BORDERS

Ok, folks! Time to get into Mindy's head and discover exactly what it was that she was trying to get at when she randomly put three pictures together and assigned them a title.

Now, as some famous gal from some equally fmaous musical said, let's start at the beginning- a very good place indeed:

1) When you saw the title "Borders", what sort of association came up in your head? Positive or negative? Did any images flash through your mind?
2) Based on the four stes of photos that I posted, what do you think are four types of borders that I was referrring to in each one? Explicit, Gateways, Uniqueness, and Allowances? Do you think I was trying to make a point about the positive use of borders?
3) Where else can we apply these four types of border situations in our lives? In what instances might knowing the use and nature of borders be helpful?

Looking foward to seeing your creative input on this, my friends.
See ya. :)
Have a good Shabbos!
Mindy

Making allowances

Uniqueness

Gateways

Scratch that!

Ok, folks. Change of plans. We're going to work it this way:

Instead of me posting a weekly and daily theme, I want *you* to label the pictures I put up. It's going to work the same way on my end, just without the labels. On Thursday after I put up the final batch for the week I'm going to ask you to label them, and on Friday we will have some questions.

Then Sunday it starts all over again! (God help me... :))

For this week I will continue labeling the dailies and post my comments on Thursday night/Friday, but then next Sunday.... Game's up! :)

Enjoy, folks!
See ya,
Mindy

This Week's Theme: BORDERS. In this post: "Explicit."

Structure of the blog

Be'ezras Hashem, the structure of the blog will be as follows:

1. I will be posting daily.
2. The number of pictures posted each day will be three.
3. Each set of pictures will be titled under a specific title. Serials will continue at random throughout the postings. (ie- on Sunday: "Yarmulkot." Two Fridays later: "Yarmulkot 2." etc. Labels will probably be more specific, such as: "Yarmulkot worn at the Kotel," or "Yarmulkot being sold on Rechov Yaffo."
4. Each week's pictures will run along a main theme. The theme will change every week.
5. At the end of the week, circa Friday morning, instead of pictures, I will be posting questions. These questions will ask you to reflect on the pictures of the week and the themes represented thereof, so look at the pictures carefully! (don't worry, they won't run away)

I hope these pictures will accomplish something and that we will both grow together.

All the best,
Mindy

Welcome

Welcome, everyone, to my picture blog! I don't know that blogger is necessarily the best venue for sharing photos, but it definitely is the best venue for adding some color to them. And as those who know me know- I like color.

So anyway, the reason this blog is being started is because throughout my picture taking career, which officially began at age ten when my dear parents gave their spoiled rotten eldest a camera for her birthday but unofficially began WAAAAAAAY before that with the whiny repetition of the words, "Can I take a picture? Can I take a picture?" which parents worldwide come to fear and detest, I have loved taking pictures of every and anything under the sun (no, this does not refer to the NY newspaper. Check "Proper Noun Capitalization: Rule 1".). This love of picture taking was oddly enough greatly increased by the fact that on average, every half a year or so my camera would undergo a sudden mechanical failure, disappearance (possible elopement?), or any number of other random occurrences which would render my hands to be empty of any device with which to capture very important life events, such as riding the subway, shopping in Manhattan, and preparing lunch.

So baruch Hashem, Camera Number Four (not counting disposables) is now safely back where it belongs (in *my* pocketbook!), and has given the blog owner countless hours of photographical pleasure. The pictures that will be out up here, for the time being, are exclusively of Eretz Yisrael, so consider yourselves privileged. Hard as it is to imagine, I probably won't be here forever, so at a certain point the posts will probably revert back to grimy staircases and empty yellow signs in Chinese ( Yep. That's Brooklyn alright.), but for now, enjoy the splendor and glory of Israel.

And in case you were wondering why I chose what I did for the blog name, I'll give you a hint: (almost) completely random. Determining that the blog would be comprised for the time being exclusively of photos from the Holy Land, I headed straight to my local Orthodox bookshelf (courtesy of Bobby Monsey, thank you) to crack open a Tanach in the hopes that some relevant passuk would appear in the page God has chosen (cuz God does take care of this stuff, right?). Well, what the page opened to (it's possible I flipped a few- honestly, I don't remember. :) ) was Sefer Shemos, Parshas Teruma, Perek 26, Passuk 31: "You shall make a Partition of Turquoise, Purple, and Scarlet wool, and linen." Instantly my Bohemia/Baroque inspired mind connected those rich and vibrant colors with the richness, vibrancy, and aforementioned glory and splendor of Israel.

May these pictures inspire us all to a greater appreciation of our beautiful Birthright.

Mindy