It’s been almost three weeks since our weekend Food Photography and Styling workshop in Nazareth, and as cliché as it sounds, not a day has gone by where a little part of me doesn’t wish it was that Thursday morning, as Danya and I and Ayelet (our awesome assistant for the weekend) got in the car and headed north for that remarkable weekend.

Literally months went into planning that weekend, but until we got in the car, we had no idea what lay ahead. We’ve been teaching food photography courses for over two years now, but none quite like the one were just beginning. We were about a half hour away from Nazareth, arriving much earlier than the participants, to get a feel of the place and get prepped and ready for their arrival when we received a saddened phone call from the first woman who even signed up sadly delivering the news that she had broken her shoulder on a bike ride that morning and couldn’t join. That was the beginning of expecting the unexpected.

Besides for that unfortunate unforeseen event, from that point on until Saturday afternoon, the unexpected was by far the most fulfilling aspect of the workshop. I did not expect to have such an incredible group of people- eleven amazing woman and the coolest guy ever. I did not expect that Nazareth and more specifically the guest house where we stayed, Fauzi Azar Inn, could provide us with such an extraordinary experience, that which felt so many kilometers away from where we really were. I did not expect to be so utterly inspired by the produce that was available at the local market-produce that I have never come across even in the swankiest of markets in Tel Aviv. Most importantly, I did not expect the student/teacher line to be crossed to the point that it was. From the first evening, I honestly felt more like I had been sitting at the dinner table with a group of life-long friends than a group of twelve people I had just met.

The one thing I did expect was for the participants to have fulfilled was to deliver inspiring work from the three photo sessions we had conducted: shooting “action” shots from the local market, shooting fresh produce bought from the local market, and shooting a styled dish prepared by a local chef. I will let their work speak for themselves.

Thank you to Bar, Maya, Sigal and Sigal, Karine, Olivia, Yael, Aviv, Noa, Veronica, Tal for providing us with such a moving experience.

Thank you to Ayelet, who without you, I really couldn’t have handled all those stairs…

Thank you to Danya. For everything.

Photo credits (clockwise): Yael Yaniv, Sigal Talmor,Sigal Mizrachi,Karine Kedar, Aviv Pressburger

Photo credits (clockwise): Veronica Yudkovitch, Maya Merom, Noa Rozenfeld, Tal Shofman, Bar Kishon

Photo credits (clockwise): Sigal Talmor, Sigal Mizrachi, Olivia Bodzin, Veronica Yodkovitch

Photo credits (clockwise): Tal Shofman, Aviv Pressburger, Noa Rozenfeld, Bar Kishon

Photo credits (clockwise): Karine Kedar, Maya Merom, Yael Yaniv, Olivia Bodzin