Israeli photographer releases footage of herded sheep movement patterns

"I was addicted to the impressive movement of the sheep," photographer Lior Fattal said, according to Walla.

The sheep was an idolatrous symbol for the Egyptian nation (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The sheep was an idolatrous symbol for the Egyptian nation
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Israeli photographer Lior Fattal has released documented footage of the movement patterns of herded sheep throughout Israel's North, after following them for over half a year.
Fattal is a drone photographer, and spent the seven months documenting thousands of sheep in the Ramot Menashe area, catching the gathering, scattering and crossing patterns of the animals and within that the transition from the green landscape of the winter months to the yellow of the summer months.
"I was addicted to the impressive movement of the sheep," Fattal said, according to Walla.
The flock of sheep belong to South African Jews who made aliyah and settled in the North. Most of the year, the flock is kept on natural pasture, and kept under control by Border Collies when in movement.
The sheep move from winter to summer pastures to supplement the herd's diet along a 5-7 kilometer path from the northern valleys to the outskirts of Ramot Menashe.
"Already in my first encounter with the herd, I became addicted to the impressive movement of the sheep and realized that the first challenge is to understand the elasticity of the herd during the movement, its degree of dispersal during grazing and how it converges into one line towards exit, return from pasture, and crossing roads and paths," Fattal said.
To gather the footage, he coordinated with the shepherds to formulate a plan and the direction the herd would be moving in.
"They made every effort to pinpoint in their heads the expected movements and the manner in which the herd behaved in the pasture," Fattal said, adding that he "formulated a general plan for the points of interest relevant to photography."
"When it comes to photography, due to the elasticity of the herd structure during movement (one attached to the grazing exit and a wider distribution during grazing), apart from the opening whip, where I accompany a complex camera movement the herd exit to the winter pasture - in all other sections the camera is fixed in the air," he said.
"One of the most special photography experiences."