By the time I had the opportunity to travel to Israel with a group from my alma mater, I thought my photos of the Ark were done.  But this was Israel!  How could I pass up the opportunity to take photos for the book in the Holy Land?

I made this ark in a hotel near the Dead Sea.  Unlike the oceans and lakes I had tried to get ark photos in, the Dead Sea is extraordinarily buoyant because of the extreme salt content.  This means if a person goes to swim in the dead sea, they float much higher than they would in normal water.  Even people who would normally sink will float easily.  My balloons always float, but since they were in this special water, they floated so well that the ark would not stay upright!  I had to get a friend to hide behind the Ark and hold it up for me to keep it from tipping over.  It was a really fun spot to photograph!

Later that day, I carried the Ark with me as our group traveled to Masada.  Masada is a historic location on a tall plateau that was once one of Herod the Great’s magnificent homes.  Our group took a cable car to the top… which means I was in a crowded sky car in Israel holding a large balloon ark and a giant balloon rainbow.  I find this hilarious, though I’m not sure the professor leading our pilgrimage was quite as excited.  I got some great photos from the top of Masada with the Dead Sea off in the distance!  Before we came back down, we passed a group of Israeli students who loved the sculptures.  One stopped me for a photo, and we had a blast interacting.

The post The Ark: Israel appeared first on Inflatable Stories with Dan Bellamy.