When most American’s like ourselves think of Israel, we think of war, terrorism or the dreaded “Middle East.” Which basically means when most American’s think of Israel we think it’s dangerous and not safe, which Megan talked about here.

But the simple fact is, not only is it safe, but it is incredibly beautiful and photogenic. It rivals California for breathtaking desert landscapes and any city in the world for its historical sites. This little countries beauty runs deep and it has us seriously praying for there to be a bit of Jewish blood in us so we can get paid to live there for six months.

I am excited to share our journey through Israel in our photos. We had an amazing three weeks in exploring this beautiful country and eating some of the best food in our lives.

Neither Megan nor I, are religious. But Israel being Israel, has some seriously religious undertones, and we’d be lying if we said we didn’t feel moved at any of the sites we were at. I mean just check out the image below from our tour of the west bank.

Teenagers from around the world were lining up to get baptized in the same river as Jesus. There was excitement, joy, and quite a few tears as they were getting ready to be baptized.

Regardless of your religion or belief, that is a pretty powerful scene.

Fun fact. I created a new preset for the image above because I wanted more muted colors. I really liked how in this photo you can see the lines of others waiting to be baptized and placed the action on the bottom left third. I was really surprised to see how violent the dunking of the head was.

While most of Israel is known for it’s religion, one thing that really stood out to both of us was how different Tel Aviv was. It reminded me much of my hometown of Huntington Beach. Just a little more built up.

The image above isn’t particularly impressive, it’s just a beach shot. Looks like most beaches around the world with a city, I imagine Miami might look similar (I’ve never been.) But my goal with placing it here is to set you up for the image below.

This image got me. Growing up in a beach town I can relate a lot to Tel Aviv. Honestly, I loved it so much I would move there in a heartbeat if we could afford it and still be able to travel.

ONE DAY!

But never in my wildest mind would I expect to see three friends walking down P.C.H or Main Street and one of them holding a Machine Gun. To them, it’s just another day with nothing out of the ordinary. For me, it’s an incredibly visual reminder that most things in the world are all a matter of perspective. What may seem totally normal to me, isn’t somewhere else and vice versa.

The next thing that got me were those damn landscapes.

Pretty cool landscapes right. Here’s some more.

If this doesn’t scream let’s go on a road trip and find some adventure I don’t know what will.

That water though.

 

Ok, I got a little side-tracked looking at some landscape photos. Going back to Tel Aviv, besides the Machine Gun, tell me this isn’t a friendly looking city that you could easily fall in love with.

People riding bikes all cute AF.

These cool cafe’s and food stalls are like every 50 feet, and it seems like the whole damn city is outside.

Eating delicious food all day every day and you know that makes people happy AF.

They got these cute and charming walls like everywhere.

And every weekend the whole city gets together in the markets to drink, sing and dance, together. I mean what more do you really want in a city community?

The West Bank

This West Bank is mired in controversy and while neither of us are fully aware of the complexities we did have the opportunity to hear about it from a Palestinian’s point of view which was eye opening and Megan wrote a bit about our tour here.

Below are just some of our favorite photos from our couple time in Bethlehem.

I really love the tones in the image above.

Bethlehem was amazing because not only did we get to see where Jesus was born we got to see the West Bank Wall where Banksy’s art and hotel is on display.

Overall Israel was incredibly beautiful to photograph. One of our favorite countries to visit so far. If you liked these photos you may want to see our photos from the Old City in Jerusalem which in my opinion is the most photographic city I have ever been to.

Check out more beautiful photos of Israel.

If you like these photos you may wanna consider downloading our 5 free presets to start editing your photos like this.

BONUS Hyperlapse Video

We hope you enjoyed these photos as much as we loved our time and opportunity to visit the Old City of Jerusalem.

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All photos and time-lapse videos are 100% the property of boboandchichi and cannot be re-used without our permission.