photographing very often. So here are a couple my Mom snipped while I was working on framing the panorama.

I'm a freelance photographer and cinematographer. I have extensive travel and shooting experience in North & South America, Africa, Europe, the Pacific, and the Middle East. If you have a project you'd like to contact me about working, please contact me through my website, www.JeffreyWorthington.com You can also check out my photography on

Facebook!

All photos, portraits, landscapes, nature, and travel photography are copyrighted 2011 by

JP Worthington, Jeffrey Worthington, & Worthington Media Inc. - Ruidoso/Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Shoot Location: Sea of Galilee

, Mount Arbel, Israel.

Israel: Jerusalem, (Day 8) - My Travel Blog photographer by Jeffrey Worthington

By: Jeffrey Worthington, & JPWorthington

It was a wonderful cool August morning and I thought it'd be a perfect day to take my friends to the Temple Mount to see the Dome of the Rock. I just two little things, that it was Ramadan and it was Friday (the Muslim prayer day). Thus the Temple Mount was closed. So no big deal I thought, we'll just walk through the Old City's Arab Quarter to the Damascus Gate. Big mistake.

Our first clue should have been the the dozen or so ambulances and 300 Israeli riot police in front of the Kotel (Western Wall). Our second clue that maybe we should stay in the Jewish Quarter was that when we exited the Kotel into the Arab Souk (Arab word for "market"), there were another 75 riot polices.

So we started walking through the narrow streets of the Old City and before we knew we realized that we were pushing through the crowd of nearly 150,000-300,000 Muslims on their way to prayer. Since the Israelis where expecting protests it was a slightly tense situation.

Finally made it to the Damascus Gate, where the Israeli police only allow Arab men older than 50 years and women of any age to enter the Old City for the prayers. It is a security precaution to prevent rioting. I'd never seen it done before an one of the results of this is that you have a large crowd of very aggravated young Muslim men standing and sitting in front of the gate. Well, it was that crowd that my rather touristy looking friends and I had to walk through.

Israeli security.

(I wanted to take more/better pictures of the security but I decided it wasn't exactly a good day to try)

So after that experience we were walking along the outside of the Old City walls when we saw the Jerusalem Light Rail was taking passengers for the first time! It was its grand opening. Naturally we went to the nearest Light Rail stop (which happened to right outside the New Gate) and waited at the platform... and waited. The first train that came was totally PACKED. Then waited some more and just before giving up and getting some ice cream a train came with barely enough room for us to fit.

Long story short, it take us 2 whole hours to go from the New Gate to Mt. Hertzel, and back to Jerusalem's Central Bus Station. :/ It was so crowed that my friend LITERALLY couldn't get off the train, once I made it out I had to reach back into the train and physically pull them out! My impression/review of the Light Rail is to take a bus! No really.

Anyways, we made it the market just before it closed for Shabbat and enjoyed seeing all the colors and people!

We decided to top off the action-packed day by seeing even more of Jerusalem by walking an hour back to where we were staying where we enjoyed an excellent dinner to end an amazing and eventful day!

I'm a freelance photographer and cinematographer. I have extensive travel and shooting experience in North & South America, Africa, Europe, the Pacific, and the Middle East. If you have a project you'd like to contact me about working, please contact me through my website, www.JeffreyWorthington.com You can also check out my photography on

Facebook!

All photos, portraits, landscapes, nature, and travel photography are copyrighted 2011 by

JP Worthington, Jeffrey Worthington, & Worthington Media Inc. - Ruidoso/Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Shoot Location: Old City Jerusalem

, Israel.