What an experience it was for me to be with the Fall
2000 group studying at the BYU Jerusalem Center! I have never been much of a photographer. Previous to these 2.5 months I spent in the Holy Land I had taken fewer than 10 rolls of film. This is a trip worth remembering
and armed with a borrowed digital camera (thanks mom and dad!) I snapped a lot of photos to help me remember. Seeing the sites we visited again by photograph recalls such a broad range of emotion. I can't ever read the
scriptures in the same way again. Not only did I see lots of awe inspiring places but I met a lot of amazing people and had a lot of fun in the process. I hope that I have caught a little of that in these images.
Hopefully people in the pictures won't be too embarrassed by their inclusion here. I have made this material available without a motive for profit. Putting this together has been a fun exercise and it will pay off by
helping me to remember my experiences. If you find some utility in sharing in these memories then there will have been a double benefit done.
Also included here are photos and mini-videos taken by Travis Willey. I am
so glad that he has allowed me to include his photos here. They fill some important gaps in my collection. I haven't taken the liberty to organize and name his photos in the same way that I have done with my own photos.
And it was so much fun to be able to reread the lyrics to Derrick Hughes and Melissa Cannon's parody on "We Didn't Start the Fire" that I had to get them to let me include it here as well. We certainly picked
an... interesting... semester to go to the Middle East.
Even with Travis' photos I recognize that there are going to be some people who hardly found their way into any of these shots. I wish that weren't the case,
but since we were divided up for so many activites by class that is a natural problem to face. This collection was never meant to serve as a collective yearbook. I have only made it available because so many had asked.
By making my own material available here I place it in the public domain. I have benefitted so much from the work of so many who have been willing to do the same that I am happy to throw this small contribution into the
ring. All other contributors retain all rights to their own work.
With that, I hope that you enjoy the photos! Please note that the best way to view these photos is not as part of the web pages as you see them here.
I would suggest using one of the programs that I made available which I downloaded to view the photos as a slideshow. (My apologies to the Macintosh users! I created all the filenames before I found out that the
universal CD format places too many restrictions on filenames for this web to fit the bill. I just didn't have the time to go back and fix everything.) Naturally these programs become dated rather quickly. You will be
able to find quality image viewers for free or as shareware on the internet and I would suggest that you find one that suits your needs best. These are only meant to get you started.
One more note about
printing: you will probably have the best output if you print Travis' pictures since they were taken at a higher resolution. If you have to choose between a similar photo from the two collections, you should probably
choose the higher quality image. That said, if you are really interested in getting a good print of some of these images you may wish to try an online print shop. I have uploaded many of the images from my
"sites" category to
