Into the Dead Sea [Photography]

[The Grim Squeaker]

The Dead Sea is a small body of Water, the lowest (Above-water) point on Earth, and is the saltiest body of water on Earth (There's nothing alive in the water, it's incredibly salty to the point of Stalactites of pure salt forming and the sand being covered by a hard layer of salt).
The mud as well as the water is considered therapeutic (I saw a Leper while there, and many go there for treatment), although the wholesale industrial drying of the "sea" for its salt is having notable effects on its size (It's radius has gone down by roughly half a kilometer of the past few years).

At any rate, I went there this Saturday, took some photos, avoided getting the water in my eyes (An incredibly, staggeringly painful experience which happened to me last time I was there, damn moisture), floated like a cork (Due to the density of the water, floating is incredibly easy) and got whacked over the head by a 4kg bath-towel (After it had absorbed the salty water, leaving it as heavy as a rock).
Some Photos follow



All the colours of the Sand/water

The water has an amazing variety of colors and blues due to the salt and composition.

I like these two just due to the pretty light reflections in the sugar-gold-brown water.


Golden water-wave



Golden brown water







Water + Footsy
My leg reflected. I like abstract water shots .

As I said, the mud is considered healthy, and sells for a pretty penny (Along with the salt). Of course, you can always drive for 3+ hours each way and get some for free .




The shore. As I said, a lot of salt.


Pathway


Water

Going in/down




Sunbathing in the floating water
A woman sunbathing (Not very SFW )




Railwalk



Waters around the chair. An example of the varying water colours.


Me Redfoot. (The salt and rocks can cut the foot pretty easily).


floating. Behold Relaxation .


Back-Chair shot. I should have tried a higher contrast I think, this type of shot should be easy to do...



Muscular pose.
Look at my Pectorals! (A second after this, I dramatically swung the towel around, knocking my hat and the towel into the water, and the damn things weighed over 3 kg after due to the salt in it). (I have pics of it, but there are enough images in this thread anyway).


Floating faceclean .
Someone floating and relaxing in the waters.


Curve


Fiber spikes.
A supermarket and funky tower that presumably lights up at night.


Through the car window - the Ridge. Just a nice mountain ridge on the way back.


So, comments, thoughts, questions?

[Zixinus]

Nice.

A probably stupid question: weren't you afraid of the camera getting wet?

[The Grim Squeaker]

Nice.

A probably stupid question: weren't you afraid of the camera getting wet?

Incredibly so, since the salt water would permanently scratch the lens, and the salt was hard, scratchy and slippery.
However, there are few waves, since it's only from the wind, and not much wind at that (since it's surrounded by mountains), so there's no splashing.
And thanks

[Raesene]

As my favorite pasttime when at the sea is floating, I'd love to visit the dead sea. Nice landscape all around.

BTW bacteria, algae and fungi still live in the water. Life can be found nearly everywhere.

[Tinkerbell]

Wow, those are gorgeous!

I wanna go!

[J]

So, comments, thoughts, questions?

Needs more chicks.


Nice pictures, it looks different from what I remember, though it's been well over a decade since I was last there. The big change is I don't remember seeing any of the bright rust red sand, it was just brown or maybe golden brown back then.

[The Grim Squeaker]

As my favorite pasttime when at the sea is floating, I'd love to visit the dead sea. Nice landscape all around.

BTW bacteria, algae and fungi still live in the water. Life can be found nearly everywhere.

I thought of saying "Except for bacteria", but thought "Nah, surely it's obvious that something that lives in outer space or undersea magma vents can still exist in liquefied salt" .

So, comments, thoughts, questions?

Needs more chicks.

I'm a sucker for a request, although there are 2 pics with chicks up above. (You didn't say hot chicks ).
Pair of cute chicks (Gave them some camera advice as a conversation starter, but further talks were derailed due to my hitting myself in the head with a salt laden towel ).

Nice pictures, it looks different from what I remember, though it's been well over a decade since I was last there.

When were you in Israel? (PM If you want ). It's changed quite a bit, the shore's expanded greatly due to industrialists drying up the sea for its ocean.

The big change is I don't remember seeing any of the bright rust red sand, it was just brown or maybe golden brown back then.

That's probably just the lighting, the part of the beach I was on, or due to the compact. (My DSLR is still in the crapper).
The water's looked very different depending on where you stood, the lighting and the sand beneath them, bright sapphire-blue to golden brown.

[RIPP_n_WIPE]

The water looks so clean and clear! I'm used to NE USA river water which is kinda darkish.